> Chrome's dominance of the Web is very scary. Not as scary as IE's, since it's open source, but still, it's such a huge beast that it's almost proprietary through complexity. I don't know if there's an easy solution out of this.
Both Chrome and Android are open-source bases for proprietary platforms. Google very consciously blurs the line between functionality available across all Android devices or across all web browsers, and the functionality which you only get with their products (e.g. licensed Android with Play services, or Google Chrome).
Would it really have made a difference if Internet Explorer 6 was open source? Most of the features in Internet Explorer were copyable by other browsers, just as most of the Chrome-only API are copyable today. There's other reasons why Firefox and Netscape on Windows didn't support ActiveX controls and XML Data Islands, such as both those features being lousy ideas.
Both Chrome and Android are open-source bases for proprietary platforms. Google very consciously blurs the line between functionality available across all Android devices or across all web browsers, and the functionality which you only get with their products (e.g. licensed Android with Play services, or Google Chrome).
Would it really have made a difference if Internet Explorer 6 was open source? Most of the features in Internet Explorer were copyable by other browsers, just as most of the Chrome-only API are copyable today. There's other reasons why Firefox and Netscape on Windows didn't support ActiveX controls and XML Data Islands, such as both those features being lousy ideas.