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this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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But then you read on and it says Apple is allowing the kit to not be used in the EU only. Outside of the EU, presumably, Firefox will still have to use the Webkit or whatever. So, while Apple uses its own engine in both the EU and the US on its phones, Firefox will be able to use its own engine in the EU, too, but will have to continue using Webkit in the US and other markets outside of the EU.
I'm not sure what disingenuous about that.
It’s disingenuous to act like this is some huge burden. You ship two browsers — one for the EU and one for other markets. Firefox already ships on a number of different platforms. Adding one branch isn’t going to kill them.
Or if it’s such a pain, you don’t bother and just ship the WebKit version everywhere.
Having to double your software engineers, UI/UX designers, QA engineers, DevOps, and localization/accessibility specialists to handle a second browser is a HUGE burden for a non-profit.
If you don't care about quality, security, or user experience, sure you can just pass a "does it compile" test and push to prod. You'll quickly find that nobody wants to use this under resourced browser.
This is exactly what Apple wants. They don't want to give people a real choice because they're scared of real competition.
Tbf, it would be a completely new & different browser from the ground up since they would have to make it from Gecko and such. And they are already struggling with their Android browser already.
But yeah, they could keep the WebKit version everywhere.
Would it be completely new and different? The only thing that changes is the rendering engine. The UI/windowing stays the same as the other iOS app. And the rendering engine has already been built for MacOS, so it’s not like they have to start from scratch — it’s the same base platform.
Lol just a different rendering engine. So easy!