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posted by martyb on Monday January 28 2019, @10:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the remember-when-browser-war-was-IE-vs-Netscape? dept.

Microsoft Engineer Causes Online Wrath After Saying Firefox Should Use Chromium

Mozilla should give up on its own browsing engine and switch Firefox to Chromium, a Microsoft engineer said in a series of tweets, as what the company does right now is "building a parallel universe that's used by less than 5 percent."

The message posted by Microsoft Product Manager Kenneth Auchenberg has triggered an almost instant reaction from the user community, with most of the replies pointing out that building alternative products that can compete against Chromium is vital for the health of the browsing ecosystem.

"It's time for @mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower. The web is dominated by Chromium, if they really *cared* about the web they would be contributing instead of building a parallel universe that's used by less than 5%?" he tweeted.

"I couldn't disagree with you more. It precisely *because* Chromium has such a large marketshare that is vital for Mozilla (or anyone else) to battle for diversity. I'm shocked that you think they're not contributing. "Building a parallel universe"? That *is* the contribution," web developer Jeremy Keith responded.

[...] Auchenberg's message has obviously received more acid replies, including this one criticizing Microsoft's recent browser changes. "Just because your employer gave up on its own people and technology doesn't mean that others should follow," Asa Dotzler tweeted.

Also at ZDNet.

Previously: Microsoft Reportedly Building a Chromium-Based Web Browser to Replace Edge, and "Windows Lite" OS
Mozilla CEO Warns Microsoft's Switch to Chromium Will Give More Control of the Web to Google

Related: Is Google Using an "Embrace, Extend..." Strategy?
Google Denies Altering YouTube Code to Break Microsoft Edge


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  • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:58PM (1 child)

    by stormreaver (5101) on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:58PM (#793586)

    It seems that many people are conflating Chromium and Blink. While Microsoft is desperately in need of a whole new browser, and therefore Chromium is a good move, Firefox already has a good browser and a good renderer. The only issues is that Blink is more compatible with HTML 5 than Gecko is.

    I still use Firefox for most of my browsing, though, and only use Chrome when Firefox whigs out (such as when no amount of editing the address bar will make Firefox go to AT&T's payment portal). Having a single, freely available Web renderer used, contributed to, and bug-fixed by everyone has substantial benefits, though.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @04:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @04:15PM (#793596)

    im one of many people--but what's Blink?

    i conflated chromium with chrome and that it was a google product and so by default it just exists to violate your privacy and try to sell you shit you can't afford or already bought.

    and that of course its a perfect match for windows 10 because that's what that os does, in addition to enforcing restrictions requiring always on hardware and stuff like that.

    but when we have to subscribe to windows 10 with their desktops as a service offering that'll start making the rounds soon, only criminals will have freedom. regular people will be able to use whatever browser microsoft includes, because there wont be a choice to change it.