marialBring popcorn, this is a developing story… 🍿
(From Threads)
(From Threads)
lea
Freya the web scale dog 
@lea @marialeal gotta love drama between the okay browser and insufferable closed source chromium slopware
woe2you@asm @lea @marialeal The Chromium monopoly is easily as big a problem as forcing AI into everything.
hyperrealChromium isn't a monopoly. Firefox and other browsers exist. Chromium does have the majority market share, tho, and I agree this is on par with the forcing AI into everything problem.
IMO Vivaldi gets points for avoiding AI. Only 5% of the code base is proprietary and it's only the UI. 90% is open source Chromium base. Vivaldi is privacy-friendly to the extent that they don't use and sell your data for profit. They've also built ProtonVPN into the browser and users can use the free tier without a ProtonVPN account. I think Firefox is inherently more privacy-friendly because it's not Chromium-based, and has the container tabs feature which Chromium-based browsers sorely lack.
Zen, LibreWolf, and Waterfox are better Firefox skins if you want no-AI and more privacy-by-default settings, but they don't have mobile apps.
Barktic Fox 
@hyperreal @woe2you @asm @lea @marialeal Other browser engines existing doesn't mean Chromium doesn't have a monopoly. Other desktop OSes existed when Microsoft was convicted of having a monopoly. Other search engines exist but Google was convicted of having a monopoly.
@alahmnat @woe2you @asm @lea @marialeal The circumstances for those are vastly different. In the case of Google Search and Microsoft, they were effectively a monopoly for the average user -- they obscured the possibility and availability of alternatives.
In the case of web browsers, the possibility and availability of alternatives is not as obscured. Anecdotal: My mom knows about Firefox but still chooses to use Chrome / Edge. She's only heard of Linux because I'm her son lol, she otherwise would not know what it is and think Microsoft Windows is the only thing you can get. Marketing has a lot to do with this. You don't see commercials and ads for Linux in everyday normie life.
@alahmnat But anyway, my estimations could be wrong. Maybe the legal definition of monopoly is such that Chromium would qualify. Regardless, it does have way too much of the market share compared to alternatives when you include all Chromium-based browsers.
The official Google Chrome browser would only qualify IMO if it creates barriers to using alternatives, obscures the existence of alternatives, and/or invests money in doing those things to stifle competition. They've done that with Google Search, but I don't know if Chrome browser qualifies.