They're both mature software packages with a ton of features. There are two gigantic obligations that a browser & especially web engine have that creative software don't: massive security exposure and constantly changing web standards. Both create development burdens that are both non-trivial and time-sensitive. Many FOSS projects update at their own pace, which is simply not an option for a modern, feature-complete web engine.

You are severely underestimating the development burden of a modern web engine.

You must have changed an option, by default the page shows up every time you open a new tab. (Though you can disable the ads on it)

You can disable them, but also I'm pretty sure the default behavior is just to fill extra space if you have less than 8 pinned shortcuts. Your single shortcut is why there are so many ads.

Yes. I'm pretty sure you can disable sponsored suggestions in the options, or you can also just delete the individual sponsored options. I've not seen one of these in the last 4 years.

Because the entire US political spectrum fits nearly inside of "neoliberalism". Liberalism in general is just capitalism+.

Is it non-trivial to enable non-free repos?

Motherfuckers are actually arguing that seeding a torrent isn't "distributing" unless they can show an instance of someone downloading a book from their IP... If that flies they better overturn every fucking piracy conviction ever.

Good God I hate linkedin types. Imagine thinking writing an app that literally just displays a single notification is worthy of making a whole post about. They basically wrote a Hello World app for Android TV. And I'm sure they got paid like 40k by some poor school district to do so.

Still the best browser to support, still the best hope of defending open web standards from Google. Call me when they implement the ads in an onerous way.

This concept is the "third space" -- a social space other than work and home where people can congregate, socialize, and relax. Parks and libraries are some of the only remaining spaces in capitalism where people can be humans without paying for the privilege to exist by the minute.

Yeah it's not that we don't want to use the train, it's that the train has been successfully turned into an objectively worse option in every way thanks to decades of lobbying and underfunding. If there even is a reasonable train route between your destinations, it would likely take 2-4x as long as driving, be 4-10x more expensive than the gas for the drive, and would be an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience that would still require a pickup and decently long drive (or further use of the barely functional public transit system) to get to the final destination.

If you're not a shipping container, there basically is no public transit infrastructure in the US. It only exists in cities that have chosen to make significant investments in it, and even then in most places it's like one arterial light rail and then some busses with crappy coverage. For anything between cities or states, it's nearly the same price as flying to get a charter bus or train ticket.

The only thing that would solve this problem is extremely aggressive and unpopular legislation, or some benevolent trillionaire to actually do a hyperloop type project without immediately coopting it into just a shittier highway. Market forces and city governments will never create real interstate transit networks. Less aggressive legislation making it more expensive to keep and especially buy/make new cars would help, but it's political suicide to say "I'm going to tax the good that almost every voter, and especially the ones with money and influence, have and use every day".