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Comment by mattmcknight | Hacker News Reader

It's bizarre to suggest this. They don't need Google's money to compete in browser development. The hard part is competing with a free product. If someone comes up with another way to offer the browser for free, or offer features that make someone want to pay, they can compete. Chromium is already open source. Moving Chrome out of Google does nothing that benefits anyone.

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I think offering a simple web browser for free isn't that difficult. That was in place since the 20th century. What will be hard is continuing to develop a web browser that matches the feature set of a browser whose advanced functionality is propped up by the most extractive industry in modern times. That industry has a purpose in funding these advanced features, and while it has opened up a lot of power for individuals it has come at a great cost.

Microsoft isn't exactly a garage startup - and they weren't just dethroned by Google, they actively tried to compete and gain back ground afterwards, building an entirely new browser in the process (pre-Chrome Edge) and offering it for free.

All for nothing, in the end even they had to give up and switch to white-label Chromium.

I am not sure they had to give up, but my initial experiences with Edge weren't great. There are some interesting claims of bad behavior on Google's part, but I wasn't only seeing problems on Google properties. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18697824

> All for nothing, in the end even they had to give up and switch to white-label Chromium.

How is that a loss? All Microsoft wants is a controlled space to push their own products/services. Google gave them a tool to do just that for free. Microsoft would absolutely be writing its own (probably worse) browser if Google wasn't so generous to give them on without Microsoft having to incur any development cost.

Don't say they were generous, that was a completely strategical move. By having more browser adopt their engine they can have a better control on ads and ensure they keep a way to profile users. Goal obviously shared with microsoft which knows the engine is in the best hands for their needs too.

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