Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome (9to5mac.com)
144 pointsby ivell8 hours ago233 comments
TheDong 7 hours ago
First let us install other browser engines on iOS, and then we can talk.
Safari has the most obscene monopoly of any browser ever. IE 6 came pre-installed on windows machines, but you could always install Mosaic or such.
Google Chromebooks come with Chrome as the only default browser, but you can still run Firefox on Chromebooks just fine (even in two different ways, the supported android app version, and the semi-supported linux terminal + launching firefox that way).
Heck, iOS's monopolistic behavior is so bad that multiple regions (the EU + Japan) have already ruled against their behavior, though in reality Apple has complied in a way that makes it impossible to actually make a second browser engine for iOS still (going against the spirit of the law, but the courts haven't caught up to them yet).
Safari is also an awful browser in that it requires someone to buy an expensive machine to see if their site works on it.
I can run a windows trial copy in a VM to see if my site works in IE, I can run Chrome or Firefox on linux to verify if my site works in them. I can install a free android emulator on any common OS to see that my site renders right in those.
But Apple doesn't give me a legal way to freely run an iOS simulator nor even a macOS VM on my linux machine, I have to pay money, to buy their hardware to see if my site will work on Safari.
And even worse, Safari is the browser with the largest number of rendering bugs and quirks currently, while also having a huge number of users (since iOS users can't install another browser), so any web developers are basically forced to shell out for apple hardware.
brunoborges 7 hours ago
Can you be more specific on how iOS blocks other browsers? You mean for embedded browser engine in apps?
JohnTHaller 7 hours ago
iOS does not allow third party browser engines. Every browser you download from the iOS App Store is using 'Safari Lite' under the hood. It's ostensibly for security, but it's more about control.
bliteben 4 hours ago
I would bet the security claim holds up, I have definitely seem more RCE mentioned from Chrome than from Safari.
I would bet Google's track record would easily allow them to defend this in court. More an issue with Google though.
lxgr 3 hours ago
I guess that might have something to do with the fact that Chrome is vastly more popular than Safari, and also available on many more operating systems.
ajross 3 hours ago
No, it's definitely about control. Allowing an arbitrary browser means allowing access to platform stuff from portable (gasp!) APIs. And Apple doesn't want that. They want an iOS app to be the primary face of everything important, and the other stuff to be an expensive port.
And the problem isn't abstract. Safari lacks a ton of very useful API implementations. Like, try programming a QMK keyboard on an iPhone: it's literally the only platform in the whole world unable to run the Via web app.
mcraiha 7 hours ago
"Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit JavaScript."
https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/tim-berners-lee-on-apples...
greggsy 7 hours ago
Forgive my ignorance.
How is the iOS engine requirement considered a monopoly?
ur-whale 7 hours ago
iOS is a de-facto monopoly in the first place.
mingus88 4 hours ago
Ridiculous take
Android’s global marketshare is 70% of mobile so you would have to declare a monopoly as “things I can run on an iPhone” as your position for that to work
There is plenty of competition and choice to iOS, you just won’t find that on Apple hardware for reasons that have held for three decades
protimewaster 4 hours ago
Why would I use the global market share to determine if someone has a monopoly, though? It seems like a flawed way to determine how much choice consumers have.
For example, there's a monopoly on garbage service where I live, but he company with the monopoly has basically 0% of the world market.
snapcaster 4 hours ago
How do you defend a company with 30% marketshare being a monopoly but the other company with 70% market share isn't? I can see the duopoly argument, but no idea how apple could be a monopoly by itself
jasonlotito 3 hours ago
> How do you defend a company with 30% marketshare being a monopoly but the other company with 70% market share isn't?
One allows you to install different browsers, the other does not.
Being a monopoly isn't illegal (in the US). It's what they do that matters.
Now, that doesn't mean Apple is a monopoly with iOS, because the Sherman act doens't dictate it only looks at US only markets. It look at what makes sense in the context. Of course, a court could decide that regardless of what the numbers are internationall, what matters in this case is just the US market.
Trying to predict that is useless at the moment though because the US courts are all over the place.
bigyabai 3 hours ago
Being a monopoly isn't illegal. So many discussions gloss over this fact, and people get at each other's throat over hypothetical abuses and ad-hominem scenarios.
Abusing a monopoly is illegal. Alphabet and Apple are both unquestionably monopoly businesses, and make incredible year-over-year revenue through market-damaging services like AdSense and the App Store. If they are allowed to continue, then other Fortune 500 businesses will copy their decisions, thereby destroying genuine market value that they provide in exchange for safer, more exploitative revenue streams.
In the case of AdSense and Apple's App Store both, I think that any fair FTC investigation would conclude they are shakedown services that harm the greater economy.
snapcaster 3 hours ago
When nothing is stopping you from using an alternative i just don't see it
bigyabai 3 hours ago
You could have said the same thing about Windows during it's antitrust case.
Fat lot of good that logic would do Microsoft when they were deliberately gimping competitors.
mithr an hour ago
You couldn't have, though. Market share was a part of that Microsoft decision. At the time, they had 90-95% of the global market share — there were very few competitors. Apple has a higher though still in the 50s percentage-wise market share in the US, but a 20-30% share globally. Alternatives are much more viable in Apple's case, and often cheaper. You have to want an Apple device to get one, and it's very easy to get an Android instead and not lose out on any important software or functional ability.
In addition, I think Apple has so far somewhat successfully argued that they have reasons for restricting their ecosystem that aren't just a thinly veiled "because we want to crush competition". They argue that their devices are safer to use, and that allowing arbitrary software full access to the system would compromise that. Similarly, they limit third-party software from tracking you. They certainly aren't saints, and I disagree with a many of their choices (their app store cut could've decreased long ago, for one, and they're now adding ads into their own services) but they often seem like the only large corporation of their kind that even tries to have a set of beliefs and care about their users, and I think intent should matter.
I personally like that there's one popular ecosystem that has a particular perspective, and another competing popular ecosystem that has a totally different perspective. If you think all of the above is bullshit and Apple sucks, you're free to use Android and install exactly what you want on your phone. I've never really understood why folks are so adamant that this alternative should not be allowed to exist.
protimewaster 3 hours ago
I'm not defending anybody. I'm just saying, if I live in a market where one company has 99% of the market, somebody coming in and saying "There's not a monopoly. They only have 30% of the global market! " isn't going to make me feel any better, because I don't live everywhere in the world. I live where I live, and that company has 99% of the market there.
I just don't think the 30% of the global market number is relevant to anything in terms of arguing if somebody has a monopoly. Are there even any countries who use a definition of "monopoly" that uses global marketshare to determine if there's a monopoly? Surely those definitions all look at marketshare within some specific region?
floydnoel 2 hours ago
that argument doesn't relate to this discussion at all, though. you aren't limited to only buying Apple devices in your neighborhood, are you?
protimewaster 2 hours ago
There are entire countries where one company has 93%+ marketshare. Yes, maybe people can go to another country where the marketshare is different, but do we all seriously think that the global marketshare not resembling a monopoly definitely means that there's no one market where a monopoly exists?
I imagine trying to effectively use (or market) a competing product in a region with 93%+ marketshare is a painful experience, regardless of whether the global marketshare is more balanced.
Using global marketshare hides details like that. Apple could have 100% of the market in China and India, and Android could have 100% of the marketshare in the rest of the world. This would put, worldwide, Apple at about 35% and Android at about 65%. I would argue there are clearly monopolies in that case, though, even if the worldwide numbers are 65 and 35.
imthatsteve 4 hours ago
Did you read the post you replied to?
Are you just being pedantic about the definition of monopoly or did you fail to understand the problem as it was explained.
Do you use ios? If so do you like using broken websites? Do you have no desire for things to function as intended?
Id imagine its very annoying as a developer to have your things broken for no reason other than pure corporate greed.
If you do use ios then you probably enjoy paying more for an inferior product so ig this is more of a feature than a bug.
simondotau 5 minutes ago
> Id imagine its very annoying as a developer to
...test on more than one browser platform? Seriously? Is this how lazy the industry has become? Is this how far we've fallen?
Having websites say "if it doesn't work, install Chrome" is not choice.
lxgr 3 hours ago
> so you would have to declare a monopoly as “things I can run on an iPhone” as your position for that to work
Yes, that's pretty much it. A similar concern applies to Google and Android.
alt227 3 hours ago
But you can install other OSes such as Graphene on Android phones, I dont think you can do that on iPhones can you?
NekkoDroid an hour ago
On a lot of Android devices you can't install ANY other custom OS because of locked down bootloaders. If you want GrapheneOS specifically that list is even narrower due to 1. official support 2. hardware security features just missing from the devices.
joemi 3 hours ago
That's not how monopolies work, though.
lxgr 2 hours ago
It's absolutely how they work. If there's only a single grocery store in town (and for whatever reason others can't be opened), is that somehow not a monopoly even though there are several pharmacies and hardware stores?
mingus88 an hour ago
You can buy whatever phone you want. Many of them can run multiple OSes if that’s what you want. There is not a single mobile platform in town.
When Ford sells me an F150 I don’t cry about them having a monopoly on their Sync platform. That’s not now monopolies work
joemi an hour ago
That's not a good analogy for the situation. A better grocery-based analogy would be if there's only a single Bob's Grocery in town (and for whatever reason more Bob's Groceries can't be opened) but there is a Sally's Groceries in town. Then Bob's Groceries isn't a monopoly. The only thing Bob's Groceries is a monopoly of is Bob's Groceries, which is a useless tautological argument.
Apple has neither a monopoly on phones nor on app marketplaces.
mingus88 an hour ago
Does Ford have a monopoly position on the F150 because I can’t run Linux on it?
yipinwong 4 hours ago
As much as I am pro-android, this is a dumb take.
Numbers say otherwise.
cassianoleal 6 hours ago
Because Apple controls the only browser engine that runs on iOS and iPadOS. There are no alternatives. Chrome, Firefox and other browsers are just the browser chrome on top of the Safari/WebKit engine. Apple will not allow anything else.
alt227 3 hours ago
> browser chrome
Bad choice of term!
latexr 3 hours ago
Fun fact, the Google Chrome team was very aware of “browser chrome” as a term when they named their browser. They make that clear in the introductory comic.
joemi 3 hours ago
iOS and iPadOS aren't the most dominant OSes, so therefore this can't be a monopoly.
foolswisdom 2 hours ago
Apple isn't the most dominant business on earth, so maybe they can't do anything in violation of antitrust?
Not how it works. You define a relevant market, and the market of iPhone users (which a stable market, there are barriers to just switching to android tomorrow) can be used for evaluation.
srcreigh 3 hours ago
Agree that it should be easier to test on safari from other platforms.
But no way is it a good idea to let other browser engines onto the OS.
I can’t make it website owners problem that their site doesn’t work on non-Google browser. Apple can.
Safari sucks but it’s the only thing stopping Chrome from taking over everything.
Im happy if Google never has that amount of control. We don’t know how bad it could have been, we have enough privacy issues already.
bigyabai 3 hours ago
I'm getting some serious "Microsoft has to protect Internet Explorer from evil competitors like Netscape" vibes from this comment.
Safari simply sucks. If WebKit was any good, then Apple wouldn't have to worry about allowing third-party engines onto iOS. The situation on Mac tells us everything we need to know.
thunderbong 3 hours ago
IMHO, that also should be addressed from the legal perspective very strongly. But forcing Safari for every Apple owner is certainly not the solution.
xoa 3 hours ago
>IMHO, that also should be addressed from the legal perspective very strongly
Then do that FIRST (or at the same time). Don't give us, yet AGAIN, the tired bs song and dance about how you'll make things worse first and then totally someday address the other part properly, and oops what a surprise that turns out to be too hard nevermind.
>But forcing Safari for every Apple owner is certainly not the solution.
Objectively it is a solution though. Because it's been done, and it's been more effective than nothing, while meanwhile nothing has happened from a legal or political angles. If a better solution can be done down the road great, but a hack dealing with a problem non-optimally can absolutely be better then just having the problem completely unaddressed. And count me skeptical that any government is going to have the will or capability to actually address what a lot of us already hate about not just the Chrome monopoly but that entire approach (I don't in fact want my web browser to be a full lowest common denominator operating system with low level hardware access thanks). I dislike much of what Apple does now but I'm glad their selfish interests have happened not to align that way either. Until monopoly lock-in gets better addressed, one of the main ways to push back is via another monopoly lock-in that has different incentives.
simondotau 20 minutes ago
That's ridiculous. You can't solve a monoculture with the legal system. The only solution is forced diversity, and to that end, I congratulate Apple for being the last guardian of the web as a truly open platform.
GeekyBear 11 minutes ago
Allowing Google to use their control of the web to kill the most effective method of blocking ads is the solution?
freecodeio 3 hours ago
if someone told me you have to use ie6 so chrome doesn't take over every browser, then I'll just use chrome
SoftTalker 2 hours ago
At the time the roles were reversed. The spin was "use Chrome to break the IE browser monopoly." And Chrome was a better browser, and much faster. It worked.
simondotau 14 minutes ago
Firefox broke the IE monopoly. Chrome rode Firefox's coat-tails with exclusive access to advertising space on the #1 website in the world.
srcreigh 2 hours ago
Not if ie6 is your only option
HumblyTossed an hour ago
> But no way is it a good idea to let other browser engines onto the OS.
It's my device. I should be able to whatever the hell I want with it.
simondotau an hour ago
You bought it knowing that you couldn’t.
ApolloFortyNine an hour ago
If the one other competitor didn't allow it, then would we be allowed to complain in your mind?
This argument is terrible, we're lucky the one other competitor, for now, allows installing what you want or people like you would argue everything is fine.
simondotau 16 minutes ago
If nobody makes the product you want, we call that a business opportunity.
bloppe an hour ago
> But no way is it a good idea to let other browser engines onto the OS.
Easy. Just legislate that the only browser allowed on iPhones is Firefox. That way, Chrome can't monopolize the web, and iPhone users get to have a decent browser.
robotnikman 3 hours ago
>Safari is also an awful browser in that it requires someone to buy an expensive machine to see if their site works on it.
I remember a long time ago they used to make a Windows version of Safari you could download and install, but at some point they stopped.
2III7 3 hours ago
For testing one could use any other webkit browser. Most of them have similar rendering quirks to Safari.
wongarsu 2 hours ago
Anecdotally that's not enough. I've deal with multiple quirks that only happen in Safari but not in linux-based webkit browsers
oneplane an hour ago
They still have webkit builds for Windows and Linux etc, and you still don't need to buy anything special to run it. I think they also have a (mostly?) headless one, and a mini-browser which is intended to test the engine (so it doesn't have things like bookmarks or profiles or anything like that, a good fit). Similar options exist for FireFox and Chromium so it's not really a Safari/Webkit special. Usually gets used when you use a standard containerised browser testing CI step.
Either way, if someone is still manually testing their website instead of using a standard automated testing system you're probably not really in a league where this matters anyway.. and if they are, you probably have a device farm already.
Not sure where the "my thing is so important, I have to test it on a real device, but I can't pay for it" niche is.
hbn 3 hours ago
If it's browser monopolies you're worried about, Apple beginning to allow other engines on iOS is going to instantly cement Chrome as the only browser in the game.
Apple's Safari enforcement is the only reason Chrome hasn't completely taken over.
bitpush 2 hours ago
"The only just monopoly is my monopoly"
hbn an hour ago
There is no monopoly right now. Chrome and Safari are both in use enough that you generally need to test against both.
Once real Chromium is available on iPhones, there will be a monopoly.
simondotau 8 minutes ago
Having websites say "if it doesn't work, install Chrome" is the opposite of consumer choice.
nticompass 2 hours ago
As I like to say: "Safari is the new IE."
Also, you /can/ run macOS in a VM on Linux: https://github.com/Coopydood/ultimate-macOS-kvm
I use that to test our website at work in Safari, though without a GPU (there is no virto-gpu driver for macOS and my PC's GPU doesn't support vGPU) the performance isn't great.
floorsthelimit 2 hours ago
I only use Apple hardware. I’ve never used safari only Firefox or brave. I don’t understand why you are saying it is a monopoly.
wongarsu 2 hours ago
On macOS it isn't an issue. But on iPhone all the browsers are just different user interfaces for Safari's rendering engine
floorsthelimit an hour ago
Oh wow. I didn’t know that. Is that true for brave too?
hnav 44 minutes ago
Basically not possible to do JIT (needed for decent JS perf) on iOS for 3p apps (since that requires pages that are both writable and executable) and then on top of that Apple bans 3p browsers specifically in markets where they're allowed to.
warkdarrior 2 hours ago
At least in US, Firefox on iPhone is basically a reskin of the Safari engine.
kwanbix 2 hours ago
At least on iOS, if I am not mistaken, you can only run the Safari Engine. Even if you run Firefox or Chrome, it is running Safari under the hood. That is what I understand. Please, correctme if I am wrong.
zsoltkacsandi 2 hours ago
> First let us install other browser engines on iOS, and then we can talk
Just checked in the App Store, I can install Firefox, Opera, Brave, and many many other browsers on my iPhone.
dylan604 2 hours ago
Those are not the same underpinnings as their desktop/Android brethren. All of these iOS apps are still using WebKit.
dylan604 2 hours ago
Can you use some of the cloud providers that now allow for a macOS instance? I know I know, but maybe better than nothing?
tharos47 2 hours ago
No because apple mandate 24h leasing minimum time.
timcobb 2 hours ago
Agreed but ironically it's this monopoly that keeps webkit in the game
ch_sm 2 hours ago
I‘m a long-time Safari user, and I still prefer it, but I nonetheless concur with everything you said in this post.
FireBeyond 2 hours ago
When you install Chrome, which you cannot accidentally do, and when you set it as the OS browser default, which you also cannot accidentally do...
... the next time you launch Safari, it will say that the default browser has been changed, "Did you mean to do that?" and of the two options presented ("Keep using Chrome" or "Switch back to Safari") the Safari option will be the default.
simondotau an hour ago
The health of the web as an open platform is defined by browser diversity, not browser choice. As the only major platform that hasn’t been functionally taken over by Chrome/chromium, iOS represents the last real defensive line against Google owning the web.
Remember, you are a web developer, not a chrome platform developer. Don’t be complicit in Google’s slow-moving coup.
The only people who complain about Safari are lazy web developers who fail to appreciate what it means for the web to be an open platform. Testing your website on two browser engines (and accepting that not everything is going to work perfectly in both) is literally the lowest bar expected of you.
vrganj an hour ago
Safari is a dirty monopolist on mobile just as much as Chrome is on desktop.
simondotau 29 minutes ago
I reject your assertion because it promulgates the lie of "browser choice". The health of the web as an open platform is defined by browser diversity, not browser choice.
A bit of forced diversity is wildly preferable over another collapse towards monoculture.
chasil an hour ago
Safari has real problems compared to Chrome on other platforms.
Primarily, incognito mode is difficult to access. Android allows a shortcut to be dropped to start in this mode.
Cut and paste is also awkward and uncomfortable in Safari compared to Android.
My first move on iOS is to install Firefox Focus, to get Safari's history under control.
nalekberov 34 minutes ago
Apple used to release Safari for Windows, but then for obvious reasons it stopped.
Apple is all about control.
molszanski 23 minutes ago
Ask your LLM for details but
TLDR
Apple since mid 2024 was forced by EU and Japan to allow other engines.
There are hurdles but the path is open.
Both Chrome / Blink and Firefox / Gecko have made prototypes but haven’t moved past that.
It seems that there is no money or will to see it through.
So it’s not all “Apple bad doesn’t allow it”
greazy 18 minutes ago
> Ask your LLM for details but
No, mate. You need to provide details. The onus is on you to support your claim.
jillesvangurp 4 hours ago
Chrome is the new internet explorer. Lots of people coming up with all sorts of arguments why they have to use it and can't switch. Internet Explorer used to be like that. MS really abused users and they still wouldn't switch. It's a form of Stockholm syndrome.
The history of Chrome is that it first displaced Firefox as a reasonable alternative (while funding that via a nice ad deal). And then they just steam rolled Internet Explorer to the point where MS gave up and rebuilt their browser around Chromium. It was that good. Fifteen years ago.
But these days you have to put up with a lot of crap from Google. Ad blocking works better on other browsers. Even some Chromium browsers (like Brave). But the thing with Chromium is that all Chromium derived browsers outsource most of the browser internals to Google. Google decides what features to implement, what PRs to merge, what features not to implement, etc. They set the standards. Safari, Firefox, and hopefully soon Ladybird are the only alternative browser engines keeping them somewhat honest on that front.
zaphar 4 hours ago
I use safari regularly and it has not really kept up. All kinds of stuff that is partly broken for rendering. Especially on heavily dynamic sites. Chrome at least works for any web standard which IE did not.
lobf 4 hours ago
Where do you run in to this? I switched from Chrome to Safari about 5 years ago and can count the number of websites I’ve had issues with on one hand, I think.
watermelon0 3 hours ago
Strava is an example of a website that's dog slow on Safari. Pages take 10+ seconds before they start rendering.
fouc 42 minutes ago
Interestingly gmail suddenly started loading dog slow in Safari for me. I'm on an older version of Safari so that could be a factor - so bizarre though. I wouldn't put it past them to be doing that deliberately.
Alex_L_Wood 3 hours ago
Mobile Reddit is awful on Safari, but it speaks more about Reddit developers than it speaks about Safari.
jiehong 3 hours ago
It’s more like devs only test on chrome.
cosmic_cheese 3 hours ago
Yes. These days if a site is broken in Safari there's a ~70% chance it's broken or degraded in Firefox too.
linguae 2 hours ago
Yup, just like during the bad old days of Internet Explorer's dominance. I remember encountering websites that only worked on the Windows version of Internet Explorer as late as 2006. We had a nice time in the late 2000s and early 2010s when web developers coded against standards instead of against the market-leading web browser. There was competition between Firefox, Opera, Safari, and a revitalized Internet Explorer. I don't remember IE 7 and later being that bad, though by then I had switched to Firefox on Linux/Windows and Safari on Macs.
Then came an upstart web browser from Google named Chrome....and now we're back to the bad old days of web developers coding to the dominant web browser again.
mr_toad an hour ago
I have never cursed at a website for a rendering issue.
I have cursed too many websites to count because of their broken form designs (like assuming a particular postcode format) or reliance on cookies from ad vendors for basic functionality. If your website needs to generate “a new google recaptcha cookie” (whatever that means) before I can enter payment info, then sorry, no es bueno.
cosmic_cheese 3 hours ago
Google has always aggressively promoted Chrome, too. The promotion is just invisible to most people since most people run Chrome.
If you visit a Google property using a Gecko or WebKit-based browser you'll get hit with banners nudging you to switch to Chrome and Google's iOS apps ignore the long-available default browser setting when linked are tapped, prompting you to choose between your default browser and Chrome even if you don't have Chrome installed.
And then there's the whole thing with how Chrome for Android conveniently never gained the ability to run even pared-back MV3 blocker extensions. Massive conflict of interest there.
I wish Google were called out for this stuff way more, but more often than not they're given a free pass.
oldsklgdfth 2 hours ago
> Chrome is the new internet explorer.
My take is Safari is the new IE.
It is packaged with the OS. I can't get an older version of Safari without an older version is macOS. From a testing standpoint, this means we have a bunch of hardware or images we never update so we can test against.
That was the IE thing, it was baked into the OS. Also, trash dev tools. Crashes pretty easily with the console open for more than 30s.
bitpush 24 minutes ago
> Chrome is the new internet explorer.
Most people who say this didnt go through the pain of why IE was such a PITA. IE held back web development by years because either they refused to add features or they added features that only worked with Microsoft approved.
Chrome came along and accelerated web platform development since their products relied on a thriving web ecosystem. They did it using open source software, and built out consensus using web platforms.
Chrome is the new IE will only be true if other browsers are out innovating Chrome (not true), or Chrome has abandoned web platform (not true).
There's only one browser that drags their feat adding features, and that's ironically Safari. Firefox too to an extend, but that's mostly mismanagement and lack of resources. Apple has no excuses.
parasti 3 minutes ago
Last I looked at it Safari on iOS couldn't even do element.requestFullscreen(), so no, thanks.
freetime2 an hour ago
Maybe a bit of an edge use case, but I use the translate page feature a lot in browsers. In Chrome you can switch back and forth between languages seamlessly, but in Safari translating a page requires reloading the page - which can cause issues on forms that use POST. Even worse, I've found that switching back to the original language often just doesn't work on pages loaded with POST - the page gets stuck on the translated version (which can sometimes cause issues with some poorly designed javascript components like calendar widgets). This causes issues frequently enough to prevent me from switching to Safari.
On the plus side, though, Safari will also translate text in images.
jacquesm 7 hours ago
You should ditch Chrome. And switch to FireFox.
baal80spam 7 hours ago
Nope.
ur-whale 7 hours ago
> Nope
Really well argued, congrats.
barelysapient 7 hours ago
I've been very happy with FireFox.
t1234s 4 hours ago
Agreed!
yipinwong 4 hours ago
Nope. I watch a lotta youtube on a PC, FF runs vids like crap because Google changes something, and FF struggls to play well unlike Chrome or Edge.
That's the only reason I am not switching to FF 100%. I do use it though but not as a main driver.
vasachi 4 hours ago
I've had zero problems with Youtube on FF for I don't remember how many years. I'm on Mac though.
throw0101c 4 hours ago
> Nope. I watch a lotta youtube on a PC, FF runs vids like crap because Google changes something, and FF struggls to play well unlike Chrome or Edge.
I generally use Safari on my Apple devices (and YT works) and Firefox on any Linux machines. If something does not work on Safari I try Firefox on my Mac. In the past I've also sometimes used Chrome when no other option works.
So one option could be to use Firefox as a 'general use' browser, and switch to something else on an as-needed basis.
A bit of a hassle, but it may be the best compromise currently.
accrual 4 hours ago
Interesting, YouTube runs fairly well on my system with Firefox. I do get the "Experiencing interruptions? Find out why" pop-up often. It's funny though, the only interruption I actually experience is the pop-up. If the pop-up went away, so would all interruptions.
yipinwong an hour ago
I have a paid sub, and runs youtube without any ad blockers on chrome and FF.
The issue happens only on FF
accrual an hour ago
Yeah, I would not be surprised at all if there's "if not Chrome UA, show popup" code somewhere.
jacquesm 4 hours ago
Never had a problem with that.
jasode 3 hours ago
Many replies about Firefox having no problems on Youtube but I will confirm your complaint that it's an ongoing issue for some of us.
I keep retrying Firefox over multiple years and it's still not quite equal to Chrome for Youtube 4k playback ...
2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28783904
2024: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42176450
2026 still talks about the problem: https://go.tabbit.ai/blog/firefox-youtube-4k-stuttering
And a recent Youtube comment (2026-September) notices that Firefox doesn't run as well as Chrome on his modern high-end laptop with 64GB RAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIE_PkuFeng&lc=UgxfGeBL6sopr...
jacquesm 3 hours ago
4k? That might have something to do with it. Though given a big enough box that too shouldn't be an issue. But I'm using a decade+ old thinkpad driving a fairly high res dell and it works well enough.
yipinwong an hour ago
"Works on My Machine" reply.
lightedman 3 hours ago
"Nope. I watch a lotta youtube on a PC, FF runs vids like crap because Google changes something, and FF struggls to play well unlike Chrome or Edge."
You must have a hardware problem, as I'm playing 4K videos on a 1st-gen Ryzen and GTX 1080 using Firefox and I've never had a single issue since I got the machine, around the 4th week the processor was available to purchase.
lelanthran 3 hours ago
I've used FF for the past 20 years (Linux and Windows). I have seen thousands of youtube videos in that time without a glitch. So have many hundreds of other FF users.
If FF is not working on youtube for, it's not working for you and you alone.
nicce 2 hours ago
They do that on purpose. To keep you using Chrome.
Some of the related posts:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/youtube-is-slowing-video-loads...
yipinwong an hour ago
ty. This... yes, you know why I don't use FF for Youtube...
jojobas 35 minutes ago
This is why you should only use firefox, with a proper adblocker, for youtube.
floydnoel 2 hours ago
I just use Brave for YT. Adblock built in!
yipinwong an hour ago
I used to use Brave and it had no issues on YT.
I stopped using Brave for no reason i don't remember. (no, not to do with the CEO)
pupppet 4 hours ago
Firefox should just have a 'Chrome' mode where it just shamelessly looks exactly like Chrome. Apart from Chrome removing the flag to hide the close buttons on tabs, I think the UI is damn near perfect.
rocketvole 3 hours ago
we're getting closer with the nova redesign
veber-alex 3 hours ago
No thanks.
I am perfectly happy with Chrome.
alt227 3 hours ago
Ive used Firefox as my daily driver for around 12 years. I switched to Chrome a couple weeks ago to see what the fuss is about and I am shocked how glitchy it is in comparison. Firefox is a much more stable experience.
jacquesm 11 minutes ago
I routinely have 100's of tabs open on a 32G 10+ year old box (an ancient W540), it's rock solid.
jakequist 6 minutes ago
I was hoping for a “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC”-level ad.
curt15 7 hours ago
Safari has the same manifest v3 limitations that preclude the full-blooded ublock origin you get with Firefox.
2OEH8eoCRo0 7 hours ago
Why don't they lean into ad blockers and making the web less shitty? Is it because the web staying shitty makes people use apps instead?
icantevenhold 7 hours ago
I’m sure that is a part of the reason.
I hate apps with a passion…
cosmic_cheese an hour ago
It's because with the way that the most capable adblockers are built, they can't function without injecting code into every page and intercepting traffic. The privacy implications for someone installing an adblocker extension with malicious intent (or more commonly, a formerly legit blocker gets bought and gets turned malicious in an update) are dire.
armadyl 7 hours ago
I notice no difference using AdGuard (in basic mode, with only the content blocking rules and no page read access) in Safari or uBOL in basic mode on Chrome vs. using UBO on Firefox. And in uBOL’s case you can always increase the filtering level if you’re willing to grant the extension read access to pages to basically match uBO. You can even hide/delete elements or add your own custom rules.
I feel like most people who make MV3 complaints didn’t bother actually trying it, they just repeat the default anti-MV3 talking points.
icantevenhold 7 hours ago
I personally notice a lot of difference between AdGuard and UBO.
AdGuard just blocks much less.
toomim 7 hours ago
Does it block ads in youtube videos?
moi2388 3 hours ago
Yes.
jshier 28 minutes ago
The MV3 API isn't enough to block YouTube ads on their own, but Safari ad blockers which also include web extension API blocking can see enough traffic to block YT ads. 1Blocker does this, and even StopTheMadness Pro's blocking have enough flexibility to do it.
ctkhn 6 hours ago
Google serves ads and videos from the same servers. Adblock can't use DNS to drop the ads without dropping videos too. Ublock in firefox sees the actual content in my browser and can distinguish youtube videos from ads.
AuthAuth 4 hours ago
Google doesnt turn on MV3 and have it break ads day one that would highlight a negative change for users. Google wants people to move to MV3 and notice no difference and then they can start chipping away later.
zaphar 4 hours ago
It's cute that you think they have level of sophistication in their strategy.
AuthAuth 41 minutes ago
It doesnt require sophistication. Just implement MV3 and then when the conversation about adblockers comes up make a note that its probably not wise to cut it as extensions have switched to MV3 and its a controversial topic. Its easy to see how different teams would come to this without collaborating, its the MV3 team doing what they do and the ad block team reading the room.
t1234s 4 hours ago
How many people in this thread would dump their Android for an iPhone if they:
- allowed real 3rd party browser engines
- let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps
alt227 3 hours ago
If you added "Allowing manual sideloading of apps" to that list I would jump to an iPhone in a heartbeat
t1234s 3 hours ago
yes, having an ADB type of CLI tool is a must.
2OEH8eoCRo0 3 hours ago
Ditto
nticompass 2 hours ago
There's TrollStore, but that's a hack not an official way.
lightedman 3 hours ago
Not me, because Apple still disallows direct competition with their other 'apps/features' like Compass.
ssttoo 3 hours ago
I’ll dump my iPhone for an Android as soon as:
- iMessage works so I can participate in the family group chat
tantalor 3 hours ago
RCS exists
martheen 2 hours ago
Due to App Store $99 per year compared to PlayStore one-time $25 and iPhone being unaffordable for most people in my country, there's too many niche and/or local apps I'm using in Android where they won't port to iOS.
HelloUsername 2 hours ago
> let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps
Which apps can't be uninstalled on the latest iOS?
reaperducer an hour ago
let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps
Which Apple apps can't be removed?
jonhohle 7 hours ago
I’ve been using Safari since 2003. I was previously using Konqueror, so the transition was pretty easy. It’s always been fast and reliable and Mac-like.
It’s nice to have a browser that is a browser and not something that’s attempting to be another operating system.
yipinwong 4 hours ago
You deserve the kudos for just mentioning Konqueror and extra +1 for using it.
I liked Konqueror but abandoned in favor of Chrome browsers and variants especially after working on frontend projects.
yipinwong 4 hours ago
You deserve the kudos for just mentioning Konqueror and extra +1 for using it.
I liked Konqueror but abandoned in favor of Chrome browsers and variants especially after working on frontend projects and stoped using KDE
glimshe 7 hours ago
If Safari worked in all major OSs like Chrome, Brave and Firefox, I could consider that. I own a Mac but didn't switch to Safari because I use multiple OSs for my work.
SirMaster 7 hours ago
It even used to run on Windows...
martheen 2 hours ago
I suspect that was a legacy from when they planned for iOS not supporting any third-party apps. If they want to force devs to target mobile Safari, the least they can do was to provide the desktop version on Windows.
Once apps dominate (which requires devs to have a Mac anyway to compile and debug) and turns out nobody use the Windows port, it's just a money sink.
jedberg an hour ago
I use all three browsers on a daily basis. Chrome for accessing google owned properties and things I click on from Google search, Safari for reddit and hacker news, and Firefox for everything else.
Safari is always the best on my Mac, but my complaint has always been the lack of plugins.
But just now I ported one of my favorite plugins from Chrome to Safari using ChatGPT. I told it I already have it installed in Chrome so it can get the source code there, and then told it to port it and install it.
After 20 minutes and few bucks in tokens (estimated, I actually used my 6% of my $20/mo plan), I have Session Buddy in Safari.
So maybe the plugins aren't a problem anymore...
reaperducer an hour ago
I ported one of my favorite plugins from Chrome to Safari using ChatGPT.
Why use ChatGPT? Safari has a built-in plugin builder now.
jedberg an hour ago
1. I didn't know it exists. Now that I do and I looked into it...
2. I have an M1 chip and I'm not sure it's supported.
3. ChatGPT can open both browers, not sure if Safari plugin builder can
But if it does all those things, great. My point was more that plugins won't be a problem anymore because AI can build them.
tkdb 7 hours ago
The UX of Safari is just... not as good as chrome. On my phone, on my desktop, I just feel too much friction in the daily cycle of opening a thousand tabs.
The UX of Pages and Keynote are, IMO, far superior to Word/Powerpoint and Google Docs/Slides, but they lag adoption from... ecosystem inertia? I mention this as evidence of my objectivity in reflecting on UX.
DrBazza 7 hours ago
'Find in page' is in.... 'Share' (on mobile). But Apple has the best UX, so who am I to argue?
hiros-neko 3 hours ago
Or you can just start typing in the address bar and it will list it below the autofilled list
idbnstra 7 hours ago
yeah, for one, you can't put multiple tabs in a stack/accordion group
waynecochran an hour ago
I had to quit using desktop Safari because it essentially quit working. The problem had something to do with icloud. Apple assumes everyone is using icloud I imagine and does not handle corner cases for folks with full icloud disks or improper setups. I have an paid icloud subscription now, but I haven't looked back.
freakynit 7 hours ago
No thanks. We have seen multiple times now how it all starts with "good" stuff, then it gets more and more and more locked-down... to the point where you cannot even install apps on your own device, from wherever you want to.
No thanks.. I'd rather switch to Firefox, or even any other shitty browser, but not the one from any other gatekeeping monopoly.
reenorap 3 hours ago
If you work at Apple/Safari then my free suggestion is to have a "Chrome mode" where all the buttons and doohickeys that Chrome has are all in the same location for Safari. If I'm far to used to where the buttons are for things like "reload" so trying to switch to Safari is enough friction to make me stay with Chrome.
Maybe have an Edge mode as well to convince the Edge users to come over.
PrimalPower 7 hours ago
I was building an pdf export feature for one of my projects the other day.
And safari still behaves differently than my other browsers.
I usually try to give safari a chance whenever I’m working on Macs. I’m always forced to install chrome for some reason or another.
Until the random compatibility quirks stop I don’t see myself returning to safari.
carlosjobim an hour ago
Safari has two types of PDF export: One is through "Export PDF" and should be a faithful copy of how the browser renders the HTML. The other i through the Print menu item and will be the text and images put onto paper sized sheets.
amelius 43 minutes ago
Fight back, e.g.:
Add a 1000ms delay to your website when the user agent is Safari.
Show popup to install Firefox.
Etc.
freetime2 31 minutes ago
Fight back by punishing your users?
amelius 28 minutes ago
Nudging them ... like companies do too. Except you're nudging them towards a better place.
codehorses 23 minutes ago
Brilliant way to not have any users. There has to be a better method. Maybe a little note explaining that your website really works best in Firefox.
kurtoid 2 hours ago
Interesting timing, considering https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49973221 (Apple may soon track when Google promotes Chrome inside Safari), 7 days ago
bob1029 7 hours ago
Safari is the ultimate way to browse HN.
For everything else, I use some chromium derivative that can traverse pirate streaming sites and ChatGPT without disintegrating under their weird JS workloads.
SirMaster 7 hours ago
Could they please make Safari for Windows again?
malloci 7 hours ago
They likely discontinued because there was barely any interest. Likely the only reason Safari has any use is that it's the default on MacOS and monopolized on i*OS.
accrual 4 hours ago
I quite liked the old Safari for Windows. It felt like bringing over a slice of the Apple ecosystem to the common Windows XP or Vista desktop. You could run Safari and iTunes and have decent parity with (then) Mac OS X for the most common use cases.
maidaman 7 hours ago
I’m not going to use different browsers on different devices. I can’t use Safari on my gaming windows desktop.
wereHamster 2 hours ago
If they fix the devtools. Because Safari devtools are worse than junk.
oldsklgdfth 2 hours ago
Hot garbage bro.
Also trash video playback.
theplumber 7 hours ago
Apple forgot to mention Safari not being open source but rather tied to a proprietary platform not to mention Safari on mobile kept in a short leash to protect the AppStore.
codehorses 20 minutes ago
The browser engine is WebKit[1] which is open source, so not any different than Chrome.
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Apple_Safa...
samdixon 7 hours ago
Needs ublock and I would use it
ssijak 7 hours ago
adguard
TeddyDD 4 hours ago
There is uBlock Origin lite, works pretty well: https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269...
samdixon 2 hours ago
Ya everyone replied with this and I have used it. It has been a year or so, so I will try it again, but I remember it missing some pretty big stuff.
csydas 3 hours ago
ublock origin lite has a safari extension: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home
it's missing the element zapper and has some other limitations, but it works pretty well for the most part
combined with ublacklist and sponsorblock it's fairly good coverage for safari
rocketvole 3 hours ago
could also use wblock for custom filter lists
gorhill 3 hours ago
> it's missing the element zapper
Support for element zapper was added more than 18 months ago in version 2025.3.23.1241.[1]
---
[1] https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/releases/tag/uBOLi...
csydas 2 hours ago
oh ty, I legitimately didn't know I usually hide extensions icons in safari
baggachipz 2 hours ago
Wipr2 is amazing.
hollowonepl 7 hours ago
I ditched both to favor Firefox many many years ago.