The difference is how you interact with the browser engine. Blink is very easy to embed into a new browser project. I’ve seen it done - if you’re familiar with the tools, you can build a whole new browser built around the Blink engine in a few hours. You can write pretty much whatever you want around it and it doesn’t really change how you interact with the engine, which also makes updates very simple to do.

With Firefox, it’s practically impossible to build a new browser around Gecko. The “forks” that you see are mostly just reskins that change a few settings here and there. They still follow upstream Firefox very closely and cannot diverge too much from it because it would be a huge maintenance burden.

Pale Moon and Waterfox are closer to forks of Firefox than Librewolf for example, but they’ve had to maintain the engine themselves and keep up with standards and from what I’ve read, they’re struggling pretty hard to do so. Not a problem that Blink-based browsers have to deal with because it’s pretty easy and straightforward to update and embed the engine without having to rewrite your whole browser.

Unfortunately, since Google controls the engine, this means that they can control the extensions that are allowed to plug into it. If you don’t have the hooks to properly support an extension (ie. ublock), then you can’t really implement it… unless you want to take on the burden of maintaining that forked engine again.

That said, Webkit is still open source and developed actively (to the best of my knowledge - I could be completely wrong here). Why don’t forks build around Webkit instead of Blink? Not really sure to be honest.

I chuckled a bit while reading this, because what you wrote is exactly where Blink came from. It was a fork of webkit, which in turn was derived from KHTML. Then again, the fact KHTML was discontinued does support your point to an extent too, I guess.

But the point is, Chrome is doing exactly this - providing the engine free as in beer and letting people embed it however they like. And yet, what you’re predicting, ie. not using the original but just using forks instead, doesn’t seem to be happening with Chrome - they still enjoy a massive fraction of the market share. There’s no reason to believe that this couldn’t happen at Mozilla as well. People usually want the original product, and it’s only a small fraction of people that are really interested in using the derivatives.

Ironically, the anti monopoly lawsuit against Google will end this.

People are quick to assume this, and there’s a very good chance that they’re right, but I don’t think we should take it as a given. It’s always possible that there could be some sort of court decision that allows Google to keep funding Mozilla after the “breakup” is complete.

In any case, we don’t yet know what the outcome of the antitrust case will be, so I think it might be best to avoid making statements of certainty like this until we see how things really shake out.

We should definitely take the possibility of this happening very seriously though.

You’re right about the fact that building an engine is hard, but Socraticly speaking, then why are there so many blink-based browsers and so few gecko-based ones? The answer is because blink is easy to embed in a new project and gecko isn’t.

If Mozilla really wants to take back the web (and I honestly don’t think they actually do), then what they should really be doing is making gecko as easy to embed in a new browser as blink is. They don’t do this, and I suspect that they have ulterior motives for doing so, but if they did, I think we would be much closer to breaking chrome’s grasp on the web.

Because let’s face it: Mozilla makes a pretty damn good browser engine. But they don’t really make a compelling browser based off it. Ever noticed how Mozilla has been declining ever since they deprecated XPCOM extensions? It’s because when they provided XPCOM, it enabled users to actually build cool and interesting new features. And now that they’ve taken it away, all innovation in browser development has stagnated (save for the madlads making Vivaldi).

They need to empower others to build the browser that they can’t. That’s what would really resurrect the glory days of Firefox in my opinion.

The comic states that Firefox is a crown jewel of open source, not the crown jewel.

That said, I agree that if I had to pick only one, it would definitely be Linux over Firefox.

This has always been the whole point behind the Trojan Horse that is systemd. Now that Poettering/Red Hat control the entire userspace across virtually all distros, he/they can use it as a vehicle to force all of them to adopt whatever bullshit he thinks of next.

This is what the Linux ecosystem gave away when they tossed their simple init system to adopt the admittedly convenient solution that is systemd. But in reality, the best solution was always to drop init, and instead replace it with an alternative that was still simple to replace if the need should arise. But now that everyone is stuck on systemd, they’re all at the mercy of Poettering’s Next Stupid Idea.

Convenience comes at a price. systemd is the Google Chrome of Linux userspace. Get out while you can.

Mozilla 2017: Competing with Chrome is hard. What if we break all existing extensions and never let people replace them all?

This is the one that broke my back. Understandable that XPCOM extensions had to go, but leaving nothing to replace them, and then going on to push their trash UI redesigns without giving us any recourse to change them back - that was just unforgivable.

Then again, that was still well before they started pushing spyware in their own browser, so in retrospect, those were very quaint times!

Search engines are websites that people used to go to in order to get helpful information. These days, they just spam out a bunch of SEO garbage, AI-generated bullshit, and ads.

Google, probably

Beautiful Game 3 between GG and Tundra. I always feel like GG’s strategies are very fragile, but they proved that it’s more resilient than I thought. A really nice demonstration of how they can still push their early game advantages late and win, and overall, their map movements lategame looked amazing. I’ve also been very impressed with how Quinn has been playing. He does so much for them in all of their teamfights.

I’ll be cheering for GG in the final, but can’t be upset with whoever wins. All 10 of them deserve it so much.

I hear what you’re saying regarding the production, but I like it. Overall, it feels like it has been a very chill and enjoyable TI. Sure, Valve is in vesting less and less in TI over the years, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s sustainable to make TI a huge event every year. We had that for the first ~10 TIs, but now I would be happy to just see a fun event each year that’s great while not being over the top.

CIS is still pretty good in my opinion. BetBoom exceeded my expectations, and if they had an easier draw, I think they would have made top 6. They did look pretty terrible against Falcons though. And Spirit had a pretty good season overall - they did win a few tournaments if I’m not mistaken. They just looked like they didn’t understand the meta all that well. I also wonder if they have been a bit spoiled by success, and maybe lost their drive to win to some extent. 1W didn’t look that bad either to be honest.

But agreed on the other regions. It really sucks because it just doesn’t feel like Dota is a global game anymore, sadly.

I’m hoping for the best for Cloud9. Falcons didn’t feel like they were on top form at the beginning of the tournament, but a lot has changed since then. But I do think that whoever wins that match will still most likely beat XG/Tundra.

WEU dominance is ridiculous. We started with 5/16 teams in the tournament - the most from any region. And now that we’re down to only 6 teams overall, but all 5 from WEU are still present. And fully occupying the winner’s bracket as well.

A bit sad to be honest. I really hope we see a revival in some of the other regions in the coming years.

Both teams played great. Game 1 was a bit one-sided, but Game 2 was a really fun game and (in my opinion) proved that they are definitely competitive against one of the best teams in the world. Really hoping Cloud9 make it to the lower bracket final - their games are really fun to watch and it feels great to cheer for them.

Yes, a lot of developers have done this. Many examples have been posted on this thread (OsmAnd, Conversations, Davx5) - Mindustry is another example. free on f-droid (and Google store too I think), but $10 on Steam.

I think that series was more about whether GG showed up than anything else. Nouns played well, and showed that they can be top teams if those teams don’t play at their best. But when they do, they still get outplayed. Gaimin showed a lot more discipline and respect in game 2 to even up the series, and then it seemed like they broke them in game 3.

Nouns are still a good team, and I think with experience, they can continue to improve and place well in tournaments. Fly looks like he’s doing a good job captaining them, and they are playing very well as a unit (which is what I think plagued NA teams the most historically). But still, they have a lot of work to do before they can beat the best teams in the world (assuming they give them the respect they deserve).

I didn’t get a chance to see the earlier matches, but I think Cloud9 could be a sleeper to win it. I was very impressed by Watson in the qualifiers and the rest of the team is playing incredibly well too.

And I really love seeing teams that ignore the meta and just do what they think is strongest. I think that makes the most fun and interesting Dota, and blindly following the meta makes it really boring. I’m cheering for them most, personally.

Gave me big TI8 upper bracket finals vibes. A 2v5 ancient defense is perfectly viable as long as you have the right heroes and use them correctly. Also, isn’t it crazy how Topson finds himself in these kinds of games?

This game is beautiful.

Falcons vs Tundra Game 2. Such an insane game. This is why I love Dota

I think Nouns are a bit underrated. They seem to be beating teams in their own division, but not only that; they also took a game off Falcons and another off Zero (another team that’s a bit underestimated as well in my opinion).

Good for them! I really would love to see a resurgence in other Dota regions - while I’m a big fan of WEU dota, this level of dominance is just not good for the game.