There are two web browsers developers need to consider: Chrome and Safari. All the other browsers are either wrappers around/skins around/modifications of Chrome and Safari, or they’re statistically insignificant.
I default to Firefox myself (including my dev work, because Firefox has some real neat dev tools that Chrome lacks), but from a business point of view, it’s hard to warrant the expense of dedicating an hour of someone’s time to work around a browser incompatibility for the 2% of users that already have Chrome on their device anyway.
Hopefully, Mozilla’s new CEO will help bring Firefox back into the browser market. She may be able to capitulate on Apple opening the app store for other browser engines, because Chrome will certainly try to. For now, though, Firefox has a market share smaller than Linux.
Now that hurt. I don’t know how software conscious people continue to choose chromium based browsers. It’s one of the easiest switches you can make to show it to yet another monopoly.
Most people don’t really care about what browser they’re using. They either use the one they’ve always been using (Chrome/Edge/Safari) or they just use the default (Edge/Safari/Chrome), or maybe whatever browser begs the hardest (Edge/Chrome).
Some people fall for ads and install Opera because it’s “gamer”, that seems to be the biggest non-megabrand browser.
If it truly is only an hour of someone’s time, then I’d much rather they made that insignificant amount less profit, but did the work to make our experience better.
As a developer: I agree. I consider any website that completely refuses to work in Firefox to be broken.
However, some bugs are just too annoying to be worth serious investment. CSS bugs, unimplemented APIs (inputtype="week"), and implemented features disabled by default (“log in with google” support, tracking protection breaking Javascript because of imperfect shims, WebGL/WebRTC being off by default). For ages, Firefox used to have a partial implementation for video/audio calling APIs, breaking spec-compliant applications that tried to show an audio/video input dropdown, and the only workaround was to disable the control (which was annoying because Firefox wouldn’t let you switch inputs on the fly) or telling people to use a browser that let you switch to the right audio device.
It’s not just the writing of code itself. Every workaround/polyfill/third party library you add requires long term maintenance. When Firefox eventually gets patched, you need to remove your workarounds, and until then, you need to keep coming back to see if your workarounds are still required. This type of death by a thousand cuts can be a real problem if you try to implement every workaround under the sun.
Plus, sometimes Firefox just doesn’t (want to) implement a feature. For example, WebUSB/WebSerial is real useful for flashing phones or microcontrollers without having to download and install flashing software, but only Chromium supports it.
Ads and tracking ? Browser with the largest market share ? Well, we are back to IE6 monopoly. :(
Largest marketshare to check for compatibility, while ignoring all the other browsers.
It’s almost certainly market share. Easier to just slap a “use chrome” check on it than to spend any dev time supporting the others.
There are two web browsers developers need to consider: Chrome and Safari. All the other browsers are either wrappers around/skins around/modifications of Chrome and Safari, or they’re statistically insignificant.
I default to Firefox myself (including my dev work, because Firefox has some real neat dev tools that Chrome lacks), but from a business point of view, it’s hard to warrant the expense of dedicating an hour of someone’s time to work around a browser incompatibility for the 2% of users that already have Chrome on their device anyway.
Hopefully, Mozilla’s new CEO will help bring Firefox back into the browser market. She may be able to capitulate on Apple opening the app store for other browser engines, because Chrome will certainly try to. For now, though, Firefox has a market share smaller than Linux.
On the other hand, if it works in Firefox, it’s likely to work everywhere else.
I use Firefox for development and then, barring some weird chrome bug, things just work everywhere.
That’s true, but sometimes you run into issues that are just Firefox issues, despite all the documentation saying it should work fine.
Chrome and Safari have similar issues, but their massive install base has a better return on investment.
Now that hurt. I don’t know how software conscious people continue to choose chromium based browsers. It’s one of the easiest switches you can make to show it to yet another monopoly.
Most people don’t really care about what browser they’re using. They either use the one they’ve always been using (Chrome/Edge/Safari) or they just use the default (Edge/Safari/Chrome), or maybe whatever browser begs the hardest (Edge/Chrome).
Some people fall for ads and install Opera because it’s “gamer”, that seems to be the biggest non-megabrand browser.
If it truly is only an hour of someone’s time, then I’d much rather they made that insignificant amount less profit, but did the work to make our experience better.
As a developer: I agree. I consider any website that completely refuses to work in Firefox to be broken.
However, some bugs are just too annoying to be worth serious investment. CSS bugs, unimplemented APIs (
input type="week"), and implemented features disabled by default (“log in with google” support, tracking protection breaking Javascript because of imperfect shims, WebGL/WebRTC being off by default). For ages, Firefox used to have a partial implementation for video/audio calling APIs, breaking spec-compliant applications that tried to show an audio/video input dropdown, and the only workaround was to disable the control (which was annoying because Firefox wouldn’t let you switch inputs on the fly) or telling people to use a browser that let you switch to the right audio device.It’s not just the writing of code itself. Every workaround/polyfill/third party library you add requires long term maintenance. When Firefox eventually gets patched, you need to remove your workarounds, and until then, you need to keep coming back to see if your workarounds are still required. This type of death by a thousand cuts can be a real problem if you try to implement every workaround under the sun.
Plus, sometimes Firefox just doesn’t (want to) implement a feature. For example, WebUSB/WebSerial is real useful for flashing phones or microcontrollers without having to download and install flashing software, but only Chromium supports it.