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Is Firefox Doomed?

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Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#31
post #2

If Microsoft can be sued (and lose) for making IE the only/default/integrated browser on millions of copies of Windows - why does not the same apply to Chrome/Safari on Android/Iphone?

Having a monopoly in a market is not illegal. Using your monopoly in one market to win another (by not competing fairly) is illegal. This is precisely what Microsoft was convicted for.

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#32

I hope not. Currently nothing beats Firefox with Pentadactyl, Adblock Plus, Firebug, Tabmix plus combination. For real VIM geeks this is an insanely fast way to navigate the web and do online research.

Agreed I cant switch to Chrome because there is no exact Tab Mix Plus extension for it.

It's a more stable browser but I need Tab Mix Plus!

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#34

I hope not. Currently nothing beats Firefox with Pentadactyl, Adblock Plus, Firebug, Tabmix plus combination. For real VIM geeks this is an insanely fast way to navigate the web and do online research.

Same here. I'm using all of those extensions, plus a number that help increase web privacy/security, such as BetterPrivacy, Ghostery, HTTPS-Everywhere, LastPass, and OptimizeGoogle. There's no way to replicate that level of customization in Chrome. In fact, it's much worse because of all the tracking functionality Google's included.

> In fact, it's much worse because of all the tracking functionality Google's included.

[citation needed], because as far as I'm aware of there's no such "tracking functionality" anywhere in Chrome.

"In fact," claims like this without proof are pretty shitty.

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#35
post #5
post #2

If Microsoft can be sued (and lose) for making IE the only/default/integrated browser on millions of copies of Windows - why does not the same apply to Chrome/Safari on Android/Iphone?

At least on Android Firefox works really well, and thanks to the intent system can replace the default browser regardless of where in the system you open a link. This doesn't mean we wouldn't be in the old IE monopoly of "nobody downloads browsers"

Works really well as long as you don't have an armv5 processor that's unsupported because it can't automatically fix alignment mistakes.

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#37
post #20
post #9

Firefox isn't doomed. Not only is it still a good web browser that many (myself included) continue to use daily, inertia will keep it installed on millions of PCs. As far as I know, Mozilla and Google maintain good relations. Even if the deal that provides money from Google to Mozilla isn't renewed, I doubt they will entirely disentangle themselves from each other.

Firefox is doomed because its lost its developer foot hold, anecdotally most devs I know refer to it as a joke and use Chrome instead. Its a browser that relies on recommendation to exist, and it no longer is getting recommendation. On a technical note each version isn't really getting any better, historical problems have never been addressed, version fragmentation is occurring, on several matters its in direct confl…

Developer here, and I prefer firefox over chrome.

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#38
It's not doomed but it's not doing to well. The last versions have not been different enough to warrant new version numbers and Firefox 8, while being decidedly quicker for some tasks, has been incredibly slow for my mundane tasks.

I'm a hardcore Firefox guy, I've been using it and Mozilla since M6 but I changed to Chrome yesterday and, while it's not flexible and customizable as Firefox, it's Good Enough.

I hope it gets better - perhaps focusing on the browser instead of higher version numbers and striving to look like IE or Chrome. Until then, I'm a Chrome guy.

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#39
Opera made $50M last year in search revenue from Google, Bing, Yandex, Amazon, and a few others. They did that with about 53M users -- 2-3% usage share according to StatCounter and Net Applications http://grab.by/blcC

(screenshot from this Opera report PDF http://media.opera.com/media/finance/2011/3Q11_presentation.... )

Re: Is Firefox Doomed?

#40
post #37
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is doomed because its lost its developer foot hold, anecdotally most devs I know refer to it as a joke and use Chrome instead. Its a browser that relies on recommendation to exist, and it no longer is getting recommendation. On a technical note each version isn't really getting any better, historical problems have never been addressed, version fragmentation is occurring, on several matters its in direct confl…

Developer here, and I prefer firefox over chrome.

For developing I do as well, I think it may be a comfort thing for myself mainly. As far as I'm aware all the tools I use are available on most if not all other browsers.

The opinion of people calling it a joke isn't my opinion its what I keep encountering now, and opinions aren't truth, but a exaggerated emotions. So taking that onboard theres a feeling out there amongst a lot of people (although exaggerated) that FF has seen its peak.

I see the over the last few minutes my other post has been in the negatives and positives, so I guess its quite contentious probably for that reason. Opinions aren't fact but give an impression of what may be true.

As its not a bundled browser for the big OS's, anyone asking what other browser to use is only going to go off recommendation. Most people probably aren't even aware theres multiple browsers or simply do not care.

So another thing against FF will be the chrome ads on TV are probably a huge boon for its usage here. At a very least it will start conversation, and often lead to a recommendation.

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