Default Browser Follow-up

[Rick Spencer]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Jason Warner
> <jason.warner at canonical.com> wrote:
>> Hi All -
>>
>> Here's the latest follow-up on the default browser for 13.10 discussion.
>>
>> Some great points were raised about the historic pattern of updates around
>> Chromium.
>>
>> First, to get the formalities out the way, Firefox remains the default for
>> 13.10.
>>
>> Second, I'd like to talk about the Chromium issues raised. It was rightly
>> pointed out that there have been issues keeping up with Chromium changes.
>> The big issue was with Web Apps integration and some changing APIs. Since
>> we've introduced Web Apps changes like this have always caused us some
>> grief. Web Apps have always been an interim step until we were able to get a
>> more self contained web apps container. That work is planned for 13.10 and
>> progressing well[1]. This should be done for 13.10 and very much refined for
>> 14.04.
>>
>> Lastly, I do want to consider Chromium by default for 14.04 once the above
>> is no longer an issue. I sincerely believe Chromium is the better experience
>> for general users and should be strongly considered for our next LTS.
>
> You have not provided any criteria as to why Chromium would provide a
> better experience for general users. I think its important to note
> that so far there has been more opposition by developers and users to
> making Chromium the default.
Have these reasons not been discussed ad naseum? I think most
developers probably consider this a relatively minor decision that
Jason and the desktop team are well position to make. I don't believe
there will be any 100% consensus on this issue, and it's clear that
Jason has been very active in soliciting and considering input and
different points of view. At the end of the day, someone needs to make
a decision, and in Ubuntu, we must entrust the people doing the work
to make decisions.

>
> Without out any evidence of a greater experience I think it would be a
> poor decision to flip default on millions of users.
" Greater experience" is subjective so I don't think there will be a
lot of "evidence" that can't be counter pointed on either side.

I get that some people are passionate about Firefox. Some people are
passionate about Chromium. There were folks passionate about Banshee
and folks passionate about Rhythmbox. There were folks passionate
about Pdigin, and folks passionate about Empathy. The beauty of Ubuntu
is that a decision can be made about a default around which we can
rally for consistency and integration and low complexity for users,
but the default in no way limits anyone's freedom or their ability to
contribute to those projects that they care about. Deciding that
Chromium is the better browser for the default in Ubuntu is not saying
Firefox is a bad browser, or even that Firefox is not better for some
people in some situations.

>
> If you could provide some solid technical justifications that motivate
> this discussion having been started it might be helpful in understand
> why such a change is proposed. If there is something lacking in
> Firefox then perhaps a dialogue can be started upstream and I would be
> happy to help guide such a discussion.
I find that these kind of discussions are rarely effective and can
easily cause hard feelings. The problem when choosing between 2
similar pieces of upstream software is that it is rarely the case that
one of them stands still. So we've had situations where an upstream
implements requirements so that they can be default, but the
"competing" upstream meanwhile enhanced their product and so remained
the better choice. The first upstream then felt burned because playing
"catch up" did not work. So, when considering requirements, in my
epxerience it's generally better not to go down this road and rather
judge the products based on their current implementations, their
support models, and their road maps.

In terms of "why is the discussion started" we must acknowledge that
Chromium is a very popular browser, works very well, but did not exist
all those years ago when Firefox was included as default in Ubuntu.
The desktop team wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't asking
these questions.

Cheers, Rick