Your take is quite naïve. The problem is that Google is controlling all the protocols. We're already in a situation where chrome, and consequently chromium, is "the most up to date browser" because Google has a heavy influence in dictating what those standards are. This is, of course, why people fork chromium in the first place, because it gives them a leg up not needing to build everything from scratch and allows them to pull in security updates and new protocols as Google releases them. But that last part is the problem.
So in a way you're right. But the owner is Google as long as you are forking chromium. Because they control to protocols. Maybe they don't own the roads, but does that matter if they get to dictate how all the roads get used and how all the maps are made? You don't need to own the roads to control them
>if they get to dictate how all the roads get used and how all the maps are made?
That power comes from the market share of Chrome, the product. It doesn't come from the market share of blink, the browser engine. If you want to challenge the power of Google you need an alternate product, and not an alternate browser engine. Maintaining an opinionated fork is cheaper than maintaining an alternate browser engine. This allows you to invest more resources into the product itself instead of the browser engine engine.
> you need an alternate product, and not an alternate browser engine.
Sorry?
The engine is what reads the protocols. It's how the internet is navigated. It is... the car to the road.
> Maintaining an opinionated fork is cheaper than maintaining an alternate browser engine
I believe I EXPLICITLY mentioned this.
> This allows you to invest more resources into the product
Incorrect.
It allows you to invest more time into a different aspect of the product. A browser isn't just a UI interface. It isn't just the style of the car. It isn't just the paint job. Chromium browsers are like taking the engine and drive train, chassis, power train, and suspension out of one car and putting it into a new body. Sure, that's a different car and saves you a lot of time and effort but the cars are going to have very similar performance and capabilities.
Let's put it this way. If Jeep was the dominating car company and decided all cars have good suspension and then Jeep, due to their "expertise in cars" got an unequal say in how roads were designed, then they might want to do things like make roads more rough and bumpy because their cars can handle it and a Porche couldn't. Does that make roads a better place? For everyone? No, that just kills Jeep's competition, further embeds their market dominance, and let's them dictate a critical part of our infrastructure.
You're so focused on the trees you've missed that they're part of a forest.
So in a way you're right. But the owner is Google as long as you are forking chromium. Because they control to protocols. Maybe they don't own the roads, but does that matter if they get to dictate how all the roads get used and how all the maps are made? You don't need to own the roads to control them