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Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#361

Post by anothernewdude »

paxys wrote: post #154
selfhoster11 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subtitle of the question was "What would you do if you were in charge of Mozilla? How would you save Firefox?" My answer is an attempt at addressing these two questions. My goal wasn't to make Mozilla more profitable, but to ensure that it's focused on what should be its core mission, rather than the mire of sideshows that they engage in at the moment. Also, I don't care how Mozilla the amorphous blob of a corpor…

As a regular end user why do I care about what Mozilla's mission is? Apple makes shiny devices, Google gives me great free services, and in return I use their (perfectly great) browsers. What is one single reason to use Firefox? As long as these large companies continue to put effort into their browsers (which Microsoft didn't do with IE), users are simply never going to switch, the same way no one is using desktop L…

> the same way no one is using desktop Linux or LibreOffice or DuckDuckGo.

Have you seen how bad Google results are these days?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#362

Post by marcosdumay »

BlackLotus89 wrote: post #102
nikanj wrote: post #13

Every time I restart Firefox, I get about 8 different prompts for "See what's new!" "Reset your Firefox profile now!" "See our new diversity initiative now!" etc. It feels like opening a Windows Me installation from 2000. I just want to get browsing done.

about:config Search for mstone (browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone) and set it to "ignore" (without the quotes) am not sure why this has to be done this way and I don't have it disabled since I want to know what's new, but hope it helps. Oh and browser.disableResetPrompt and set it to true. Create it if it doesn't exist

Honestly, I gave-up on editing about:config.

As soon as I do it, the non-dismissable "let's reset your profile" message pops up again. There's no point.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#363

Post by jonassalen »

makx wrote: post #342
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck, I'll do it for a mere million dollars. The market has spoken. I can't do much worse than losing 85% market share.

You'd think that there are even qualified people who would do it for (almost) free, just for the chance of building a resume...

As a professional that gets offers like this ("it will be good for your portfolio") I hate this comment.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#364

Post by WJW »

makx wrote: post #342
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck, I'll do it for a mere million dollars. The market has spoken. I can't do much worse than losing 85% market share.

You'd think that there are even qualified people who would do it for (almost) free, just for the chance of building a resume...

There's a weird type of logic going on where almost everyone who would be willing to do it for almost free is probably not qualified for the job. Would you really stake the future of your foundation on someone who still needs to build their resume?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#365

Post by jonassalen »

Jensson wrote: post #332
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck, I'll do it for a mere million dollars. The market has spoken. I can't do much worse than losing 85% market share.

Do nonprofits really care about the market? Not sure how that works, what would it take to replace her if she doesn't want to be replaced?

The professionals that work in those nonprofits do. If you want a capable manager or SEO, you need to pay a correct market price.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#367

Post by jamesgeck0 »

weaksauce wrote: post #145
cassianoleal wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Chrome there's an icon you click to switch. Honestly, if someone would create a FF extension that was just that, it would probably cover 90% of what's considered superior in Chrome.

have you used container tabs? those are effectively "different profiles" for what most people consider them. It's still shared extensions and history and bookmarks but you can login with different accounts in different tabs and it keeps that separate.

An important UX difference is that Firefox's default "New Tab" keyboard shortcut doesn't respect the container of the current tab. I've found that it's really easy to accidentally switch back to the main container.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#368

Post by sirwhinesalot »

jonassalen wrote: post #363
makx wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think that there are even qualified people who would do it for (almost) free, just for the chance of building a resume...

As a professional that gets offers like this ("it will be good for your portfolio") I hate this comment. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Apparently you get monkeys if you pay millions too...

Re: Ask HN: Why is Firefox losing marketshare and how would you save it?

#369

Post by selfhoster11 »

Shared404 wrote: post #300
carapace wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I understand the situation but I'm doubtful that browser engine diversity is compelling. It seems like duplicate effort. As long as Chromium accepts pull requests, what's the problem with browser monoculture? (In case it's not clear, I'm asking in earnest. I'm not trolling.) - - - - edit: Okay, pull requests alone are not enough, but the objections y'all are raising seem like they could all be answered by…

I know it's in bad taste to complain about downvotes on HN, but why is this downvoted? It's a legitimate question, in a realm that many people including in HN's general demographic don't consider. If someone wants to learn something, why not help them instead of downvoting into oblivion because they don't know or disagree with something you know/believe? Edit to respond to edit: The biggest reason I think is that the…

I think it's the opposite. A lot of the HN demographic has in fact mulled this over time and time again, and has no patience for those who don't account for the possibility that one day, the monopolist will stop being a nice guy when there is every incentive to do that.

I would rather educate than downvote, but downvoting has gotten to be more emotional than based on the site guidelines, so not everyone sticks to that.

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