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Comment by cmsj | Hacker News Reader

I say this every time a post like this comes up...

Google is the web. Chrome is the web. It shouldn't be true, but it is.... almost.

Safari, or more specifically Apple's requirement that all web rendering on iOS be done using WebKit, is THE ONLY thing standing in the way of Chrome's market share being functionally 100%.

If you care about the web, and one would presume that web developers would care deeply about the web, Safari ought to be your best friend, regardless of which of Google's "standards" it doesn't implement.

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Firefox is my best friend ...

If Apple cared as much as they say about privacy, they should install Firefox as a default not because Safari has privacy issues but because then Firefox's market share can grow, which is good for privacy.

Google has Mozilla on a leash.

> If you care about the web, and one would presume that web developers would care deeply about the web, Safari ought to be your best friend, regardless of which of Google's "standards" it doesn't implement.

It doesn't follow that you should support Safari blindly, without criticism, simply because they offer some competition.

It's reasonable to want competition to Chrome, but to believe that Safari is doing so very poorly.

As far as not-Google browsers go, Firefox is far, far better than Safari.

I just got an M1 Mac after years on Ubuntu, and decided to give Safari a go. I literally could not figure out how to search for an extension (the extension menu's search box searches the app store). I'm probably missing something obvious, but I'm quick to reject unintuitive consumer software so I'm typing this from Firefox.

I know Firefox will inevitably decline one day, but honestly it's still a great browser and the compat complaints are over-blown.

Apple's hardware and integration is incredible, but I don't understand why people like their software on its own.

The app store is the only place to get extensions. That’s why it’s directing you there to a launch page for Safari Extensions.

Yes, which is acceptable, but then if the extension you want is not in the curated sections you have to search for it as a general Mac App, AFAIK there is no "Safari Extension" filter.

This led me to accidentally install the LastPass desktop app, which I have much less in; I didn't see a LastPass webext despite being available on other WebKit browsers.

I’m gonna guess pretty much everyone’s web analytics disagrees with you. Our analytics still show a non-significant* number of users using something other than chrome.

* for e-commerce all customers matter

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