And since you won’t be able to modify web pages, it will also mean the end of customization, either for looks (ie. DarkReader, Stylus), conveniance (ie. Tampermonkey) or accessibility.

The community feedback is… interesting to say the least.

And there’s zero chance of some other company dethroning Chrome like IE was. The only way that happens is with government intervention to protect the free market.

But of course antitrust enforcement is dead in this country, so that’s not happening. Just look at the obviously anticompetitive Activision acquisition that went through recently. Too many politicians slept through their economics classes, and they think that giant corporations are good for consumers.

Too many politicians slept through their economics classes, and they think that giant corporations are good for consumers.

They just think that giant corporations are good for politicians.

I’m old enough to remember when the line was “IE has 90% marketshare and nothing’s going to change that”

Yes the landscape is different now, but these are free apps and there are competitors out there. It takes only a few minutes to switch to Firefox. Google’s hold on this market is not as ironclad as people may think.

@floofloof@lemmy.ca
link
fedilink
6
edit-2
1Y

If Google gets this going, Firefox has the choice of either adopting the same DRM support or being perceived as that browser where websites don’t work properly like they do in Chrome. It’ll be hard to persuade people who don’t understand what’s going on to adopt it out of principle. Something like this already happened with the media DRM support that browsers currently have.

And I already hate the media DRM stuff and have it disabled in my browsers.

lemmyvore
link
fedilink
91Y

Mozilla Foundation is kept alive with Google money, for the express purpose of being able to show there’s an alternative and that Chrome is not technically a monopoly. But Firefox will never challenge Chrome on anything that truly matters.

Riskable
link
fedilink
31Y

Mozilla Foundation is kept alive with Google money, for the express purpose of being able to show there’s an alternative and that Chrome is not technically a monopoly.

Circa 1997: Apple, Inc is kept alive with Microsoft money ($150 million), for the express purpose of being able to show there’s an alternative and that Windows is not technically a monopoly.

@bro@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
11Y

This a conspiracy, or validated claim? Either way, I believe it.

You have https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-05/why-google-keeps-paying-mozilla-s-firefox-even-as-chrome-dominates (I haven’t read that article because I didn’t allow javascript there or something), and https://www.wired.com/2011/12/why-google-continues-to-fund-firefox/

Not necessarily explicitly supporting the claim made above, but the information is interesting.

@bro@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
11Y

Thanks. Can’t say I’m surprised…

Seems a necessary arrangement to keep Mozilla alive and Google on the throne. After reading that, I doubt it’s possible for Firefox to ever get out from under Google’s wing, but I can see Google eventually tossing Firefox from the nest. I guess that’s how business works…

Create a post

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

  • Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
  • Don’t promote proprietary software
  • Try to keep things on topic
  • If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
  • Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
  • Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

  • 0 users online
  • 57 users / day
  • 383 users / week
  • 1.5K users / month
  • 5.7K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 2.44K Posts
  • 57.6K Comments
  • Modlog