Linux developer Hector Martin discovered that YouTube was “intentionally restricting Firefox on Asahi Linux.” Martin, also known by the pseudonym Marcan, says YouTube is reducing the video quality and resolutions available to Firefox users on Macs with ARM-based systems, at least when they’re not running macOS. Meanwhile, Asahi Linux is a project developed to provide a “good Linux experience” on Apple Silicon (ARM architecture) Macs.
ARM architecture devices are now more powerful than before compared to x86. In fact, Apple’s ARM-based chips are capable of handling x86 CPUs. However, it seems that the YouTube team is reducing the image quality on devices with this type of processor; This is the case when not using macOS, although this is not always the case.
Marcan confirmed that YouTube was acting on ARM codes by modifying the browser user agent (UA) and doing some A/B testing. “When Firefox UA parameters are set from ‘aarch64’ to ‘x86_64’ you suddenly get 4K resolution and everything!” the developer said. says.
Digging a little deeper, the expert checked the code responsible for the function for ARM and noticed that YouTube serves 1080p videos by default on x86_64 machines. But for ARM devices, the default was only 240p. Marcan thinks this is unnecessary given the power of multi-core ARM processors in modern devices.
Analyzing the YouTube / Firefox on Arm relationship, Marcan wondered how Google’s own Chrome browser reacts when running on ARM hardware. Finally, he discovered a little hack: “Chromium behaves like x86_64 on aarch64.” So YouTube playback in Chrome using Asahi Linux defaults to 1080p playback and can be set to 4K. As a result, a bug report was submitted to Mozilla for Firefox updates.
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