this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Before this thread turns into another circlejerk about how great Firefox is, I just wanna throw something out there; the whole point of the open web is that people use whatever browser they wish. I completely understand the push for Firefox right now, but everyone switching to one browser isn’t the answer. In fact that’s literally how we got to where we are.
Use whatever software you want! These are your devices and I’m not gonna shame you for how you choose to use them. What’s important is that an open web is maintained so you have that choice.
Except the issue is, if people use Chromium-based browsers, then Google still has all the power and has the monopoly. If people use whatever browser they want, and it happens to be a Chromium-based browser or even Chromium itself, then we end up back in the same position as we're in now and nothing changes.
That's why everyone is recommending Firefox.
How likely do you think it is that even with the heavy push anything more than a small percentage of people will switch.
Apple and other companies with web browsers are probably our biggest hope. People will complain if websites just ‘stop working’ one day because of their browser choice.
That said, I’m probably fooling myself. PECO.com, a huge electric company, doesn’t work unless I’m in incognito mode. I think it fails if you are signed into another corporation’s Microsoft 365 account. But they don’t seem to care.
Shaming isn't the answer for sure, but educating about why entertaining this monopoly further hurts people certainly is. And with gecko/Firefox being the last competing alternative to blink/WebKit, in practical terms, that's where we are at. Unless there is a drastic change, there's no hope for an open web to keep existing. And the arrival of a new player is practically impossible due to the complexity of modern web (even Microsoft gave up, Opera couldn't keep going, etc.)
Google Chrome is so far ahead that I don't think we have to worry about people pushing for Firefox...