Firefox doesn't need to be No 1 – and that's OK, 'cos it's falling off a cliff

it all makes perfect sense

Take a good browser, first choice of many people who knows a bit about computers. Than make it look and behave like a phone browser with hamburger menu, knowing it's intended for desktop use with a mouse. Than make it refuse addons because they are dangerous, even though the user knows the risk and wants (needs) them. Than kill the parent e-mail client.

What do you expect ?

I moved to Seamonkey.

I'm not sure why the article is unclear on why Firefox has lost market share. Continuously changing UI, dropping full plugin support, plus (my personal reason I dropped Firefox) continuing to use a single monolithic process (rather than a process per tab as Chrome does which is more secure and much less likely to crash the whole browser).

Still using 3.6.28

Cause it's faster and smaller.

And it has better menu/buttons/layout

It is small, fast, definitely suits the more techie mindset, but is buggy as hell.

I have myriad first line web sites I visit where only Firefox has problems, from simple display of content without going non responsive to non-functional chat services. Frankly I am tired feeding the almost endless list of web sites to the developers. Reresh made no difference so it is Firefox not an add-on. I tried Opera for its built-in VPN, but it is slow and clunky and lacks a lot of what I love about Firefox such as remembering which directory I store from which web sites. Chrome? Too "hip" and magical with much happening under the covers. Maybe I should give in and use Edge? (Just kidding).

Chrome and google make me uncomfortable.

Opera 44 on Linux

And here's the test results of Opera 44 on Linux :

http://i.imgur.com/wt8d1eZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/G6WJ02v.png

Opera 44 on Linux needs nspr4.12, nss-3.21.1, sqlite3-3.10.2, openssl-1.0.2e-2, glibc-2.14.1 (or higher), libxcb-1.11.1 libx11-1.6.3, python-2.7.9, curl-7.28.1, glib2.0-2.32.1 , gtk+2.0-2.24.5, cairo-1.10.2, libpng-1.2.46, pango-1.28.4, GConf2-2.32.5, curl-7.28.1 , gdk-pixbuf2.0-2.22.1 , freetype2-2.4.5. But not gtk3 and python3 like the newest Mozilla Firefox 54.0+ and Thunderbird 52.2.1 need. In addition Opera uses flash-player-ppapi-25.0.0.171 and ffmpeg-extra and can activate widevine from the Chrome browser for your platform. Currently i'm using opera-widevine-58.0.3029.110.

Why is Firefox, despite being faster than ever and using less memory than Chrome, losing ground?

Because it isn't true. Firefox leaks memory like it's going out of fashion. It grabs and doesn't release memory (because "unused memory is wasted memory"-duuhhh, Firexox isn't an operating system!!!). It doesn't use separate processes for individual tabs/windows to allow easy and reliable recovery of memory.

Hmmm

The real reason is that the deep state in which google/chrome is an intricate part is a critical component in their ongoing spying/control/manipulation of the masses. Firefox with its endless add-ons still has the ability for a savy user to block such activities. Therefore firefox has to go......

FIREFOX AND GOOGLE AND OTHER AMERICAN TECH INTERNET COMPANIES

Years ago, I used Firefox and was quite happy with it.

But as I built some sites on Blogger (Google) I began to experience difficulties.

Google undoubtedly deliberately designed part of the system to make life difficult for Firefox users.

It is the same anti-competitive, bully approach which has always been part of the Microsoft culture.

Well, I more or less was forced to use Chrome then, but it marked the first time I was seriously disillusioned with the idea that Google was a model company of the tech age.

Its original slogan - a good one if you do apply it about doing no evil has long since disappeared.

Google, while supplying some marvelous services, does lots of evil, and we know it has become almost a vest pocket extension of CIA.

It seems as though ethics in companies just cannot survive in the United States.

All its leading tech Internet firms do smarny and even creepy things - Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Amazon, by the way, once shared for me Google's early reputation. I thought it a truly excellent outfit.

But, it too, has proved to indulge in the whims of spoilt owners and developers.

As Lord Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Only Firefox is available on my OSes of choice

Not from Mozilla, of course, but still available.

I'm not switching back until new FF is as much better than Chrome as Chrome was than old FF

This is bullshit:

"Firefox's decline is not an engineering problem," writes Gal.

+++"It is easier to retain customers than to get them back once they leave."+++ Mozilla engineering was never told this maxim and now the entire company is paying the price.

I waited and waited for FF to improve its terrible performance and to improve its security by making FF 64-bit viable with full plug-in support.

And after a couple of years of inaction by Mozilla Engineers I tried Chrome 64-bit, and indeed Chrome was far faster for me than FF. There would be huge time savings every week if I switched.

So reluctantly I switched from FF to Chrome.

It took effort, finding new plug-ins, getting Chrome set-up in a way I liked. +++I'm still pissed-off about Chrome's lack of suitable Zoom options (increments are way too big and cannot be changed).+++

Having gone through the effort to switch I'm not switching back until there's a new FF that is as much better than Chrome as Chrome was than old slow FF.

FF doesn't have to match Chrome's performance and features, they have to exceed them greatly.

"It is easier to retain customers than to get them back once they leave." Remember that if you want your employer to stay in business.

Probably more to do with attitude

I remember many years ago, Novell were asked if they were going to change the way their network worked to make it more cooperative with other systems. Their response was " we have the lion's share of the market and therefore are doing it right, so no we will not be changing." That attitude did not serve them so well in the long term. Similarly I had issues with Firefox and got into discussions with the developer community regarding the USPs they were dropping with no good replacement. Their attitude was " we are the best programmers and therefore we know best. Nothing you old people know is relevant to us anymore." From the comments it looks like they have continued on with their cavalier attitude. Firefox hasn't been on my radar for nearly 10 years now and I haven't missed it at all.

Don't blame Chrome for me not using Firefox anymore!

Chrome is NOT the reason I can't use Firefox anymore--though I would prefer Firefox! Here is why I can's use Firefox anymore-the #@&*%! SHOCKWAVE FLASH Freakin' PLUG-IN! Every time I use Firefox..."Shockwave Flash has crashed....yada yada yada.." Can't watch videos. Can't download newsites with their stupid ADS in Shockwave Flash! When Firefox gets rid of Shockwave Flash, let me know! Then I'll go back to using Firefox, because, yes, Chrome is okay but vulnerable, and really that Mark Zuckerberg psychopath and his "get rid of useless eaters" (99 percent of humanity) meme is sickening...why doesn't come right and say he worships Satan, because he does!

Do they count those who opt out of Telemetry reports? because I bet those are the majority of their tech savvy users that they are not counting then.

Will use Firefox till death. I refuse to submit my whole life data to Google. (anymore than it already is)

I still prefer FF due to because customizable than any browser around. But Mozilla needs to work on solving some persistent problems with FF. Memory is a still a big issue. A easy way to fix this would be include memory free as part of the install or as a recommended addon. The other problem is that there this sites that FF refuses to load. Video often refuses to work with FF as well.

It's SHA1

I've stopped using Firefox because of its insistence on ONLY connecting to non-SHA1 websites. Anytime a browser STOPS you from doing something - its lifespan is limited. I HAD to go to Chrome at work because of this.

Firefox sux in Win 10

Read article, switched back to NEW BETTER Firefox 54. Still hangs, won't scroll ("wait a couple seconds, hon, I gotta scratch an itch"). I have no idea how good ole Firefox turned into a complete POS. Back to Chrome.

"Of course, as the ancient Betamax vs VHS format wars demonstrated, having a superior product does not translate to market share."

And we see how it ended for Betamax!

Google has name recognition, Firefox doesn't!!

I get mad at firefox, but the others aren't any better

Leave Firefox running in the background for any length of time and you will quickly see that it has more memory holes in it than a politician's alibi. It can leak a couple of gig and lock my mac up if I leave it overnight. Opera isn't much better, and I won't use Chrome, but it is not just the browsers fault. When I go to a news site or a blog, I do not want it to look like something out of Harry Potter; If I wanted to watch a video I would turn the fccking telly on.

But yeah, it would be nice if they could stop these browsers leaking like a sieve.

Updates

it'll be years before I move post-Firefox 57 because of Mozilla's decision to drop "legacy" add-ons. Since the power of add-ons are a big part of Firefox's appeal, I won't be upgrading until all the plugins I use have been updated.

That's a pretty bad idea. No, make that very bad. And then to say so in public... 8.

Whatever your browser, you really do have to apply security updates - unless they're not released for your version, in which case get the supported version. You may be really attached to some plugin or other but you're probably quite attached to the contents of your bank account too...

(OK yes "Unless you're super-disciplined and never login to anything you care about on the machine with the flaky browser & never do any financial transactions", etc etc.)

I switched to Pale Moon after the beta of the most recent legacy add-on switch-off resulted in 8 out of 10 of my extensions being declared "legacy", a few of them refusing to work, and Firefox randomly crashing within a few minutes of opening. I had already reduced my add-ons as I was willing to give the new browser a try, despite repeated protests to the Mozilla. However, the fact so many problems cropped up at once led to it no longer being my main browser. In the past I would have given leeway, but it felt like one change too many despite vocal opposition from users.

That being said, I have no brand loyalty to Pale Moon; the dev seems arrogant and snarky throughout his website, seemingly unable to resist making digs at how his set up and process is superior to Mozilla. It gets tiresome pretty quickly. I have never had a problem with WebExtensions, just their implementation of it, and having more sympathy for devs who have already had to make major rewrites because of Mozilla changes over the last few years. "Proudly" declaring "we will never support WebExtensions" frankly comes across as childish... Meanwhile a whole page is devoted to why having tabs underneath is superior, and why having an add-on bar is superior, before at the very end saying "...But nonetheless you can have it how you want". I prefer tabs on top, I prefer my add-ons to the side of a combined addressbar... Now, by the fact he delivers a product which is now far more relevant to me, I now am happy to use his browser. However, a company with a "head" person with those kinds of attitudes isn't ever going to win my support.

Mozilla, meanwhile, I always have a fondness for. It is fine not to be popular. It just feels the jumble of changes they have made to the browser in the last few years haven't put the user first. When they should.

"it'll be years before I move post-Firefox 57 because of Mozilla's decision to drop "legacy" add-ons. Since the power of add-ons are a big part of Firefox's appeal, I won't be upgrading until all the plugins I use have been updated."

THIS - *EXACTLY* THIS.

Speaking as someone with disabilities, I ****NEED**** certain add-ons. Notably those that allow me to read web-pages with ease [as well as the in-built 'zoom text only'], and - more specifically, VideoDownloadHelper - so that I can actually HEAR videos by playing them in VLC with it's LIFE-CHANGING volume boost function.

This is the one I'm worried about the most - try finding an add-on that lets you download from Youtube in the Chrome store.

That's along with Adblock Plus [as an anti-capitalist, I block ALL ads], Noscript, Stylish [again, for my eyes] and other customisations - MY Firefox, MY internet, I'll view it how ****I**** like, thank you.

While I've tried and rejected Chrome, Opera was ok for a while, I'll stick with Firefox, but, turn updates off.

Simply trusting that add-ons that I *NEED*, that make me feel less isolated, will still work after an update - especially with recent changes - is simply not an option for me.