====== Browser Monoculture ======

===== The Problem =====

Chrome controls ~73% of global desktop browser market share. Add Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) and the figure exceeds 80%. Mozilla's Gecko (Firefox) is the only viable independent rendering engine.

Developers test and build for Chrome only. Agriculture teaches us how dangerous monocultures are.

===== The Engine Breakdown =====

^ Engine ^ Browser(s) ^ Creator ^
| Blink | Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi | Google |
| Gecko | Firefox | Mozilla |
| WebKit | Safari | Apple |

===== Why It Matters =====

When one company controls the dominant rendering engine, they effectively control which web standards are implemented, which APIs exist, and what the web can do. [[protocols:start|Alternative protocols]] sidestep this entirely — they don't use browsers at all.

===== See Also =====

  * [[protocols:smallweb:uri_schemes|URI Schemes Beyond HTTPS]]
  * [[protocols:smallweb:old_hardware|Low Hardware Requirements of the Small Web]]