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Why is Apple so biased against Firefox?
- Thread starter Johnchapin
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you may have reasons; we don't all think the same way, have the same needs. why is that so hard for people to grasp?
There’s plenty of reasons, like I said. When did I say we all have to have the same reasons against the same browsers?
I said there are plenty of reasons. There *are* plenty of reasons. I wasn’t talking about myself.
Firefox is not on the Mac App Store for the same reason Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and many others are not on the Mac App Store - Apple's guidelines require web browsers distributed on the App Store to be built on Safari's WebKit layout engine instead of their own layout engines. The few browsers that are available on the Mac App Store (DuckDuckGo, Maxthon) are WebKit-based. For Firefox and others to ship with their own rendering engine they have to be manual downloads.
On iOS/iPadOS you have third party browsers on the App Store because the developers have no choice in how to distribute their software. If developers want to be on these platforms to provide mobile companions to their desktop browsers then they have to distribute via the App Store and adhere to Apple's restrictions. Hence Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and all on iOS and iPadOS are essentially custom shells on top of WebKit.
That's not true. That guideline applies only to the iOS App Store. The Mac App Store is full of Electron apps for example.
Firefox is my main browser. I use it for all sites where I don't want state remembered when I exit the app. I use Safari for all websites for companies that I have an established relationship with and want to be remembered.
Both browsers work well for me, but I'm not really dependent on extensions. Little Snitch takes care of all the blocking I need at the system level; the recent version has a large collection of blocklists that you can enable.
Though, I will say that Safari has lots of problems with MacRumors. For example, I experience significant delays loading images. (I don't use private relay.) So, I use Chrome for this site.
Whenever a browser has an issue with a site, I just try a different one. I always expect a site to work with Chrome because of its market share, but I try to avoid Google products, so it's left as a last resort.
My utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, rolled out a new website. They initially didn't support Firefox and asked all Mac users to use Safari. They've since relented.
Both browsers work well for me, but I'm not really dependent on extensions. Little Snitch takes care of all the blocking I need at the system level; the recent version has a large collection of blocklists that you can enable.
Though, I will say that Safari has lots of problems with MacRumors. For example, I experience significant delays loading images. (I don't use private relay.) So, I use Chrome for this site.
Whenever a browser has an issue with a site, I just try a different one. I always expect a site to work with Chrome because of its market share, but I try to avoid Google products, so it's left as a last resort.
My utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, rolled out a new website. They initially didn't support Firefox and asked all Mac users to use Safari. They've since relented.
then who are you speaking for (if not yourself)? and what about all the people using firefox, chrome, other email apps, office, etc? we use what we like, or need; it's fine to go outside of the walled garden... if we want.
I’m just speaking facts. I’m not arguing that everyone should use Safari. There’s reasons not to use Safari as well…
Sorry, but I lost you there.
I've been using Firefox (and her antecedents) since well-before the currencies of Mac OS/iOS were a thing.
I could concede "safest"; but, we can definitely arm-wrestle the "best possible" assertion any time you'd like
I’m not stating an opinion. There are reasons (valid reasons, in fact) to not use any browser. That is a fact. What someone’s opinion is, is a fact. People have reasons for not using certain browsers. It’s not true that there’s no reason to not use [insert browser here].
Mine never crashes when my MacBook goes to sleep. It’s the main browser I use.
No crashes on any of my macs actually, that’s two Mac Pros, an M4 Pro Mini or the M2 MBA.
facts require evidence; might be prudent to provide some, since many macusers use 3rd-party browsers (& seem to know what they're doing)...
And they have reasons to (not use Safari). Just as the users to choose not to use the browsers you listed have reasons to. I’m not sure what you think my point was. I only said there are reasons not to use any browser one can think of.
I have a similar story, except that I use Firefox for most sites that I have an established relationship such as MacRumors. I do use Safari for my corporate Gmail account on one computer to keep Google out of my personal life. If I ahd a Facebook account, I would probably restrict it to Safari as well.
I quite agree with you on this point and I can't figure out why you're not being understood. It's almost like you're being understood to say that you know of particular reasons that apply to everyone. You never said such a thing.
There are pretty simple examples to prove your point. Given any browser, there are some websites that will malfunction with just that browser. For a given user, if such a website were important and frequently visited, that would be a reason to not use that browser. So I would argue:
For every browser, there exists a user and a reason, such that the browser would be a poor choice for that user for that reason.
But, it seems like you might have pushed someone's button:
You responded to that with your valid logical assertion that there were reasons to not use any browser.
I'm a hyper-literal person, but I didn't think Fisherking meant to say they couldn't think of any reason that might stop some person from having success with a particular browser. I just guessed that they meant to say that people should try all browsers and see which ones work best for themselves. No single browser is the wrong choice for all users.
Right, I wasn’t really disagreeing overall. Just being a bit pedantic.
That I have never used or seen before. Only use Mosaic, Netscape, iCab, IE5 for Mac, Firefox, and now Edge.