Chrome will never be IE6. Both Firefox and Chrome do constant rolling releases. There's no more "This works with Firefox 4" because in a few years we'll see versions over 100 and they'll be irrelevant. They move up, just like the web, together.

Even MS Edge is on a rolling release with IE11 just sitting back there in its corporate shit role. Safari is really the last big browser not to move to rolling releases.

So long as Chrome/ium remain open source, it is absolutely impossible for it to become the new IE. Chrome itself has no magic that makes it a better browser than base Chromium if you aren't invested in Google's ecosystem.

I disagree that Chrome it will become stagnated like IE.

Microsoft had no desire to improve IE and make the web a more desirable platform than Windows. (I'd suggest it still doesn't)

Google, however, directly benefit from the web being a better place, and they know first hand that a dominant browser can be toppled. And the competition is fierce, with MS back to bundling and it's so easy to switch browsers now that there's (currently) a good compliance of standards and no such things as ActiveX.

> Microsoft had no desire to improve IE

Microsoft was given an ultimatum by the US Department of Justice to stop improving IE, because at the time people thought browsers and the web shouldn't be a part of an OS base install.

Microsoft started what Electron/Cordova/PWAs are continuing today, where the web is a first class application platform in nearly every OS, and nearly every OS needs to bundle a web browser as core functionality.

> Google, however, directly benefit from the web being a better place

…to serve ads. As long as the web remains the most universal platform for ad serving, Google's interests follow.

> now that there's (currently) a good compliance of standards and no such things as ActiveX

Let's not forget how recently Google tried to make NaCL, its own play at an ActiveX-like thing.

It's only recently we've "killed" Flash, and Oracle and others are still holding a lot of Enterprises hostage to Java applets.

Mozilla may be the only group without sin here, and they live in a glass house, to mix metaphors.

I've noticed some unfair rot in Chrome. Like not being able to remove the start page without a plugin.

Even if Chrome never stagnates, it’s not a good thing for it to be overwhelmingly dominant with competitors stuck in firmly the margins. It gives google too much power, regardless of its intentions. It might be more convenient for web developers (if I had a dime for every time I’ve heard of desires to ignore everything not chrome...), but what’s convenient for devs is rarely what’s best for users.