this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Privacy
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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.
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.
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.
It's not just for that. They do make money out of being the default search engine. Safari exists, Google doesn't need Mozilla to avoid anti-trust lawsuits.
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.
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.
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...
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.
They just think that giant corporations are good for politicians.