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> In two or three years, Firefox will be a world-class browser again, and we will look back at the panic we had now and laugh. I was hoping Servo would be thei

> In two or three years, Firefox will be a world-class browser again, and we will look back at the panic we had now and laugh. I was hoping Servo would be their flagship in 3 years :/

lern_too_spel 11y ago
Servo would replace Gecko, not Firefox.
kibwen 11y ago
Servo is just the browser engine, an alternative to the component known as Gecko in modern Firefox. Mozilla isn't going to drop the Firefox brand even if they do end up replacing Gecko with Servo (which is hardly guaranteed). Though if anything, the move here makes it more plausible that such a switch could happen, because the whole XUL situation is probably the single largest blocker for a Servo-based Firefox. A standardized extensions API would also give Servo a free extensions ecosystem with minimal effort, especially if Mozilla pursues a GUI based on browser.html which could be shared with Servo immediately.
- cpeterso 11y ago
  > Mozilla isn't going to drop the Firefox brand even if they do end up replacing Gecko with Servo Microsoft rebranded IE as Edge to jettison both technical debt (like ActiveX) and IE's bad reputation. Conveniently, IE and Edge both have blue "e" icons so users are not confused. :) I wonder if Mozilla could successfully launch a Servo-based browser product with a new name to distance it from Firefox's historical reputation for memory leaks and broken extensions.
  - sanxiyn 11y ago
    Doesn't Firefox have a reputation for using less memory than other browsers these days?
    - icebraining 11y ago
      I don't think so, the reputation still hasn't matched the reality :)
      - oblio 11y ago
        I've definitely seen a lot of discussions where Chrome is considered a memory hog compared to Firefox. At least in the last 2-3 years.
  - zurn 11y ago
    Firefox has a pretty good reputation among users and web developers, despite risks of hitting bad extensions. Their problem amont end users is more the relative obscurity vs the big 3 commercial browsers. IE on the other hand has been a swear word for years.

> In two or three years, Firefox will be a world-class browser again, and we will look back at the panic we had now and laugh. I was hoping Servo would be their flagship in 3 years :/

lern_too_spel 11y ago

Servo would replace Gecko, not Firefox.

kibwen 11y ago

Servo is just the browser engine, an alternative to the component known as Gecko in modern Firefox. Mozilla isn't going to drop the Firefox brand even if they do end up replacing Gecko with Servo (which is hardly guaranteed). Though if anything, the move here makes it more plausible that such a switch could happen, because the whole XUL situation is probably the single largest blocker for a Servo-based Firefox. A standardized extensions API would also give Servo a free extensions ecosystem with minimal effort, especially if Mozilla pursues a GUI based on browser.html which could be shared with Servo immediately.

cpeterso 11y ago
> Mozilla isn't going to drop the Firefox brand even if they do end up replacing Gecko with Servo Microsoft rebranded IE as Edge to jettison both technical debt (like ActiveX) and IE's bad reputation. Conveniently, IE and Edge both have blue "e" icons so users are not confused. :) I wonder if Mozilla could successfully launch a Servo-based browser product with a new name to distance it from Firefox's historical reputation for memory leaks and broken extensions.
- sanxiyn 11y ago
  Doesn't Firefox have a reputation for using less memory than other browsers these days?
  - icebraining 11y ago
    I don't think so, the reputation still hasn't matched the reality :)
    - oblio 11y ago
      I've definitely seen a lot of discussions where Chrome is considered a memory hog compared to Firefox. At least in the last 2-3 years.
- zurn 11y ago
  Firefox has a pretty good reputation among users and web developers, despite risks of hitting bad extensions. Their problem amont end users is more the relative obscurity vs the big 3 commercial browsers. IE on the other hand has been a swear word for years.