The firefox browser doomed?

[Davezilla]

Yes, I am sure it does as I have the word of you and many other trusted friends (mods on this site) that it performs exceptionally for the most part and if it wasn't for all the added bells and whistles that I don't use, I would have seriously considered using it and I did consider it very much but never actually pulled the trigger for reasons stated.

I think that you can just download the SM browser without the composer & mail etc.

In the mean time, have you considered the NASA Night Launch which is an INCREDIBLY smooth and well done dark theme that goes beyond the minimums of expectation.

It looks nice but I'm not overboard on dark themes. I might give it a spin though.

However, I guess some people don't want it to seem like a copycat and that's why they might be resistant to incorporating something from Fx that might make it feel like they are losing their own identity.

That's a good point. I think that many of the old guard of SM fans were Netscape Navigator users & are still lamenting its demise. Fx has a lot of compatibility on the Net though & it is now virtually as usable as IE. I don't see what's wrong in using the same rendering engine to give SM that compatibility or more modernisation. Otherwise it will end up like K-Meleon & start to show its age. I love KM but it just isn't working properly in sites I use regularly, like Hotmail or Gmaps, these days.

On the other hand, they figure probably, why mess with a good thing and why try to "fix" something that isn't broke, so I can respect that position too.

I can respect this position but I think the traditionalists will have to move a bit with the times, otherwise SM will be doomed & potentially lost as a none-bloaty alternative to Fx.

[Davezilla]

Firefox doesn't seem to be doing too badly though!

[GµårÐïåñ]

Firefox doesn't seem to be doing too badly though!

I would attribute any gain or more like stagnate share of the market as those who have either invested so much time into it and/or developers and those who wish to try it and see what all the hoopla is about. If you look at the numbers, the share lost by M$ is only a small and statistically insignificant part of Fx's growth, which has practically remained steady and unchanged. I would attribute it also to the fact that most people are holding their ground waiting to see if it will get better or if its going to keep declining in quality or those who don't care and wouldn't know the difference if it sat on them and then there are those who are reliant on their "IT experts" to tell them what they should do and as long as the "experts" remain loyal or keep pushing it, its likely to stick around, even if in a pathetically small portion of the total. Whatever the excuse, their share of the market is hardly mind-blowing or overwhelmingly in favor of Fx, most of the other browsers have shown more consistent growth and taking of the share lost by M$. Just think how LONG it took for IE to loose its market share over the years and you'll see that ANY product has those who will either by choice or blind ignorance continue to use it until they are personally burned by it or there is overwhelming negative against it, I mean come on is there ANY browser on the planet with more negatives against it than IE and STILL it hold 60% of the market. Now before anyone gives the broken record excuse that "its bundled with the OS" think, do you use it because it is bundled? Do I? Does ANYONE who cares? What many don't realize is the shift in market and usage is directly proportionate to how many geeks and know-it-alls are rooting for or against it. Hell even Fx was nothing more than a pet project until "experts" starting recommending it, and many of those same experts have been vocal AGAINST Fx now, so who to believe? I say yourself, do the legwork and decide one way or another. Just take a look below and see if you see what I see BEFORE, I get accused of substituting belief over facts or whatever else...

[Davezilla]

I would attribute any gain or more like stagnate share of the market as those who have either invested so much time into it and/or developers and those who wish to try it and see what all the hoopla is about. If you look at the numbers, the share lost by M$ is only a small and statistically insignificant part of Fx's growth, which has practically remained steady and unchanged.

It seems to be steady-ish at about a quarter of the market. That's not bad.

Whatever the excuse, their share of the market is hardly mind-blowing or overwhelmingly in favor of Fx, most of the other browsers have shown more consistent growth and taking of the share lost by M$.

Fx does seem to have 'peaked' a bit though. I know a lot of people who are now using Chrome (or a Chromium derivative) who used to use Fx.

Just think how LONG it took for IE to loose its market share over the years and you'll see that ANY product has those who will either by choice or blind ignorance continue to use it until they are personally burned by it or there is overwhelming negative against it, I mean come on is there ANY browser on the planet with more negatives against it than IE and STILL it hold 60% of the market.

It's bundled with the OS....

Now before anyone gives the broken record excuse that "its bundled with the OS" think, do you use it because it is bundled?
Just take a look below and see if you see what I see BEFORE, I get accused of substituting belief over facts or whatever else...

Disraeli is often attributed with the saying "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I think the plain fact of the matter is that a huge majority of home users just press the 'blue' Internet button & are only dimly aware what a browser is or does. They are probably too technophobic to try anything else. There is a whole generation who seem to have an irrational fear of the Internet & computers in general. In that light, for an Open Source alternative browser to gain even a quarter of the market seems to be quite an achievement.

[luntrus]

Hi Davezilla,

Well hard times ahead for Fx - the coming five years will be harder than the previous five years.
That pessimistic view is resounded here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/is-f ... cline/8344

IE9 and GoogleChrome are steaming ahead. Will Fx's market decline sharply under the growing competition of competitive browsers.
Will we again see the timid browser development of former days or will the 400 million users hang on to the Mozilla browser?
Here is an opposing optimistic sound: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/18/future-of-firefox/

How do the users here see the future for the Fx browser?

luntrus

[Davezilla]

Hello Luntrus,

Those articles were quite interesting. I think that it is quite funny that Fx was originally developed as a lightweight alternative to the Mozilla Suite. Considering SeaMonkey is lighter & in my opinion faster than Fx these days! I think that they need to put the bloaty Fox on a diet!

Chrome is very fast & light, it is seen as a viable alternative now by many. I don't know about IE 9, I do hope they make a better job of it than they did of IE 8.

It's difficult to predict what will happen in the future.

[Davezilla]

More bad news for Fatty-fox!

[Davezilla]

& even more bad news ...

[GµårÐïåñ]

I hate to be the one to say I told you so, but ... I told you so, its only a matter of time before Fx gets more and more dumped for other technologies. Now the funny part of that is that they are being abandoned for an incomplete and weak solution, which in itself is a major insult. I mean how bad do you have to be for people to ditch you for a barely functional product that is NOT you. Now mark my words, if Chrome doesn't get off their ass and do something right soon, they will end up the same way. *SIGH* is there no one that can do the job of making a good browser and do it well?

[Davezilla]

Yeah, even Ubuntu are rumoured to be ditching the Fox. Article

[Davezilla]

So, what do we reckon about the impending release of Fx 4 then?

[dhouwn]

See for yourself, last beta before RC is going to be released soon.

[Davezilla]

Yeah, I have had a look at it on my laptop. It seems fast, I quite like the GUI (I think) & the Ajax Scripting bug (sometimes known as the 'Twitter Bug') that caused my 'My Yahoo' page to appear to be constantly loading seems to be fixed. As soon as I can put NoScript & an adblocker on it it will be fine. I may try the SeaMonkey Alpha next!

[Davezilla]

OK, I'm quite impressed with Firefox 4. WOT, NoScript & ABP are working fine. I can't seem to get the WMP plug-in to work though, even though I downloaded it again. Maybe the fatty Fox isn't doomed after all? The new GUI will take some getting used to though!

[Davezilla]

OK, I figured out the WMP plug-in, I uninstalled it & re-installed, that seemed to do the trick.

It has never worked in SeaMonkey though, not even in 2.1 beta 1 ...