[kwlug-disc] Firefox blasphemy: time to switch to Blink rendering engine?

[Paul Nijjar]

On Mon, Mar 07, 2022 at 07:57:25PM -0800, Ronald Barnes wrote:
> 
> I'm starting a fresh thread for this thought.
> 
> 
> We currently have 2 web rendering engines of any significance: Firefox's
> Gecko and Google's Blink.
> 
> Those names may now be obsolete but I think they're the most-recent names.
> And I'm entirely unfamiliar with the Apple ecosystem, but doesn't Safari use
> some version of Blink?

No, I believe Safari still uses WebKit. (In some sense that is a
version of Blink, but only because Google originally forked Webkit to
make Blink, just as Webkit forked KHTML.)

> Would it be damaging to anyone for Firefox to switch their rendering engine
> to Blink?

My strong belief is that we need an alternative that is not by Google.
I feel Firefox should make a really good web browser, and having a
rendering engine is part of that. But I am in the minority here. 

TLUG member Mike Hoye gives a "State of Mozilla" presentation every
year, and it is worth a listen. (He works for Mozilla)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtPaZ-sGPk

Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg agrees with you: 

https://postlight.com/podcast/wordpress-and-beyond-with-matthew-mullenweg


> It's not 1996 anymore, and Google can't have the same impact that a near
> mono-culture of IE had back in the day, since the software's open source.

I very much think Chrome is a monoculture, and it is not a good one. 

> Who would be hurt by a modern day web rendering engine mono-culture?

Anybody who does not think certain browser extensions are a good idea.
If Mozilla loses the browser engine then it loses its seat at the
table when it comes to web standards. 

> Would Mozilla be in a better place to innovate if they didn't have to spend
> a lot of time and money trying to keep up to the Chrome "standard"?
> 
> 
> I honestly can't say it would matter to me, and might even be beneficial.

There are lots of Blink browsers now. Why do we need another one?
Mozilla's value proposition is that it is offering a different
contract to end users than that of an advertising company. I guess
there could be an organization that does that with the Blink engine. 
(Why isn't there one already? I don't think Brave cuts it.)

> Digression: the multitude of Linux distros & desktops - do they hurt the
> ecosystem with too much talent chasing dead ends?  Or lead to new ideas
> being developed?

I think it is no more wasteful than capitalism. Personally I do not worry
about fragmentation that much. I agree with Cory Doctorow that
adversarial interoperability is a powerful force to keep people
honest. 

There will be power law effects here (just as with the rest of the
internet). There will be a small group of distros that get almost all
of the attention, and then there will be a long tail. I think that is
okay, for the most part.

- Paul

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