Igalia Chats: Web Ecosystem Health with Jeremy Keith and Stuart Landridge
Myself and Stuart had a chat with Brian about browser engine diversity.
Here’s the audio file if you’d like to huffduff it.
Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android: What developers need to know - Microsoft Edge Dev Blog
This is such a strange announcement from Microsoft. It’s worded as though they chose to use the WebKit engine on iOS. But there is no choice: if you want to put a browser on iOS, you must use the WKWebView control. Apple won’t allow any other rendering engine (that’s why Chrome on iOS is basically a skin for Safari; same for Opera on iOS). It’s a disgraceful monopolistic policy on Apple’s part.
A word to the Microsoft marketing department: please don’t try to polish the turd in the shit sandwich you’ve been handed by Apple.
Related links
Altering expectations by improving PWA on iOS | Responsive Web Design
Justin responds to a post of mine which was itself a response to a post by Luke.
I love having discussions like this!
trot
Working on this project is great but ten minutes into it and I already miss the resilience of the web. I miss how you have to really fuck things up to make a browser yell at you or implode.
Apple backs off killing web apps, but the fight continues - Open Web Advocacy
Hallelujah! Apple have backed down on their petulant plan to sabatoge homescreen apps.
I’m very grateful to the Open Web Advocacy group for standing up to this bullying.
Home Screen Advantage - Infrequently Noted
This is exactly what it looks like: a single-fingered salute to the web and web developers.
Read Alex’s thorough explanation of the current situation and then sign this open letter.
Cupertino’s not just trying to vandalise PWAs and critical re-engagement features for Safari; it’s working to prevent any browser from ever offering them on iOS. If Apple succeeds in the next two weeks, it will cement a future in which the mobile web will never be permitted to grow beyond marketing pages for native apps.
Also, remember this and don’t fall for it:
Apple apparently hopes it can convince users to blame regulators for its own choices.
Related posts
Implementors
Different browser vendors have different priorities.
Web App install API
It’s kind of ridiculous that this functionality doesn’t exist yet.
Rotten Apple
Apple are planning to kill mobile web apps. This is not an exaggeration. We must stop them.
A bug with progressive web apps on iOS
Opening an external link in a web view appears to trigger a reload of the parent page without credentials.
2.5.6
My response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s mobile ecosystems market study interim report.