this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

And this worked so well with Microsoft back in the day. (It didn't)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (8 children)

i really distrust Google and I'm glad about the verdict. I do agree that chrome and android should be ~~cut off models~~.

edit: cut off from advertising business models

on the other hand, like with Firefox, I'm worried about the instability and changes that are coming, mainly in the effect on fork projects Like Graphene, Calyx, Lineage, any privacy-focused Chrome forks, and of course Chromium.

DOJ probably isn't able to guarantee chrome & potentially android are taken over by totally ethical, stable companies/NPOs who will keep the projects open source, or allow an open source offshoot project to which the new organization would still contribute coding people-hours.

I'm sure there will be some sort of guarantees for stock chrome and android users, like paid services/subscriptions will be continued or refunded.

but what about users of community projects based on chrome and Android?

many other Lemmy users have commented how community projects don't really have the resources to keep browser engines up to date, let alone innovate. without Google (which i think is a good thing), Microsoft Edge team could become the de facto direction-setter of Chronium (which i think is really really really bad).

TL;DR the foss mobile OS community, and especially the foss browser community (considering Firefox funding shortfall and AI/ad revenue pursuits) are possibly f*ed in the a for the near term.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

Good. Now do Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Interesting. Why focus on selling chrome? I’m not sure I understand the DOJ here. Google could end Chrome and continue updating chromium instead of selling if not for this directive. Given they are approved to continue working on chromium I don’t see why the sale is being forced.

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Google says government proposals would "harm America’s consumers."

Says the company that couldn't stand by the core value "don't be evil".

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Musk will be champing at the bit to own a controlling share of both of these. It disgusts me to agree with them but they're right. This is the single worst possible time to try and push this through.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is the single worst possible time to try and push this through.

Which is why it's happening now, I agree.

But we, the non-billionaires are still better off after any monopoly split. It's hard to express how incredibly bad powerful monopolies are. The fact that another billionaire will be the buyer sucks, but it's no reason to back away from forcing the legally required split.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Google is awful, but any other company that could afford to buy and run Chrome would be worse.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Any alternative is better than letting monopolies stand.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Sounds a lot like, "Biden & Harris support genocide, so let's vote for Trump."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The spoiler effect doesn't apply in this scenario. We aren't stuck with 2 choices, either Chrome under Google or Chrome under another shitty corporate.

If Chrome enshittifies, we have Firefox, Librewolf, Brave, Ironfox, Waterfox, Ungoogle Chromium, etc...

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Preferring that we enforce our laws regardless of which billionaire benefits is a vote for Trump? I didn't realize that. I've seen the light now. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

We can't continue selectively enforcing our laws against monopolies. (This is just dark humor. Citizens United is for the express purpose of ensuring that any anti-monopoly law enforcement we get is selective and political, for the rest of however long the US has left.)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think what they were saying is: two powerful, competing corpos is better than one huge and practically omnipotent corporation, which is what google currently is.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Under normal circumstances, but i just have this suspicion that Musk will buy it using Russian and Saudi funding like was rumored for where he got the funding for Twitter.

So whether that would be a better situation I guess is up to interpretation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

That's how blow back works dear...

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Heaven forbid it becomes its own company/a non profit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Non profit under this US administration who's mantra is what rules? Seems highly optimistic. I see it being more likely that Musk takes the opportunity to try and get the most popular browser and phone OS that is used world wide.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

100% guaranteed Musk is going to try and wrangle a controlling share of Android. Probably Chrome too but definitely Android. He desperately wants to be in your pockets snooping on your text messages and harvesting your contact data.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah seeing how elated he is being an absolute asshole with starlink he must be bursting with joy at the thought of chrome and android in his possession too.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Microsoft Chrome - now with Cortana!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago

If they really wanted to change the character of the company, spin off the ad and cloud businesses into two separate things and let them figure out the rest.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Looks like Google didn't bend the knee enough.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They'll bend eventually. Money does that.

Remember when DeSantis went to war with Disney? And Disney destroyed him and any chance he had to being a presidential candidate and we all cheered? Then Disney went around to make allegiance with all the non-DeSantis Republicans?

It's all money for stockholders at the end of the day. Not people, not who sits at the throne.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But people are the shareholders.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Corporations are the shareholders they care about, people like you and mean never own a majority of a company's stocks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They care about all shareholders as it is the law.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

What I'm saying is that when you say "people are the shareholders", they're not the shareholders that matter. BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, these are the shareholders that major publically traded companies care about. They might technically need to care about retail investors as well, in the end they're not the ones who have the power to sway the votes one way or another.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Lizards are not people

[–] [email protected] 105 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The DOJ is asking the court to force Google to promptly and fully divest itself of Chrome, along with any data or other assets required for its continued operation. It is essentially aiming to take the Chrome user base—consisting of some 3.4 billion people—away from Google and hand it to a competitor

Fuck yes, shatter that shit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah but is it Elon&friends who will get to buy it?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The optimist in me hopes not, but only time will tell.

If he does i hope he tanks it so badly that it loses a huge chunk of market share - ideally when ladybird is ready.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is ladybird some FF replacement?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

It's a completely built from scratch browser https://ladybird.org/, very exciting.

There's also https://servo.org/ (was mozilla but now linux foundation), but it seems to be going slower.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Shatter it and probably have it bought out by Elon.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Elon's a dunce, so he'll probably enshittify it so badly that people will leave. So google is weakened and chrome dies (at least, i hope in a good outcome)

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That regular people would stop using chrome if it turned into xhrome is highly unlikely. These are people who browse without adblocker, use facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and buy Amazon echos. It'd just lead to Doge influencing the direction of xhromium based browsers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

True :( but we've seen how stupid he is, and now bluesky has become xitter's #1 competitor because of his incompetence. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 weeks ago

Seriously. The only people willing to pay what it's "worth" will end up doing the same thing (or worse).

What we need are some actual privacy laws with teeth, so that the data isn't worth as much to begin with.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Xoogle and Xdroid run by doge.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

If that happened which would not surprise me with how ridiculous US government has been I'd be open to using Samsung's Tizen over Doge controlled and influenced Xdroid.

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