if u open the list of browsers on ur phone right now, ull probably see chrome, edge, opera, brave, vivaldi and like 3 more u cant even remember the name. but guess what? theyre all the same thing under the hood (¬_¬)
yeah, they all use chromium. googles rendering engine. the same base code. the same black box. only the skin, the icon and how many vpn ads they can shove on the home screen changes~
the illusion of choice
we think we have choice. open the app store and theres 15 different browsers. but in practice ur just choosing what color skin goes on top of the same engine.
chrome is chromium. edge became chromium after microsoft gave up on its own engine. opera switched from presto to chromium in 2013. brave, vivaldi, arc, sigma, they were all born on top of googles code. even samsung internet is drinking from the same source.
and then i ask u, wheres the real competition? if everyone uses the same base, who decides how the web works? guess what. google decides.
manifest v3 and googles control
in 2024 chrome forced manifest v3 and basically killed real adblockers. extensions that worked perfectly became castrated versions. and the other chromium-based browsers? most just swallowed it. bc when u depend on someone elses code, u dont have the power to disagree with bad decisions.
brave tried to hold back. vivaldi complained. but in the end everyone followed the flow. bc if google decides something will be this way, those using their base have to adapt or get left behind.
and this isnt just about adblockers. its about who decides which apis exist, which protocols are supported, how the web behaves. were handing control of the entire internet to a single company. and no one seems worried.
firefox (and its forks) are alone in this
and then enters firefox. the only big browser that still uses its own engine, gecko. the only one that doesnt depend on google to exist. the only one still trying to keep the web truly open.
and u know what happens? people mock it. "ah firefox is slow", "firefox eats memory", "no one uses firefox". and guess why its losing market share? bc sites are tested and optimized for chromium. bc google has a monopoly on search, ads, video, maps, email, and now on how u access all of it.
if google decides a site works a specific way and only tests on chromium, naturally other engines will seem "broken". not bc theyre worse, but bc no one is bothering to make them compatible. its the same strategy microsoft used in the 90s with internet explorer.
monoculture is dangerous
when everyone uses the same base, a single bug affects everyone. a single corporate decision affects everyone. a single vulnerability exposes everyone.
imagine if tomorrow google decides chromium will no longer support a certain type of extension, or a certain codec, or a certain open standard. done. half the web disappears overnight. and the other browsers wont be able to do anything but obey or try to maintain a fork increasingly distant from upstream.
ever thought about what would happen if the entire web depended on a single programming language? a single operating system? a single cloud provider? oh wait... were already almost there on all of those too (´-ω-`)
and the alternative?
use whatever u want, but at least understand that choosing between chrome and edge isnt a choice. its just choosing which color of chromium u prefer (¬‿¬)