Hacker News Reader

Comment by eitland | Hacker News Reader

I don't have much problems (Firefox on Mac) but seeing how many others complain I guess it is just a matter of time before I get moved to another A/B testing "experiment" testing how much I can endure before I give up and switch to Chrome (it won't happen).

Seeing how many of the users report the problem goes away if they let Firefox report as Chrome I personally am rather sure this is intentionally from Googles side:

Yes, I believe there are some real bugs, but I also think Google do take advantage of "useful" bugs to force us over to Chrome.

So I have decided to put my money where my mouth is and since last month I am a nebula subscriber. I am also considering Patreon.

Please consider doing the same, and please do write competition authorities in your country and do ask about when they will look into Googles rampant abuse of market position.

View on HN

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

I feel its far more likely Google devs are just lazy and don't bother to test in Firefox, much like devs at pretty much every company these days. Unfortunate, but (probably) not part of some deliberate evil plan.

On the other hand: https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-mozilla-exec-google-has...

this is right for individuals, not corporations like those where every single decision is reviewed in meetings. you should actually apply the opposite for them : guilty unless proven innocent

Devs are lazy, but management systematically underfunds the web test team to keep it difficult to test on other browsers.

Never apply Hanlon's razor to that which can be adequately be explained by disregard for the consequences.

Sufficiently profitable stupidity is indistinguishable from malice

No I think the lack of testing is due to laziness but a concerted effort to minimally test FF. Which comes down to malice.

Now, if YT and Chrome were distaste companies, then we might not have this problem...

Hanlon's Razor is for applying to single instances.

When you have a long-standing pattern of behavior, you need to start using critical thinking, instead.

Is there a benefit to Google from breaking Firefox?

Yes, clearly.

Does Google have the technical competency to avoid breaking Firefox if they want to?

I would say this is very likely.

If you misapply Hanlon's Razor where it's no longer appropriate, you're liable to cut yourself off from the truth.

At a certain size, making sure ones company doesn't destroy whole ecosystems should be a management responsibility.

Also, as pointed out by others, when again and again these stupidities benefits the bottom line there is good reason to ask if someone somewhere doesn't have a bonus that goes up with every mistake.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com