Gecko (Firefox's native browser engine) is also a mobile browser engine, and Apple's anti-competitive WebKit requirement prevents browsers such as Gecko-based Firefox from being released on iOS. By forcing the use of WebKit, which is much more similar to Chrome's Blink than Gecko is, Apple is indeed limiting browser engine competition.
Firefox on iOS is built with WebKit, not Gecko [1]. IIRC, it's because Apple doesn't like engines that are not WebKit. Chromium uses Blink, which is a fork of WebKit, so Firefox for iOS and Chromium are relatives in a sense.
True.
Unfortunately, Gecko doesn't have the weight behind it that Webkit has and the most contributions to Gecko stem from Mozilla itself.
Slightly off-topic: since a customer doesn't care what rendering engine they are using, I believe Firefox is making a mistake by not releasing a WebView based Firefox browser for iOS (like Chrome did). If only to provide tabs/booksmarks syncing.
Mozilla develops the Gecko browser engine, but Firefox on iOS uses the WebKit browser engine provided by the system. If Mozilla were allowed to use Gecko on iOS, they would, trust me.
Firefox for iOS is a browser from Mozilla, for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch mobile devices.[5] It is the first Firefox branded browser not to use the Gecko layout engine as is used in Firefox for desktop and mobile. Due to iOS security restrictions chosen by Apple (specifically the inability to set writable pages executable, which is essential for just-in-time compilation), Firefox has to use the built-in iOS WebKit-based rendering framework instead of Gecko.
Firefox on iOS is not Gecko. Like all other browsers on iOS, it is a skin on the OS-provided Webkit. This is because fast JS execution depends on operations that are illegal for apps to access.
I was mainly referring to how every browser app on iOS is forced have Safari underneath. The wiki page on Firefox for iOS [1] mentions this in some detail - it cannot use Gecko like it does on desktop and Android, it must use WebKit instead.
I use Firefox just fine on iOS. Sure, it's just user chrome and Firefox Sync, but those are the things I care a lot more about than the rendering engine.
I'd love to support Gecko on mobile too, as I've moved the vast majority of my desktop usage to it, but Webkit is still fighting the Blink/Chromium hegemony, too, and that's still fighting the good fight.
It would be like selling a Jaguar with a Ferrari engine; still a weirdo, but at least fully functional. You can't seriously claim Mobile Webkit to be to a (theoretical) Gecko-on-iOS like a Fiat to a Jaguar.
And people are not "too dumb to realize". The whole point of the HTML standard is to make sure that all browser render the same. The whole point of the standard, and all the efforts of all the browsers, go towards a single goal: making all pages render equal on all browsers, that is making people NOT realize there is a difference; the technical problem of different codebases exhibiting different behaviors in rendering is just that, a technical problem to be solved.
I maintain that the developer-centric position of focusing on Gecko and thus refusing a iOS port as "useless", is actually doing Firefox lots of harm in its adoption. Firefox is the product, not Gecko.
Moreover, even if Apple eventually lifted the restriction, you want to be ready that day; you would still have to port the whole browser in addition to Gecko, including non-trivial issues like the extensions, and coordinating a solution for using extensions on all mobile platforms require years; the ecosystem of extensions need to adapt and evolve over the time. Releasing, maintaining, optimizing and evolving a Webkit-based Firefox on iOS would be still a gigantic effort and would still bring benefit; you're then free not to use it, if you only need Firefox as a way to use Gecko.
All iOS web browsers are forced to use the Safari web engine, unlike on Android where the Firefox Preview (Fenix) and Firefox Focus are using a mobile-optimized version of Gecko called GeckoView.
Also, iOS Firefox doesn't allow the installation of add-ons.
Honest question: is it simply the fact you can't use a Gecko engine on iOS that makes it useless to you?
My impression is that the Firefox shell offered is still able to provide the various anti-tracking privacy features that many would point to Firefox for, and the variety of browser shells available should mean that you'd be able to find a UI to your liking if Safari's isn't.
At that point, the only thing I can see missing is a non-webkit engine. I get that that's an annoyance and definitely on the same anti-competitive level as 00s era IE, but by and large web developers account for it and it works acceptably. As much as I'd need it to for mobile browsing.
Would just be interested to know if there's something more I'm missing.
Er, I thought someone had already (like, years ago) written a version of Firefox for iOS that used Gecko, and the only problem was that they couldn't publish it in the app store?
There is a difference. Gecko might implement features that would allow sites to work and look better in Firefox (for example, smoother scrolling, better animations, new CSS/HTML/JS features and so on). But Apple doesn't allow other browser engines, and Firefox cannot use this as an advantage to compete with Safari.
Also, if Apple allowed other browser engines with better support for new features, then web developers might stop caring about supporting Safari. This might be another reason why Apple doesn't want other browsers on their devices.
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