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Except you’ve actually changed nothing. Apple forces all third party browsers on their devices to use WebKit (the Safari engine) for the backend, so really all changing browsers does is give you a reskin under Apple’s thumb.
While Gecko should absolutely be made available for iPhone, it’s worth noting there’s nothing wrong with WebKit per se. It’s open source (forked from KHTML), servers as the base for among others the GNOME Web browser, and is not a monopoly player (outside of iPhones).
In some messed up way, Apple’s WebKit insistance has helped competition in the browser market by making sure there’s at least one popular platform where Blink is not dominating…
Damn, I never saw it that way. In that regard the EU regulation could actually harm the browser market, because it lowers the incentive for service providers to support anything but Chrome. At the moment that would exclude all iPhone users (which hurts business, because that’s a lot of users with large pockets). But then they could simply shrug and tell their users to install Chrome. 😐️
In the other way, there are multiple hacky workarounds needed for bugs Apple is too lazy to fix, since everyone has implemented workarounds on their end. I guess the pendulum swings in both ways… luckily, there are enough people using firefox on desktop , so that at least gecko is supported basically anywhere (this would still apply to webkit since most iPhone user just use the standard and don’t bother installing alternative browsers, except if their business uses Microsoft which forces you to have edge installed to open links from teams)
Actually, I have. It gives me better tracking protection than vanilla Safari, it allows me to use SearXNG, and it means I can set a custom homepage. Also, for some reason, Safari has no private mode on my phone.
Not to mention that Mozilla is working on a Gecko-based version of the browser, as Apple is being forced by the EU to allow sideloading, third-party app stores, and third-party browser engines.
Safari has pretty decent tracking protection built in actually.
I love FireFox and I love my iPhone, but the iOS FireFox app is objectively terrible. I realize that fact is completely Apple’s fault though.
Firefox on Android sucks. I make a Google search, images show up in the results. I click an image and it doesn’t open up, just freezes the browser until I click the back button.
Is that a Firefox issue or Google making proprietary standards that only work with chromium based browsers?
I think Google is trying to be anti competitive. I have noticed similar issues when using Firefox with Google Docs.
Take a look at what a former Mozilla exec had to say on the issue: https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-mozilla-exec-google-has-sabotaged-firefox-for-years/
It’s great because I guess your user agent is now Firefox, but actually Apple only allows one Browser engine
I don’t give a flying fuck about whether I’m using Gecko or WebKit. Both are open-source.
As for why I’m using Firefox over Safari, it gives me better tracking protection than vanilla Safari, it allows me to use SearXNG, and it means I can set a custom homepage. Also, for some reason, Safari has no private mode on my phone.
Not to mention that Mozilla is working on a Gecko-based version of the browser, as Apple is being forced by the EU to allow sideloading, third-party app stores, and third-party browser engines.
I recommend mull over firfox for mobile. Has many of the patches from torproject and arkenfox user.js, and it is released by the divestOS project. All id add to it is ublock origin.
fdroid: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/
Edit: I see people saying OP is on ios. If so it isnt available and wouldnt do much anyways saidly. Keeling this comment for others who use android.
