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Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
181–190 of 207 posts
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Multi-process is being tested in Firefox Beta right now, according to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule .
While some progress is being made, it worries me that it's taking so long to get this functionality into the release versions. I'm not suggesting it should be rushed out, of course. But the Electrolysis efforts date back to 2009, if not earlier. That's a long time to make users wait!
I heard a nice description of Eletrolysis that at least partly explains why it has taken so long: it's the single largest change that has ever been made to Firefox.
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also had an advantage of being a friggin' fast browser. I switched in 2009 and never looked back beside occasionally trying out FF and nope'ing back to Chrome.
Firefox became faster than Chrome quite a while ago already. Not sure what you were measuring.
Honestly I just like Chrome's UI better... I have to use IE/Edge, Chrome, Safari and Firefox regularly to test things... I keep coming back.
I had higher hopes for FF android, as it allows plugins (adblock), but the browser is so horrible on the platform, I wound up switching back... I also tried dolphin for a while. Neither was satisfactory.
I just like chrome better...
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#184If Servo ever lands in Firefox I wonder what sort of impact that'd have on market share.
I don't think Servo will "land in Firefox" (it's possible, but it's a lot of extra work). However, components written in Rust (taken from Servo or written in scratch) may indeed land in Firefox -- there are a couple in Firefox today! (Except on Windows).
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Oxidation
(There are a bunch of alternative paths forward other than sharing components with Gecko that don't involve dropping it into Firefox)
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#185Firefox also sends enormous amounts of metadata about your browsing to the cloud and it's very difficult for non-savvy users to turn this off. They call it telemetry and 'safe browsing', but users overlook that every URL is checked against a database of URLs already in Google's 'safe browsing' repository. Firefox is not actually private and their business model can't allow for privacy, because they're in bed with Goo…
Safe browsing doesn't work like that; the list is stored locally. When something does need to be fetched, Firefox obfuscates what's being fetched.
Most of telemetry is on Nightly only, IIRC. The bits that are on regular Firefox are thoroughly vetted to ensure that they don't impinge on privacy.
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Largely hitting pause on FirefoxOS and Thunderbird and everything else not Firefox is also the right, if painful, thing to do. Unfortunately, that's not what they are doing. They are going full throttle on the nebulous "IoT" on an equal footing with Firefox (VP & all). Mozilla seems to have abandoned it's mission statement: email is still an important part of the internet and it is far from solved. Yet they killed…
Can you share some links or blogs or whatever to reinforce what you're saying here? I am not seeing IoT at all on the mozilla website or press releases. Perhaps Firefox itself is integral to the IoT? I was under the impression that FirefoxOS was on the backburner, not necessarily cancelled. FirefoxOS is a great idea, it's Mozilla's version of Android or WebOS. The fact that they didn't have a runaway success doesn't…
> Can you share some links or blogs or whatever to reinforce what you're saying here?
Yep, have a look at the leadership page[1]. They have an SVP for Firefox, and an SVP for Connected Devices - who is/was responsible for FirefoxOS. There is no SVP for Thunderbird - and this means politically, Thunderbird has no champion/sponsor at executive level, but FirefoxOS and IoT does.
> But regarding the attempt at building FirefoxOS, I wonder what else would you expected for Mozilla to do given their position? Are you grumpy that they failed at something big?
I'm grumpy because they put Thunderbird on ice with no replacement planned. Mozilla's mission[2] is "to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent". How on earth does putting Thunderbird into cold-storage help that mission?
I know they don't have infinite resources, but I question how they choose to distribute them when Connected Devices get some and Thunderbird gets none.
Edit: added reasons why I'm grumpy
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Largely hitting pause on FirefoxOS and Thunderbird and everything else not Firefox is also the right, if painful, thing to do. Unfortunately, that's not what they are doing. They are going full throttle on the nebulous "IoT" on an equal footing with Firefox (VP & all). Mozilla seems to have abandoned it's mission statement: email is still an important part of the internet and it is far from solved. Yet they killed…
The people count under the IoT VP (the group is actually called "Connected Devices") is about 70 people, ie. 7% of Mozilla Corp. You can not compare that with the 200+ people that were working on Firefox OS, and you can absolutely not compare that with the resources allocated to the core engine (gecko) and Firefox Desktop - I don't have the exact the numbers, but it's obviously most of the org. About "Mozilla could b…
> The people count under the IoT VP (the group is actually called "Connected Devices") is about 70 people, ie. 7% of Mozilla Corp
What's the headcount for Thunderbird? My point is Mozilla decided to drop email and chose to pursue Connected Devices as evidenced by their staffing decisions. The 2 decisions might be independent, but it still goes to show that Mozilla doesn't care about email. I know Mozilla is made up of individuals who would rather work on the new hotness, but it does make me wonder how committed they are to their mission statement. If Firefox wasn't raking in boatloads of cash, would it be dropped as quickly?
> About "Mozilla could be more"... sure, but more of what?
How about "more sensitive to their users current needs" or "more focused on their mission statement"?
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the thing is it's sadly not a lie. YouTube and such do work best with Chrome. Google's effective web vertical integration means they control every stage of the pipeline. They control the sites and the browser. They can deploy experimental tech in Chrome which nobody knows about and which only Google sites use. It's terrifying.
One example of "google only APIs" that I ran into recently is the chrome extension browserAction.openPopup API. This API is whitelisted (in stable) for use by the Google Cast extension. Extensions authored outside of Google cannot use it. This is creates an uneven playing field. https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=436489
That's nothing. One of the biggest injustices with Google Cast is that capturing system audio on Android is a whitelisted system-only permission and only Google Cast (and a couple system apps) are allowed access to this. Somehow screen video capture isn't a system-only permission.
Nobody other than Google (or your OEM) is allowed to build complete screen casting apps on Android. All third party solutions require you to output your audio through your speaker and capture it with your microphone, which is much worse quality, single-channel, and makes sound (I want to hear my device audio through the speakers of the device I'm casting it to).
It makes no sense, especially when any device on your network can emulate being a Miracast receiver and get access to the same audio data that you aren't allowed to access on your own device. In fact, Windows 10 insider preview currently includes a Miracast emulator just for this purpose of Android screen sharing.
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chrome also had the advantage of being advertised on Google.com.
anywhere i go without an adblocker begs me to install chrome and stop using whatever horrible outdated browser im using (according to the google ad), and how youtube, etc work best with chrome anyway thats quite a lot of powerful advertisement, on the sites people browse every day. its not too different than being part of the default install IMO ;-) and of course - chrome is a pretty good browser (though edge is actu…
Exactly. They used shady advertising technics to get Chrome installs, but now that they have them they paint themselves as the anti-spam warriors. Yet, every time I point out on hacker news how big hypocrites they are for saying their moto is "don't do evil", I get downvoted. It's frustrating to see a shady company having such a bullet proof brand. I hope this will change some day.
Re: Firefox tops Microsoft browser market share for first time
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Though I haven't found a way to change the Google search bar default app. There's a menu button "Open in Firefox" after you follow a link, but in Android M you'd get Firefox already by default. Also can't replace the Google bar with Firefox bar. Well I could change the launcher I suppose, but a bit inconvenient still.
You can make the Google search widget open links in Firefox again here: Settings -> Google -> Search & Now -> Accounts & Privacy -> Open web pages in app [turn this off].
Thanks a lot matthewn, that indeed does the trick!