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by simondotau1 hours ago |
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upvoteby bigyabai1 hours ago|
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> The health of the web as an open platform is defined by browser diversity, not browser choice.

Says who? I certainly don't agree with that statement, the "web as an open platform" was unrecognizable when proprietary clients were the norm.

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upvoteby simondotau54 minutes ago|
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If web developers stop ensuring their sites work in Safari, consumers will be forced to install Chrome. That's not browser choice. An open platform means that CONSUMERS get to choose which browser they use, not web developers.

(And before you say it, consumers can choose Android, where 99.9% of people use Chrome, but apparently that's okay because they "chose" it.)

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upvoteby bigyabai44 minutes ago|
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It's a chicken-and-egg problem. How can you get web developers to test their websites in Safari, when the majority of Mac devs haven't opened Safari in ages? We have the answer already. Safari doesn't compete on it's own merit.

WebKit is a second-class citizen on the web, and we can argue about why that is, but nobody can sincerely deny it. Apple's strategy has been dead in the water for over a decade. iOS lost.

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upvoteby simondotau30 minutes ago|
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Safari is still relevant and iOS hasn't lost; the very existence of this thread serves as a clear rejection of that framing. If Safari wasn't competing, or if iOS had lost, nobody would care.

Meanwhile we have people bitching and moaning and meanwhile, as a Firefox user, I go to Safari when I encounter a website that doesn't work in Firefox. Because at the end of the day, developers are forced to test in Safari, and that is a Good Thing. No developer is forced to test in Firefox.

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upvoteby vrganj1 hours ago|
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But there is no browser diversity on mobile. I'd like to use Firefox on iOS.
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upvoteby simondotau53 minutes ago|
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There is absolutely browser diversity on mobile. ~30% of people are using Safari on iOS. ~70% of people are using Chrome on Android (and have the "choice" to use Firefox but don't).
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upvoteby edoceo28 minutes ago|
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Maybe folk mean that iOS only uses Safari rendering regardless of which wrapper is running? Meaning Apple users don't have a choice, one rendering engine only, not diverse.
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upvoteby simondotau24 minutes ago|
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No, vrganj said mobile. There is browser diversity on mobile devices by virtue of operating system diversity on mobile devices.
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