sell it to Microsoft so they can finally have a web browser that people use
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Never again
Hey look, some boomers who don't understand tech are trying to do a thing with a tech company. Sell Chrome? What a stupid idea.
Who would buy this and how would they monetize it? In browser ads? A freemium paid model to remove the ads?
I'll bid $3.50 just to GPL it.
This is the last antitrust win we'll get for years, isn't it?
I know Trump doesn't like Big Tech, but I doubt his admin will punish them meaningfully, but just rail about censorship.
This isn't a win I think. They are yet to meet in the court with Google.
The DOJ will file a revised version of its proposals in early March, before the government and Google return to the DC District Court in April for a two-week remedies trial.
Microshit treatment incoming IMHO
People larp these headlines too much
Ehh just fight it for a month pay king trump some money and bam their golden.
This is exactly what will happen. Same thing with Albertsons and Kroger too.
Okay but consider them taking this moment to let Elon buy it and using it to control information on the clients end 💀
Maybe we'll actually see people switch to Firefox if that happens.
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Hot take: they sell Chrome but keep Chromium.
How would that work exactly? Google would sell Chrome but keep paying teams if developers to work on Chromium?
Basically. I mean look at Edge, it’s running Chromium under the hood, but the UI is developed by Microsoft.
Seeing how tech illiterate some of these people are, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what ends up happening
People wondering what Chrome has to do with a search monopoly:
The obvious benefit is that they can default the user's search provider to Google.
But the more nefarious benefit is that, by controlling both the client and server, they can unilaterally decide the future of web standards. They don't have to advocate for proposals, gain consensus, and limit themselves to well-supported standards the way other companies do. They can just do it, gain the first-mover advantage, and force others to follow suit.
If they don't like HTTP/2, they can invent their own protocol and implement it for their search servers and Chrome. Suddenly, using Chrome with Google Search is way faster than using Chrome with Bing or using Firefox with Google Search. Even if Microsoft and Mozilla don't like the protocol, they now have to adopt it or fall behind.
This has happened. QUIC was deployed in 2012. Firefox gained support in 2021.
They're doing the same thing with Privacy Sandbox, and you can also look at browser feature compatibility tables to see how eager Google is to force their own interpretation of every not-yet-finalized web standard as the canonical interpretation.
Just...please for the love of whatever dirty do Microsoft. Fucking sick of their shit recently with One Drive.
Do you have a few minutes to learn about our lord and savior Linux?
Man the Linux propaganda is STRONG on Lemmy. I'll say what I've said before: I use my computer for gaming, web browsing, and managing a media server for my family that hosts pictures and other things. If those 3 things can be done easily without issue on a Linux distro without having to fuck around with configs every time I want to do something, I'm all in. By what I've heard though it's just not there yet. I am super happy Steam decided to go Linux for their Steamdeck though as I've heard thats helped make monumental strides the right direction. Trust me, I want to. Large part of it is I worked tech support for over a decade and having to troubleshoot my own shit is like the furthest thing I want to deal with haha
You owe it to yourself to try it out! I recommend dual booting into Linux Mint Cinnamon for a while and have your windows install to fall back on to. That or one of the gaming-specific distributions, but from what I’ve seen Mint does all with gaming too. It’s a good all-around starting place, and there are a lot of resources because it’s popular and built off of the most popular distro. I installed it on my work machine (software engineering) and I’ve felt no lack of capability or a need to switch to a more “hardcore” distro.
Microsoft is waaay easier to avoid than fucking google. Is one drive that annoying?
All mega corps but it won't happen
There's literally so much else they should do, google docs, sheets, drive, phones, maps, earth, calendar, play store, translate, etc.
Good work, continue please.
What is the issue with docs, sheets, drive, phones, calendar, play store?
There seems to be plenty of options in all of these spaces. Play store isn't even on a lot of android devices.
Correct. My example for another necessary intervention would be YouTube. That's a space in which Google does have a monopoly.
Exactly. There are workable alternatives to most of the others, but YouTube has a stranglehold on that type of content due to the network effect. Examples of alternatives:
- docs/sheets/drive - Microsoft Office 365, OnlyOffice, or self-host LibreOffice Online (through Collabora CODE builds); if you just need drive, there's also BackBlaze, AWS, DropBox, etc
- phones - I use GrapheneOS on their Pixel devices, but plenty of other Android phones support LineageOS/DivestOS/CalyxOS
- calendar - still looking for a replacement for my smart watch, but I've been using my Nextcloud install; there are also some FOSS calendars that support CalDav as well, so look around
- maps - I've been using Organic Maps, which has been great; main problem is searching for addresses, but if it's in there, the directions so far have worked fine; there's also Apple maps, Bing maps, and probably some others
- translate - it's built in to Firefox, and it seems to work well enough in a pinch
But there's really not much for YouTube. I guess there's Odyssee, Rumble, and a few others, but they don't have anywhere near the content as YouTube, so they're not really practical alternatives. I actually sub to Nebula which is the closest to a replacement so far, but there's still a ton of content that doesn't have a direct replacement there.
Off topic, but how do you like graphene? I am thinking of making the switch on a pixel 7a, but I have a fear it'll be like having Linux on my phone where things randomly don't work and then I have the hobby where I make it work
I really like it, but I also mostly use F-Droid apps. You can install Google Play in the regular app sandbox, which prevents the worst of the issues andn provides most of the benefits.
That said, there are still some caveats:
- NFC payments don't work - I use a Pixel watch instead, which works fine (it's paired to a separate profile on my phone with Google Play installed)
- some banking apps don't work (some check if your phone OS is stock)
- some apps just don't work without Google Play services running (e.g. the Sensi app for my smart thermostat), and some have issues even with it running
But other than that, it works pretty well! I have three profiles set up:
- Owner - default, with no Google Play
- Work - handful of work apps using my work Google account
- Google - apps that require Google Play, using a fresh Google account
I'm using a Google Pixel 8, and it does what I need it to do.
Most definitely. They need viable competition.
Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker, says the DOJ is pushing “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”
I'm honestly curious how this would "harm Americans".
The same ruling would ban Google from paying other browsers to make Google the default search engine.
This would kill Firefox and make Chromium the only browser engine that's left.
How does chrome make money? It uses ads from Google, chrome on it's own is not a business.
Say you buy chrome, you have to options
-
Ads built into chrome itself (when you're in the settings menu, homepage, reading a PDF, playing the dino game)
-
Force your own default search engine, or get a company like Google or Bing to pay you for the privilege of being a default search engine.
Neither of these options are better than the status quo
Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer sounds like Donald Trump
I fear this is exactly who they're courting.
That statement is technically true.
The billionaire owners are Americans.
Everyone really does need to have that at the forefront of their mind. When the C-suit, wall street, and politicians talk about "Americans" they aren't talking about us schlubs.
The corporations are people too!
Google pretending they have any other nationality other then “the global internet” is cute in a disgusting way.
If they're allowed to choose who they sell it to this won't change anything
Sell it to Mozilla so they can make it uninstall itself and install Firefox instead in the next update
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