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Reynard: A real Firefox web browser for iOS 13 or later

59 pointsby AbuAssartoday at 4:36 AM16 commentsview on HN

Comments

dotditoday at 8:07 AM

A bit of context: Apple is being forced by different jurisdictions (EU, UK, Japan) to allow third-party browser engines. In all other regions it's still not allowed to use them.

Apple has been maliciously compliant, putting up roadblocks to testing and distribution. For example, the existing Firefox iOS app cannot be simply updated to use Gecko/Servo; it needs to be a new app.

As far as I know, none of the major browser vendors have released apps with their own engines on iOS. I suppose maintaining two (or more) different codebases for US, EU, etc. is not very attractive.

rock_artisttoday at 9:59 AM

I wonder if there's simple way in the EU or markets that allow non-appstore to install this without TrollStore or something that needs to re-certificate each time.

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rubnogueiratoday at 9:11 AM

This is great and long overdue for outdated devices!

Those devices are forced to use an ancient Safari version of WebKit which includes tons of vulnerabilities that are not patched anymore, and same time doesn't support modern ECMAScript functionalities.

With a modern browser engine, those old devices can be used for valid browser usage.

wolvoleotoday at 7:46 AM

The biggest question imo is why does Mozilla not do this

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cognitiveinlinetoday at 8:19 AM

Wonderful. I also learnt about TrollStore today - https://github.com/opa334/TrollStore.

Glad the apple ecosystem is being opened up (albeit unwillingly) by hackers.

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zb3today at 8:59 AM

Did it have to be notarized by Apple or there's a way to use that browser engine extension without it?