this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46655413

The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a “relentless onslaught of change.”

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[–] [email protected] 297 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Regardless, don’t use chrome.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

We'll go back to gopher if we have to, it's time for burning chrome.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago

Let's just separate GOOG from Chrome / Chromium and Google Search completely. So that the direction of the most used browser, most used search engine and the biggest advertiser don't circle jerk each other.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Also, Ladybird is looking very promising, so in a few years we should have a true fourth browser engine.

[–] 0x0 5 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

If Mozilla does become defunct, it does raise the question of whether Chrome would be considered a Google monopoly, and therefore subject to antitrust legislation.

I can't imagine any governments would look kindly upon internet access being guarded behind a single company's product.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago

Google should be subject to antitrust legislation regardless.

Their position as a monopoly is what enables this.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

The firefox browser could exist without quite a lot Mozilla does. A large chunk of its cash isn’t spent on the browser.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

There is a new browser based on WebKit (safari), called Orion that looks promising. However, it’s only on macOS and iOS at this point. Hopefully Linux and Android will be a consideration at some point.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There's also a new browser based on Firefox/Gecko called Zen. There's way too many browsers based on Webkit or Blink.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Zen has less frequent security updates. But yes zen is a good gecko alternative.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

zen integrates every upstream change a few hours after release, it is built as a set of patch on top of firefox just to make that easy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm. Well, I’ll have to give it a go. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Chrome's engine was originally forked from WebKit. That makes them too similar (even years later) for WebKit to count as a real alternative.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The point is to leave a google controlled ecosystem… which means it counts as a valid alternative. What would you suggest besides chromium and gecko?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Haha. So I really do wish that all websites had a text version, or like markdown. Can you imagine how damn speedy things would be? Every website would have the same layout. As much as I appreciate good web design, there’s a lot of bad UI choices out there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I strongly disagree with this. In practice, supporting chrome does not imply supporting safari and vice versa. In particular, Safari is much, much slower about adopting new web technologies. Google basically implements support for anything they can think up, Apple waits for it become a ratified standard and then implements it only if they want to. Their JavaScript implementations are also completely different.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Splitting Chrome from Google wouldn't make Chrome not a monopoly, though, right?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The split might leave a monopoly still, if it's the only major browser.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It would be a lot easier to compete with though, since Google couldn’t treat it as a loss leader that still bring them in search revenue by default.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

They could try to employ some kind of Apple defense, like, you wouldn't hit Apple for having monopoly on iOS. As long as it's not the only solution on the market. And for web, most of time, you could access the same resources and get similar experience by downloading... the apps... wait, they have a monopoly on that, too. Well, they are completely screwed in that case.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If this Firefox trend continues, then we won't really have a choice in the matter anymore.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You’d sacrifice your privacy because of layoffs?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No, because there won't be anything but Chrome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

WebKit based browsers don’t support google!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And websites don't support Webkit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Like which ones?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've moved to Vivaldi recently and it's been refreshingly not-suck.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That’s good. Are you happy with the built-in privacy, or do you find extensions are needed?

I’d still argue it’s chromium.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I'm happy with the built-in privacy, muchly because I'm using it on a work computer so I have no expectation of real privacy anyway.

And fair.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

With privacy extensions…