this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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292
Google and Mozilla don’t like Apple’s new iOS browser rules (arstechnica.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

From the article:

More competition would be great for the iOS browser space, but the reality is that competition will mostly be from the other big "gatekeeper" in the room: Google. Chrome is the project with the resources and reach to better compete with Safari, and working its way into iOS will bring the web close to a Chrome monoculture. Google's browser may have better support for certain web features, but it will also come with a built-in tracking system that spies on users and serves up their interests to advertisers. Safari has a much better privacy story.

It's borderline journalistic malpractice to conspicuously ignore the fact that Firefox is way better for privacy than either of them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The sad truth is that Firefox is on life support. Whether we like it or not it is not a player in this game.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Well I guess that depends very much on what you mean by being on life support. Like financially speaking? Oh yeah, they are more or less entirely dependent on Google. Regarding user numbers? Sure, Statcounter says 3.3% currently. Technologically speaking? Not really, quite the opposite actually. Besides Apples WebKit and Googles fork of it called Blink there is but one game in browser engine town, and its name is Gecko.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Who gives a fuck about Google? They pull the same shit whenever they get the chance.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They literally don't though. They don't try to police sideloaded apps or georestrict other browsers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

That article specifically mentions that Google doesn't restrict installing apps from sources other than their store.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

They don't. They discourage it on the consumer end, but that also has good safety reasons behind it. They go a little too far in pushing people to Play Store over other app stores, and require basically any phone with Google Services to have Play Store, but that's a different matter.

They've never tried to dictate rules on what sideloaders, both on the supplier and consumer side, can and can't do like Apple has.

The closest they've ever done to this is use Play Protect against apps like Lucky Patcher. And that's a piracy app that, among other things, patches other applications to do things like bypass Google's payment systems and disable ads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Thats absolutely correct, around android 6, it got real annoying to install 3rd party apps, settings called it somthing like "install apps from places other than the google play store".

image of install unknown apps in settings

Later, it got more restrictive, ironically, making it a real security feature.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My takeaway from that article is they don't, and haven't.

The splash screen for installing a package not from the play store is there to protect the end user. Without it there would probably be a much worse unwanted software issue on android.

I've been "side loading" or just "installing" applications on my android devices since the nexus one, without the help of the play store.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That’s not what the lawsuit is about. Google made backdoor deals to pay developers to release on the play store instead of their own 3rd party app store. They were found at fault for anti-competitive behavior.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You posed a question about Google policing sideloading, then posted an article that has nothing to do with google policing side loading.

🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's a pot calling a kettle black. Epic is doing the same thing with there store.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 9 months ago

Except they actually don't in this case. You're free to release a browser with any engine you choose on Android and distribute it through the Play Store.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but see, that's okay because they're the ones doing it and they're totally not gonna be evil, nope, not them

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

They got rid of the dont be evil line.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago

Yet another reason apple is dogshit. They're not content to have a limited number of such reasons

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Apple is being forced to make major changes to iOS in Europe, thanks to the European Union's "Digital Markets Act."

The change, due in iOS 17.4, will mean rival browsers like Chrome and Firefox get to finally bring their own web rendering code to iPhones and iPads.

Despite what sounds like a big improvement to the iOS browser situation, Google and Mozilla aren't happy with Apple's proposed changes.

“We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple’s proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps,” DeMonte said.

Apple's framework that allows for alternative browser engines is called "BrowserEngineKit" and already has public documentation as part of the iOS 17.4 beta.

Google's browser may have better support for certain web features, but it will also come with a built-in tracking system that spies on users and serves up their interests to advertisers.

The original article contains 779 words, the summary contains 147 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Bad bot. The summary needs to include the Firefox complaint.