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Former Mozilla CTO: "Chrome won."

M

Madrin

Member
Wow had no idea Firefox had so little marketshare. I use Firefox because of the better tab management. The way Chrome handles tabs is asinine.
 
L

louiedog

Member
There was a period where Firefox became basically unusable on both machines I used. I was a die hard fan with no interest in Chrome because it was lacking a couple of extensions that I relied on. I tried every fix I could find, running a fresh install with no extensions at all, etc. and still had lots of problems with crashes, slowness, RAM use, etc. on both computers.

I begrudgingly went to Chrome which not long after caught up to Firefox in terms of the extensions I needed and I've been using it since. Now with my experiencing syncing to my phone and other features that I prefer it'd take something similar to send me back to Firefox.
 
S

SolidusDave

Member
Regarding desktop(includes laptops?), I'm quite surprised the Firefox numbers are so low / Chrome is that dominant.

I have both installed but I just can't get into Chrome. UI is weird to me and I would have to "learn" again how to customize my browser.
Whenever I don't like something in Firefox, I change it or add some feature. Even my most visited websites like youtube are customized via scripts to get my best experience.
I'm sure I can get close in Chrome but why the effort. Privacy from FF is an added plus.

I had my fair share of performance issues with FF in the past, but nowadays... meh. 64bit, runs well on a modern Windows 10 laptop. I have like 140 tabs open and everything runs smooth.


edit: would like to see a breakdown by country and OS.
My prediction is that FF and Chrome are not too far apart on non-mobile Windows platforms in several EU countries.
 
8

830920

Member
louiedog said:
There was a period where Firefox became basically unusable on both machines I used. I was a die hard fan with no interest in Chrome because it was lacking a couple of extensions that I relied on. I tried every fix I could find, running a fresh install with no extensions at all, etc. and still had lots of problems with crashes, slowness, RAM use, etc. on both computers.

I begrudgingly went to Chrome which not long after caught up to Firefox in terms of the extensions I needed and I've been using it since. Now with my experiencing syncing to my phone and other features that I prefer it'd take something similar to send me back to Firefox.
Click to expand...

Firefox does have a cloud feature for syncing your history, extensions, settings and so on, if that's what you're talking about.
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
I've been using Fire Fox for a long time, even though all the screw-ups but I'm still here. I've tried using Chrome several times over the years but I didn't like it.
 
R

Rush_Khan

Member
I used to swear by Firefox for a good 8 years between 2007 and 2015. Now I can't go back or use anything else. Chrome is just that good.
 
S

SodiumBenzoate

Member
This desktop-only chart should be in the OP, not the one that is there which counts mobile devices:
desktop-e1495690858671.png



Safari is only viable because of iOS. It's as dead as the rest on desktop.
 
S

Souzetsu

Member
I really liked using Firefox because of the extensions. But after a while, the performance kept getting worse and worse to the point that I have to use Chrome.
 
Z

zer0das

Banned
I installed Firefox on my phone just now. They stick a button in the droid overlay that opens a chrome tab. Right next to the Firefox tab. Seems a little anticompetitive.
 
L

louiedog

Member
830920 said:
Firefox does have a cloud feature for syncing your history, extensions, settings and so on, if that's what you're talking about.
Click to expand...

It's not that Chrome does a bunch of stuff that Firefox doesn't. The point of my story is that I preferred Firefox because I was extremely comfortable with it and it had everything I wanted. I only switched because it became unusable and I was forced to look elsewhere. Now I'm extremely comfortable with Chrome and it'd take something similar to happen for me to go back.
 
G

GKSilKamina

Member
They will have to pry Firefox from my cold, dead corpse.

Tried Chrome for little while and didn't care for it in the slightest. Guess if Firefox ever goes away I could give Vivaldi a go, or - god forbid - use IE.
 
D

DBT85

Member
Been on Chrome for a long as time and never use anything else, nor have I had a need to try anything else.

When I used IE I had good reason to try something else.
 
Tal Shiar Agent

Tal Shiar Agent

Member
Chrome just feels weird. I've been using Firefox since 2007, including on my phone. Don't plan to change as long as they keep supporting it.

If a website doesn't work on Firefox I won't use that website.
 
Rktk

Rktk

Member
One would imagine if Firefox disappeared, Google would end adblocking extensions there and then.
 
S

SolidusDave

Member
SodiumBenzoate said:
This desktop-only chart should be in the OP, not the one that is there which counts mobile devices:
desktop-e1495690858671.png



Safari is only viable because of iOS. It's as dead as the rest on desktop.
Click to expand...

The weird thing about this graph is that FF only recently overtook IE in market share. In my mind this has been always the case but FF never peaked over 30-40% I think. So basically they just got halved (in relative terms, as it's suggested that there is growth in absolute numbers) while IE has been in total freefall.
Chrome seems to have snatched all of those IE people up. I don't get why that didn't already happen during FF's peak / when there was no Chrome.
Edit: also no growth in Safari at all? I'm guessing blindly but haven't Macs gotten much more popular nowadays compared to 5-10 years ago? I guess it must be balanced out by growing markets of lower income countries.
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Not a good development. Hopefully Chrome loses some market share in the future somehow. Having only one dominant browser is not good for the web.
 
T

tuffy

Member
Even the article makes clear Firefox isn't really going anywhere:
From these graphs it's pretty clear that Firefox is not going anywhere. That means that the esteemed Fox will be around for many many years, albeit with an ever diminishing market share. It also, unfortunately, means that a turnaround is all but impossible.
Click to expand...
But Chrome is living in the same positive feedback loop that kept IE on top of the market for years and years. A lot of people use it, so a lot of developers don't always test on other browsers, so sites don't always work well on other browsers, so people go back to Chrome when sites don't work.
 
E

emag

Member
Eric Petitt, head of marketing for Firefox, wrote this last week:

I head up Firefox marketing, but I use Chrome every day. Works fine. Easy to use. Like most of us who spend too much time in front of a laptop, I have two browsers open; Firefox for work, Chrome for play, customized settings for each.
Click to expand...

But also:

Some folks might interpret ”browse against the machine" as a desperate cry, but it isn't. Firefox grew in users last year and Mozilla is financially healthier now than it has ever been.
Click to expand...
 
S

Sirpopopop

Member
Man... I think my time using IE was really short.

Started with Netscape for the longest time. Transitioned only at the emd to IE, then switched to Firefox ASAP until Chrome inevitably won.
 
W

wrowa

Member
I use Chrome for my personal browsing, Firefox for professional stuff (it's nice to have the histories separate, makes it easier to find stuff), Edge somehow has become my PDF reader and on mobile I'm using Safari.

Way back when I loved Opera, but that was many many years ago. Tried Vivaldi a year or so ago, but it felt pointless.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
firefox got too bloated/crashy, chrome keeps stuff on multiple devices which is neat but i don't run many plugins and it's already feeling bloated too...kinda think this thing is inevitable
 
A

Apathy

Member
Firefox drove me away for two reasons. One, it devices to mimic chromes ui. If I wanted that I would use chrome (and I subsequently ended up on chrome just due to nothing else being as good). Second I got a pretty specific issue to me where for some reason my profile and any subsequent one I made just lagged terribly on my machine, even when uninstalling and reinstalling it just could not get fixed. Even updating didn't fix it. I decided it was too much work trying to talk to anyone at Mozilla to fix the issue. It used to be my favorite and preferred browser :(
 
K

krameriffic

Member
tuffy said:
Even the article makes clear Firefox isn't really going anywhere:

But Chrome is living in the same positive feedback loop that kept IE on top of the market for years and years. A lot of people use it, so a lot of developers don't always test on other browsers, so sites don't always work well on other browsers, so people go back to Chrome when sites don't work.
Click to expand...

These comparisons are so laughable to me. Completely different era of software, computer usage, and of development. There was no market for browsers in 2001. Their were enthusiasts who even know that alternatives existed and there were people who used what was boxed in with Windows. Nobody actively chose IE6. People choose Chrome because it's a good browser. People develop for it because its development toolkit and support is better.
 
F

firelogic

Member
I'd use Chrome if it wasn't for the fact that navigation via gestures on my trackpad doesn't work in it. Scrolling up and down works but going back/forward pages doesn't. I still use Firefox because of that.
 
L

lord pie

Member
I'm curious where the majority of internet users installed chrome.
I believe Adobe flash updater installing it by default quite a while ago, I certainly remember having chrome silently installed as part of other programs on two occasions. Absolutely despise the practice, and they all do it :/
 
K

Kyuur

Member
Does that IE line include Edge?

Chromium is great (I'm using Opera) but I hope Firefox will continue to develop regardless. Either engine tends to have major bugs pop up from time to time so its nice to be able to switch between them when that happens.
 
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