Browser-compat-data: Deprecate unmaintained Chromium browsers?

[vinyldarkscratch]

I'm really curious about what others think about dropping other web browsers aside from the main ones, such as UC Browser and QQ Browser. Since they are derived from Chrome (specifically Chrome Android), updating them independently may not be needed.

These browsers include the following:

• Samsung Internet
• QQ Browser
• UC Browser
• Chinese UC Browser

[Elchi3]

I'm not sure about the Chromium-based browsers. In fact, I think, they have decent marketshare (varies largely on country) and we should keep them.

For Edge Mobile, it might make sense to drop it. Would be cool to get a word from Microsoft on this. I'll try to find an answer.

[vinyldarkscratch]

I see what you mean. What I'm thinking about is that they're browsers based upon Chrome, and I think that they would follow the same data as Chrome Android, based upon whatever Chromium versions they derive from.

Maybe this won't be as important with the browser engines.

[Elchi3]

They are based upon Chrome, but there are differences sometimes actually. Otherwise, we could indeed drop the data and programmatically expose version numbers based upon a chrome mapping for those interested in chrome derivative browser versions. However, right now, we don't know these differences. Adding the engines to the schema and mirroring where we think we should mirror, will eventually reveal the differences (that's my hope at least).

[vinyldarkscratch]

I went ahead and separated Edge Mobile into its own issue to keep its discussion separate. As far as the Chromium browsers, I'm curious to test this out a little, see if we can find some differences between Chrome Android or WebView and one of these browsers!

[jpmedley]

There are instances where Opera deliberately removed things when they ported. I've also been told by Samsung folks that though they start with a particular Chromium version, they've been known to pull features from later versions. As for other Chromium forks, who knows?

[vinyldarkscratch]

Yeouch, that certainly makes it confusing for Samsung Internet. Why wouldn’t they just update the Chromium version as a whole rather than the specific features? 😫

[jpmedley]

They do what's judged to make money. That's all I know.

[HM100]

Samsung Internet is always a few Chromium versions ahead, as usual 😉.

[Elchi3]

The browsers listed in the first comment aren't really a priority this year, but I don't think we want to remove them at this point. Closing here.

[jpmedley]

UC dominates Asia. As some point this repo should have 100% coverage for UC features. I have no idea how to achieve that.

[Elchi3]

I agree whole-heartily. I hope we can get to that next year.