seanmonstar

Feb 14 2013

∞

“
What we know for sure is this: monocultures always make more & faster progress in the near term when they’re stewarded by strong, vibrant leaders. But over time you get stuck. Companies change, sensibilities change. And then you’ve got all the technology, and all talent, and all of the best thinkers, all trapped on one technology stack.
—John Lilly on everyone switching to WebKit

+

∞

Hey -o-, let’s go! →

David Storey:

Only one browser engine remains where the dominant contributions come from an independent vendor who don’t have a vested interest in a large native ecosystem.

It’s a much more thorough breakdown of why Opera’s switch to WebKit isn’t a good thing.

Feb 13 2013

∞

Sure, everyone thinks that since WebKit is currently rocking it, that everyone should just switch to it, and stop “wasting” time competing. The truth is, that’s what happened to IE6. It was the new hotness when it came out, but without competition, it sizzled.

A more recent example: CSS gradients. If there were no competing browsers, the de-facto standard of gradients would be what the WebKit came up with, instead of the saner version in the specification.

Hey -o-, let’s go! →

Opera Switches to WebKit →