So Long as Chromium is barred from iPadOS - iPads wont work as primary computers

[WayneG]

@Synchronicity

Why would Apple have to maintain the Chromium and Firefox engines?

Apple is the gatekeeper for iOS/iPadOS. At the very least they have to evaluate and deliver updates and extensions, etc. for a chromium browser.

And they might need to work to keep Safari competitive?

[Synchronicity]

I don’t think it would be any different from the way other apps are approved for inclusion in the App Store.

[DrJJWMac]

@HobbyCollector

I have to confess I don’t understand …

Perhaps the “request from multiple (people) …” will someday change the status quo, wherein Apple currently blocks other rendering engines on iOS. We might gather a glimmer of hope from a recent past case.

–
JJW

[Synchronicity]

@WayneG

And they might need to work to keep Safari competitive?

For me, Safari’s best competitive advantage has always been battery life, at least on a MacBook. Idk if anyone in the EU has noticed any difference in battery life when using the Chromium or Firefox engines on iPhones and iPads.

[WayneG]

Right now, Chromium’s biggest selling point is that Safari just doesn’t work on all websites and almost all new browsers are based on chromium or Firefox.

On one hand you have Arc, Brave, Chrome, Edge, and Vivaldi, etc. And on the other you have Firefox, Pale Moon, WaterFox, and SeaMonkey, etc

Most Safari users need a Chromium browser at least some of the time.

[Bmosbacker]

@karlnyhus

we didn’t have iPads or Chromebooks or the Internet.

When I was an undergrad, I used something like this with a lot of whiteout!

[Synchronicity]

Safari has improved and has some nice features, but if it didn’t deplete the battery less than other browsers, I’m not sure I’d use it at all on a MacBook.

But the one browser I definitely never want to use again is Chrome.

[karlnyhus]

@Bmosbacker

I used something like this with a lot of whiteout!

Yup, got my first manual typewriter when I was still a kid living at home. I think the correction fluid was called Liquid Paper in those days. In high school, we had access to a computer, but it had to be approached via an early remote time-sharing terminal with a paper tape punch and an acoustic coupler over 110 or 300 baud connections. Even by college in the early 70s, the computer lab was filled, not with computers, but with IBM card-punch machines and my programs were written on a big deck of 80-column IBM punch cards, one line at a time. It was a big step up when cathode ray time-sharing terminals started to become available.

[Bmosbacker]

@karlnyhus

with IBM card-punch machines and my programs

Indeed, I used those in college for my finance classes. I remember carrying boxes of punchcards and hoping I didn’t drop them.

[MurphysLaw]

To be clear I would rather use Safari and Firefox 100% of the time but Chromium is how the web runs these days.

[WayneG]

@karlnyhus

I think the correction fluid was called Liquid Paper in those days.

Fun fact, that you may be old enough to appreciate: Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper. She also gave birth to Michael Nesmith of The Monkees.

[webwalrus]

@HobbyCollector

Plenty of folks will cite the fact that it’s actually kind of bad programming since Safari supports web standards and that means sites that don’t work on iPad are written poorly.

Well, that’s not necessarily true. At the leading edge of technology, there are competing web standards. There is an argument to be made that only Chrome implements some of them, so they are not “real standards” – but according to
https://caniuse.com/ it would seem to be a matter of which browsers implement which standards.

Chrome does do better with websites that are complete messes of noncompliant code. But I don’t think that is typically the problem for things like classroom apps.

@DrJJWMac

such cases can cause lots of agony for the masses who want to defy the standards.

I would go a step further and say that “the masses” just don’t care about anything other than a website working. The reasons are immaterial… “Standards” is a purist argument. That doesn’t make it an inherently bad argument – it just makes it non-compelling for a number of people.

@Synchronicity

I don’t think it would be any different from the way other apps are approved for inclusion

This. I think people have a flawed idea of what the app review process actually Involves. Apple is not deeply scrutinizing all code of all apps that are submitted for security Issues.

The sandbox nature of iOS, by design, minimize the attack surface. App Review supplements that, and also attempts to evaluate things like user experience quality. But it is not a thorough code review.

[WayneG]

@webwalrus

“the masses” just don’t care about anything other than a website working. The reasons are immaterial…

+1

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[Glimfeather]

@MurphysLaw

So either (A) Apple has to unleash Safari to make it worth web developers time or they (B) need to let real chrome on the iPad before anyone can consider it a “real” computer.

Or (C) get Blackboard — or whatever is calls itself this week — to make it Safari compliant. Or (D) your grad school moves to a better VLE such as Moodle.

[WayneG]

@karlnyhus

I have no experience with Chromebooks.

I evaluated a Chromebox (desktop version of a Chromebook) a few years ago when we had around 60 iMacs that were losing support. The only apps still running on those Macs was Safari and Mail, everything else ran in a browser so they looked like a viable alternative.

It was secure (verified boot) and had better remote management than was available from Apple at the time. And with all data residing on our servers there was nothing for ransomware to attack. It could have easily replaced the majority of our Macs. I can see why they would be popular with schools.

Chromebook hardware (and quality) covers a fairly wide range, from a few hundred dollars to $1000 plus for enterprise models.

[Nick]

My dog once really did eat my homework!!

(well chewed it to bits)

[nationalinterest]

I’d like to use a couple of Chromium extensions on my iOS/iPad OS devices but cannot because… well… Safari.

I used Safari on my Mac for a long while, but was surprised just how much faster Edge was. With the appropriate settings, I’ve not noticed any decline in battery life either.