Rival coders must have Europe-based staff to build and test non-WebKit surfing

The Register has learned from those involved in the browser trade that Apple has limited the development and testing of third-party browser engines to devices physically located in the EU. That requirement adds an additional barrier to anyone planning to develop and support a browser with an alternative engine in the EU.

It effectively geofences the development team. Browser-makers whose dev teams are located in the US will only be able to work on simulators. While some testing can be done in a simulator, there’s no substitute for testing on device – which means developers will have to work within Apple’s prescribed geographical boundary.

… as Mozilla put it – to make it “as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari.”

  • Chewy
    6•6 months ago

    My Pixel 4a is slower with GrapheneOS than stock. Disabling GrapheneOS’ Secure App Spawning helps noticeably.

    With newer hardware it’s likely not noticeable. (The 4a is old and even only receives security updates by GrapheneOS (no firmware updates by Google), so I really should replace it at some point.)