Right. Having the big three engines released as open source, where everyone can make a fork or use them like Microsoft is doing with Chromium, I don’t see the point.
My concern would be that Google decides that WebKit/Blink is a dead end and creates a new rendering engine, and not making it open source. Mozilla can just about keep up with new feature, but even Microsoft just gave up and uses Blink.
Also what’s the point of standards if nobody can realisticly implement them?
Yes, I can see that Apple perhaps isn’t giving WebKit sufficient attention, but Google and Chromiums dominans is the bigger problem.
I think google is very happy with their current model of having everyone just ship blink. It means they control what the web can and can't do not just in their own browser, but many others. None of those browsers are running hard forks
And sure, you could disable an API or this and that feature, but it means you're spending a lot of time to keep reintegrating upstream, because google changes a lot of things all the time, so you really have to pick and choose what diversions you afford yourself. you can poke around the brave repo a bit to see the devs bemoan that.
Mozilla survives by whatever money Google is giving them, laid off most of their staff and shut down development on engine improvements like Servo (whether you like it or not, Servo is dead).
That leaves WebKit as almost the only meaningful opposition in the face of Chrome's onslaught. And it's going to get worse.
mrweasel|4 years ago
Also what’s the point of standards if nobody can realisticly implement them?
Yes, I can see that Apple perhaps isn’t giving WebKit sufficient attention, but Google and Chromiums dominans is the bigger problem.
asddubs|4 years ago
And sure, you could disable an API or this and that feature, but it means you're spending a lot of time to keep reintegrating upstream, because google changes a lot of things all the time, so you really have to pick and choose what diversions you afford yourself. you can poke around the brave repo a bit to see the devs bemoan that.
dmitriid|4 years ago
Even with the fork they can't keep up: https://web-confluence.appspot.com/#!/confluence
Mozilla survives by whatever money Google is giving them, laid off most of their staff and shut down development on engine improvements like Servo (whether you like it or not, Servo is dead).
That leaves WebKit as almost the only meaningful opposition in the face of Chrome's onslaught. And it's going to get worse.