It really struck a bad chord for me. Rather than update your permissions model or consider how best to implement, being a browser that simply won't do WebUSB or WebMIDI or half the sensor APIs is an awful thing to me. I know a lot of people don't feel like those add value to them personally, but as someone who likes and believes in the web, the hard-line we're-against-it bandwagon-joining stance was disgusting to see, from a company I had until then trusted & thought was able to navigate complex situations.
Firefox has most of these implemented now. Which is great. As a Linux user, I used to never be able to update most of my consumer devices. But because of WebUSB, a good number now have web updaters, and I also am not scared these companies are installing a bunch of spyware/adware just to update the appliance firmware.
WebUSB and WebBluetooth really are amazing, and are one of the few reasons I occasionally fire up Chrome.
I don't get the objection either: Unlike for e.g. notification access (which is frequently abused and which Firefox does implement!), I can't imagine websites demanding USB access in exchange for, I don't know – discount codes?
Comments
Firefox tagged along after Safari put out an insulting piece trumpeting how much better they were for not implementing a bunch of web APIs. Lacking good links so far but here's this, https://usefulangle.com/web-updates/post/80/firefox-decines-...
It really struck a bad chord for me. Rather than update your permissions model or consider how best to implement, being a browser that simply won't do WebUSB or WebMIDI or half the sensor APIs is an awful thing to me. I know a lot of people don't feel like those add value to them personally, but as someone who likes and believes in the web, the hard-line we're-against-it bandwagon-joining stance was disgusting to see, from a company I had until then trusted & thought was able to navigate complex situations.
Firefox has most of these implemented now. Which is great. As a Linux user, I used to never be able to update most of my consumer devices. But because of WebUSB, a good number now have web updaters, and I also am not scared these companies are installing a bunch of spyware/adware just to update the appliance firmware.
WebUSB and WebBluetooth really are amazing, and are one of the few reasons I occasionally fire up Chrome.
I don't get the objection either: Unlike for e.g. notification access (which is frequently abused and which Firefox does implement!), I can't imagine websites demanding USB access in exchange for, I don't know – discount codes?