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[-] miffmaff@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago

So as far as i know, firefox is the only mayor browser not based on chromium. Also, firefox is dependent on google's funding because of a search engine exclisivity deal. So my understanding is that, if google decides to kill firefox, they could easily do that. Well, what then? Is there any other browser left wich similar features that would be untouchable by google?

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Fun fact, Firefox used to be called.... Netscape.. Yeah... Let's see how many miklenials are in here!

[-] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 21 points 1 year ago

Sort of. Netscape released the program's source code and Firefox used that as a base, but it wasn't like they took Netscape and just changed the name to Firefox like your comment implies. They were competing browsers for a while.

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. My bad.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

And remember what happened when Microsoft tried to kill Netscape? That needs to happen again, but against Google.

[-] Fraeco@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I've just browsed with Netscape. But did not know this fact.

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I've been corrected that it is a branch off of, not a direct evolution of, Netscape.

[-] Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They couldn't kill Firefox without having the US government come down on them for monopoly. Which the government is already looking at https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/tech/doj-google-lawsuit/index.html , so it's not likely Google will risk it even further by shitting down funding to Firefox. Pretty sure they'll point at Firefox to claim they're not a monopoly.

[-] karma_nder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

So the lawsuit appears to be looking at Google as a search engine monopoly, not web browser, right? And if I'm understanding this right, assuming this lawsuit goes anywhere, it would actually incentivize Google to pull funding from Firefox to no longer support that search engine exclusivity deal.

[-] stewie3128@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Google still benefits from having Firefox around, so that they can maintain less of an appearance of a monopoly in the browser space. Whatever way they fund Firefox, it's still to their benefit to do so.

[-] ADTJ@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago

This is pretty much the same situation as when Apple faced bankruptcy a while back and Microsoft essentially bailed them out.

Having an effective monopoly is better than a literal one for legal reasons

[-] IzzyJ@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

We need to extend our laws to effective monopolies too, fuck this shit

[-] karma_nder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

This should be the top comment, and I'm going to come back to view the replies. I can't personally think of any realistic alternatives. Someone further down posted a link to an article about the US investigating Google for a search engine monopoly, but I'm not sure how large a role that would factor into web browsers.

[-] Mkengine@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

You have to decide for yourself if those browsers have the features you need, but just for your interest, other non-chromium browsers are Ladybird, NetSurf, Flow, Pale Moon, Basilisk and K-Meleon.

[-] MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

We will have to maintain a Chromium fork with their trackers removed, if it comes to that.

Likely Google won't do anything until or unless the bulk of the public moves off of Chrome over this.

[-] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago
[-] MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

awkward glances around

Yes...

this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
1402 points (100.0% liked)

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