this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
799 points (99.3% liked)

Firefox

17427 readers
1004 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 268 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (18 children)

If only the US had the balls to keep these trillion dollar companies in line instead of the other way around.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If only the US lacked the corruption...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

I'm not sure what you mean by ; keeping in line..

I mean they're collaborating with them to spy on the American nation and the entire world, with their creatively named secret projects..

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Always remember what comes first in any national emergency. Whats the first thing our leaders always make clear when the chips are down?

"We will do everything necessary to protect our beloved ~~nation~~ ~~society~~ ~~struggling citizens~~ ECONOMY."

People don't matter here, only capital. If you are attached to meaningful capital, you will want for nothing and live in embarrassing decadence that would make pharoahs blush, if you aren't attached to meaningful capital, you are livestock for those that are. You are less than human in the eyes of the capital hoarders in charge.

Those are our American Values in practice.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

As an American (optimistic hostage) I couldn’t agree more.

load more comments (14 replies)
[–] [email protected] 175 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"This change is a result of the DMA’s requirements, and means that EU users will be confronted with a list of default browsers before they have the opportunity to understand the options available to them,” the company says. “The screen also interrupts EU users’ experience the first time they open Safari intending to navigate to a webpage.”

lol Apple is throwing a tantrum

[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago

That's just Apple's default state.

[–] [email protected] 99 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That was always a bullshit move by Apple and crippled the Firefox product in an unacceptable and cartel law questionable dimension. MS had a Monopoly on IE, by giving advantages binding it to the OS? Apple did the exact same thing on iOS with Safari.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago

The problem is that the US doesn't necessarily regulate anticompetitive behavior if the company has not achieved a monopoly. Microsoft pretty much had one at the time so they were exposed. Our regulatory regime is not designed to protect us from the tech oligopoly

[–] [email protected] 94 points 7 months ago (3 children)

USB C, 3rd party app installing, free browser engine and easly removable batteries in 3 years. Iphone suddenly becomes an amazing option

[–] [email protected] 76 points 7 months ago

In eu. Its amazing what happens when legislation works.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 7 months ago (1 children)

not amazing, only closer to what android already was for years

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (6 children)

*if you ignore the shitfest it is with mandating play store/play services, bricking phones, google screwing up Pixel updates, a fiasco of some sort with each Pixel iteration, Samsung literally adding shit to macro shots and calling it “AI”.

Android isn’t a silver bullet it’s made out to be.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

just get a pixel and put lineage on it, works perfectly and has none of these downsides

i have two ultimately minor complaints: no sd card slot and no headphone jack, the first isn't a huge issue especially not for the average person and the latter being solved with an adapter, and also isn't really a big issue since there's more than enough battery that charging at the same time isn't needed.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 71 points 7 months ago (8 children)

Ok, as an American web developer how do I test sites in Firefox on iOS?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Pray it just works? Get consumer-friendly legislation to pass in the US somehow? Maybe a genie wish or an infinity gauntlet could be used for this purpose.

Apple has never been great at enabling developer testing. I certainly don't see why they'd care if shit works on third party browsers. The more broken apps are just means the more users who will give up and use Safari.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago

put a big banner for iOS users telling them that apple doesn't let you test it, and that any complaints should be forwarded to apple

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago

Didn't even think about that haha.

I guess the best you could realistically do would be to adhere to web standards (not Chrome standards) and use desktop Firefox or Firefox on Android for testing as they should be the same internally as the hypothetical iOS port.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

You don't and that's a feature for Apple.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

It'll fall on deaf ears but complain as an ios dev to apple

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Same way you test on Safari if you don't have a Mac, I guess. (i.e. not at all, or with the same rendering engine on a different device and hoping it is similar enough, or via a service like Browserstack.)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 7 months ago

Fuck Apple.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Article talks about how Chrome will be happening almost immediately and I'm like… why? Why would you switch to Chrome when you know it's going to reduce your ability to keep things private. Firefox will be a different story hopefully, but even then it will be interesting to see if it can pass the fingerprint test finally on an iPhone. (Currently nothing can.)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

People use chrome because they’re used to chrome (and because it has the best website compatibility thanks to its near monopoly). And most people sadly don’t care about their privacy.

I personally try to use as little Google products as I can and am happy using a mixture of Safari and Firefox (depending on the platform)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago

Awesome really hope this spreads to other regions.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This is very bittersweet living in the UK. But still obligatory fuck Apple.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

zero reason ever for any piece of technology to know where i live and make my experience worse because of it

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Are you fucking kidding me?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I wonder how long it will take for Mozilla to make a proper iOS version. I suspect that Apple didn't give them any notice.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

They didn't have to. The EU regulations have been public for a while now, the only question was how Apple was going to comply.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (6 children)

As soon as I get that visa, I'm running to the EU. I don't feel like dealing with more freedom that only the EU can get, I don't feel like being jealous at them anymore, I might as well join them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

not with the current "shift to the right" we're doing. these parties will do and say anything to get into power and foreigners out of their country.

but me and many other average citizens would very much like to welcome you with open arms.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] possiblylinux127 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is why I I'm not a iperson

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. I hate being told how to use my devices

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So, this could be a dumb question, but will IPAs have this region-locking?

Like, can I use something like AltStore to use the EU version of Firefox?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Pretty sure it's the OS that would be different, and likely hardware-locked or some other kind of region verification.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Jailbreaking finally has utility again.

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

Do you think someone will figure out a jail break to unlock EU only features?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Honestly, it’s possible. A lack of incentive is half of the issue, the other half is the lack of talent working on a jailbreak because the community is full of the most maddeningly annoying children to have ever been birthed. It’s much more profitable to sell the increasingly complex bugs than to use them. If the jailbreak community manages to avoid doxxing, threatening, or disparaging a major dev for a few months, something might eventually come out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Apple's censorship and control have been intolerable since the iPhone launched.

It's your phone. Not theirs. That's what the money was for.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

so does this mean i can finally install extensions on my company issued ipad?

of course mozilla still has to develop a whole new browser, but will this mean they get to?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


With iOS 17.4, Apple is making a number of huge changes to the way its mobile operating system works in order to comply with new regulations in the EU.

One of them is an important product shift: for the first time, Apple is going to allow alternative browser engines to run on iOS — but only for users in the EU.

Apple is clearly only doing this because it is required to by the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which stipulates, among other things, that users should be allowed to uninstall preinstalled apps — including web browsers — that “steer them to the products and services of the gatekeeper.” In this case, iOS is the gatekeeper, and WebKit and Safari are Apple’s products and services.

Even in its release announcing the new features, Apple makes clear that it’s mad about them: “This change is a result of the DMA’s requirements, and means that EU users will be confronted with a list of default browsers before they have the opportunity to understand the options available to them,” the company says.

Apple argues (without any particular merit or evidence) that these other engines are a security and performance risk and that only WebKit is truly optimized and safe for iPhone users.

But in the EU, we’re likely to see these revamped browsers in the App Store as soon as iOS 17.4 drops in March: Google, for one, has been working on a non-WebKit version of Chrome for at least a year.


The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

load more comments
view more: next ›