Syd Lexia wrote: |
Someone explain the point of the browser wars to me. When browser software is free, why does it matter which browser people use? Like, why are companies fighting for marketshare over something that makes no money? |
In a very real way the organization that has the most used browser gets to dictate the future of the Internet and its policy (web standards are cornered by Google/Mozilla ATM). Sort of in the same way that Microsoft has done so with Windows for decades when it comes to OS.
It is more about power rather than money, or say the power to make money from that positioning.
Edit: There is a long messy history to all this starting all the way back with the MS/Netscape Browser war and if you remember you used to have to buy your browser. This was the major contributing factor to MS being broken up by the U.S. Gov. Netscape became Mozilla and opened sourced shortly after and now we are where we are at today.
Google is scary smart when it comes to pretty much everything and they just dominate due to this. They work very closely with Mozilla and Apple however because they have to. Apple with Safari is still in the game due to mobile (iPads/phones). So they play "nice" until Android overcomes mobile which will pretty much never happen IMO unfortunately. Mozilla is open source so Google must concede to Mozilla.
Being open source is sort of a big deal. Working in the defense industry at the company that is primarily the de facto cyber sec go to and being a part of the Infosec(IS) division as a web app developer has made this very clear to me.
When you have an open source browser then you use an open source browser. If the government needs to use a browser that is why they use Mozilla due to the fact that you can inspect the code. Something you cannot do with Chrome. Similar to why when we need to use maps in web apps (All the times) we use NASA's Whirlwind due to the code being controlled by the U.S. gov instead of Google Maps on top of the fact a Google map server costs about 100,000 USD opposed to free.
Where I work I usually work on contracts with the Army, Air Force and restricted. What most people don't know is that means NSA. They control everything that passes through to Top Secret sectors. So if you need to get ANY code into a SCIFF to fight terrorism or spy on some motherfuckers you first need to get it into a test SCIFF. So if you find a cool widget you want to use that is like 200 lines of javascript but it was some random Russian dude that wrote it, tough luck can't use it! So do you really think they are about to send the Chrome browser into a SCIFF with zero control of code? Especially considering the blowback from Google recently on mandates for imposed release of info on US citizens. Nope.
So yeah tangent there but it can get complex. Where does this leave MS? They are fucked, no cards in their hand at the moment.
Maybe I should stop here lol...
As for your OS, it's no secret that certain agencies have a private key to the top OS as for back as 95, if you know where to look. Welcome to the new world order. Strange as it sounds that's why LINUX distro FTW.