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> Personally, I don't see why this is the hill Apple's dying on. They seem to have put in a fair amount of effort into creating a problem and APIs to allow for other browser engines to exist as peers to Safari (allowing JIT, multi-process, hooks into Lockdown Mode etc), but then restricted that all to the EU. This one seems more ideological than financial (like the other DMA-forced additions Apple is doing).

The more I look at this, the more I am convinced that Apple is trying to use the EU as a testbed before agreeing to apply these rules in more places. Third parties can make a browser, but they'll do it on Apple's terms - in a safe way, that doesn't eventually become a nightmare to maintain. Crucially, access to hardware will be mediated through API's and certain things will probably never be supported because of security or privacy concerns - so don't bother asking.

Glares in the general direction of WebUSB...

> its not really clear to me what benefits users get from this

I really want to use a browser with uBlock Origin and NoScript, because the web is a fucking nightmare without them. To my knowledge, Firefox is the only browser that supports those on mobile, but it's Android-only, and I'm currently on iOS. Being able to use "real" Firefox on iOS would let me use the extensions I want.

You should give Kagi's Orion browser a try. Extensions were my biggest hangup using ff on iOS. Orion has been a joy since switching (supports ff and chrome extensions, they mostly work but I've encountered a couple bugs).

Thanks, I will give it a look.

Gave it a try and it looks like NoScript doesn't work :(

I do not have any of the extensions that I've come to love on desktop firefox on iOS. Whilst I don't get containers on Android, I get pretty much everything else. We can't have that on iOS just because Apple is a dick. I'd almost be OK with not being able to install a browser from the app store, but I find it humiliating that I don't even have the ability to compile my own browser, with JIT and all, and install it on a device I own.

People who think (for ideological reasons) that the web should be the world's primary software platform don't like Safari.

Personally I hate web apps, so I am fine with Safari.

>Safari (on iOS or Mac) hasn't stagnated

I'm not sure I'd agree entirely with this, and regardless you're beholden to Apple on whether they will deem it necessary to add standards. They prevented web notifications for a long time so PWAs couldn't send notifications, just to push you to their app store.

Maybe they are afraid that browser-hosted apps and services would cut into their app store profits.

"Google reportedly pays $18 billion a year to be Apple’s default search engine".

I'll let you connect the dots as to why Apple doesn't want other browsers to be able to beat Safari outside the EU.