[monopoliessuck]

I mean, it's not just Google that does this nor is this an Alphabet invention. This is merely Assimilation 101. The "Chinese patience" towards heterogeneous minority groups and their customs is a commonly referenced one, but this "boiling the frog" is really the only way to guarantee things change while mitigating serious rebellion.

Another good example is how the Rashidun Caliphate granted conquered Zoroastrian Persians Dhimmi or "people of the Book" status. I'm sure it seemed kind at the time since Zoroastrianism is obviously not "of The [Abrahamic] Book". This merely postponed persecution of the unconverted until such a time as they were disperse, weak and with less sovereign resolve. They got a worse and worse deal as the centuries wore on.

I'm not justifying Google here, but this is really every hegemon's SOP: corporate, tech or cultural.

I'm just as mad with Microsoft forces me to use a Windows account after juggling the slow creep Mojang deprecation, when Mozilla gives you fewer and fewer ways to install apps outside of their extension store until it's a Nightly-only feature, or when [your favorite app] is acquired by [your least favorite company] and starts down a path you'd *never expect*. It's all garbage.

[3OCSzk]

Sorry for getting out of topic somewhat, But how many users would benefit if Mozilla gives many more ways to install extensions from unfederated source? That sounds like browser malware disaster from 2010s to me

[monopoliessuck]

It was a slow boiling. Today, there's no way to install an unsigned extension in Firefox at all, you now have to use Developer Edition binaries. For a company that says the end user should be the decider and hold the keys, Mozilla sure likes limiting our options. There was a way to place them in a directory for awhile, then a cli flag, then an about:config flag, then a few other inconvenient options that ultimately ended up being snuffed out.

Even Chrome has a flag you can flip and install an unpacked extension from file. Sending this stuff up to Mozilla for them to grace or relegating developers and corporate users to some unbranded or esoteric dev binary is offensive to the end user IMO. I mean, it's not even federation, just centralization. Sure you can host it on your webpage, but it needs to be signed by the mother ship either way.

Firefox removed "about:config" from Firefox on android as well. Maybe we'll get a cli flag escape hatch for a year when they do the same on desktop. Not trusting the end user in the name of security is not a Google-only play despite all the Moz Marketing.

[hda2]

This has been Mozilla's MO for a while now. They even did it with add-ons on Firefox for Android. First they allowed add-ons. Then they took them away but promised that they will open up soon. Then the locked them down some more.

These days I don't use Firefox because I want to, but because it's the least worse choice.

I'm confident their hostile behavior towards user control is one of the reasons why they're hemorrhaging users. And no, giving users way to change UI colors not control. It's a fucking pacifier and an insult.