Default Browser Follow-up

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. Our next vUDS is August 27th-29th. I don't feel a need to have another session on it, this mailing list should suffice. To that end, feel free to continue this discussion and raise more thoughts. Thanks everyone, Jason On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Jason Warner <jason.warner at canonical.com>wrote: > Hi All - > > Just about a month ago we had our second ever vUDS and one of the topics > was a possible switch to Chromium as the default browser[1]. > > As promised, here is the follow-up email to the mailing list. > > In the past few weeks I've seen quite a few articles and comments on the > possible switch, and in light of those I'd like to focus this discussion a > few ways. > > 1. This is NOT about which browser is better. > 2. This is NOT about which browser has more features or X, Y or Z feature. > 3. Openness and freedom are still part of our core values. However I'd > rather not turn this thread into a "who is more open/free" debate. > > What is important, and ultimately should be the deciding factor, is the > common end user experience. Which browser, in the common case, will be the > best for the general end user? Things I consider relevant to this > discussion are quality/stability/robustness, familiarity, ease of use, and > overall user experience. > > The secondary case to consider is web developers. I firmly believe that > web developers would use both browsers on a regular basis, though do they > generally prefer one browser to another? I don't consider this case to be a > deciding factor, but rather could push one over the top if there isn't a > clear front runner. > > I stated in the original vUDS session that I was leaning towards a switch > to Chromium. Several weeks later and I'm still leaning towards Chromium. > I'm looking for feedback either way based on the outline above. > > I'd like to reiterate one point: Neither browser is going away. If > Chromium is the default, Firefox will continue to be available to those > choosing Firefox. Vise versa for Chromium. > > Thanks everyone, > Jason > > [1] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XeM75ukJwYg > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/attachments/20130812/4e2bad28/attachment.html>