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Comment by sunnybeetroot | Hacker News Reader

Your second paragraph is incorrect and is explained why in your quote. Apple does allow alternative browsers, it does however restrict the rendering engine. Saying there is only one browser on iOS is like saying Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are the same browser because they both use chromium.

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That means I cannot install uBlock origin and other extensions on FF, so we can call it one way or the other, but it's restricting.

You got that right. I have an old basic 6th gen ipad with a cracked screen and slowly disappearing battery life but I refuse to get a new one until they drop the requirement for webkit because the web has become a miserable place without ublock. It's amazing that what was once a surfing champ has been reduced to almost unusable with all the trackers, frameworks, adworks, et. I'm mostly reading text, I should not need a super computer.

I see it as Apple allowing a facade around their browser. You can't really call Chrome on iOS as "Chrome" if it's still just Safari under the hood. It's like putting Ferrari body on a 2010 Honda frame. Is it a "Ferrari" or is it really a "Honda"?

No, I do not think it's fair to say that Apple allows other browsers, and neither does the DOJ.

People get confused by this because "engine" is being used too loosely (to mean totally different things).

> Saying there is only one browser on iOS is like saying Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are the same browser because they both use chromium.

This is the correct take, though. They ARE the same web browser, just with different skins.

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. Chrome and Safari on iOS aren't using Webkit because they both use the WebKit source and compile it into their browsers... They are both using webkit because Chrome offloads rendering to a WKWebView. Chrome on iOS is not rendering anything at all

> it does however restrict the rendering engine

This isn't a sufficient description. Apple actually requires all third-party browsers to use the WebKit framework. If they actually allowed browsers to use the WebKit engine, then you could make a new browser incorporating the open source WebKit engine compiled into it. But this is not allowed.

> Saying there is only one browser on iOS is like saying Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are the same browser because they both use chromium.

No, Edge and Chrome both use the Chromium engine. They are different browsers that incorporate the same engine. Edge can do this because Chromium is open source.

But Chrome on iOS doesn't have its own engine at all (not even the Webkit engine). It just offloads to the WebKit framework.

Microsoft __chose__ to use Blink, ostensibly because they felt that maintaining EdgeHTML was too costly. On iOS, you either use WebKit or your browser is technically and legally banned.

Chromium is open source and both Google and Microsoft do whatever they want to it as part of developing their browsers. WebKit on iOS is a closed source blob of rendering engine and assorted bits that it is not possible to deeply extend or alter.

WebKit is also open source. https://webkit.org/

Yes, you can use open source WebKit to make a browser for Windows or Mac.

You cannot for iOS. On iOS, you have to use the WebKit framework. Your app will not be compiled with any WebKit open source code.

None of what you said is incorrect.

Blink is the name of the rendering engine, not Chromium.

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