Google and Microsoft Have Destroyed the Open Web (Chrome-ism Still Growing)
THIS month's preliminary data (from statCounter) shows Microsoft's Edge down and Chrome up - almost to all-time highs.
This should be a cause for concern. Firefox remains below 3%, the Web is becoming Chrome, and Microsoft has begun locking out GNU/Linux users and people who don't use some Chromium-related browser. As Arjen Wiersma has just put it: "This post is just a small note for those of you who also run Microsoft Teams on Linux through their browser and now receive a note “your browser does not meet the requirements for the new Teams”. It turns out that the client is looking at the user-agent string to determine which browsers it accepts, and which not. So, if you have the message, install an user-agent switcher and select a common browser on a common OS (from the MS perspective) and you will suddenly meet the requirements."
Teams is proprietary both at the back end and the front end. As for the browsers on the Web client, they're either proprietary or OSPS.
To call this "cross-platform" is missing the point. It's almost like calling Office "cross-platform" because of WINE.
The more Chrome grows or the more dominant Chromium-based browsers become, the worse off the Web will be. █
