Because then any pull request introducing something into Chromium essentially becomes the web standard. For example, Google has a ton of influence on the project. If they want to, they can introduce something that benefits their services but eschews the web standard.
holtalanm|7 years ago
What, really, is a downside to having an open-source web engine that all browsers use? I'm failing to see one. The web would become less fragmented; the web standard would be (only slightly) irrelevant, and we would move forward without having to deal with browsers interpreting the spec/standard differently, which is what happens currently in a lot of cases.
bad_user|7 years ago
No.
1. Chrome will remain the dominant web browser
2. the Chromium repository itself is owned by Google
The only leverage Microsoft is in forking Chromium, but that does nothing to Chrome's market.
Google themselves forked WebKit when they couldn't get along with Apple. And that was back when Chrome wasn't as pervasive.
So what makes you think Google would give a crap about Microsoft today?
pcwalton|7 years ago
They won't do it, because the entire team at Google is staffed by C++ folks. How is that a better outcome?
numbsafari|7 years ago
For example, a security bug in chromium becomes vastly more dangerous if everyone is working off that code. That said, hopefully there’ll be fewer of those because everyone is focused on the same codebase.
The questions seem to be “how many browser engine implementations is truly necessary for a healthy ecosystem?” And “has the spec gotten so bad that it’s not feasible for the ecosystem to support a sufficient number of independent implementations?”
Seems like <5, and maybe <3 is the answer to the first, and the answer to the second is we’ll see what happens to servo in 2019...