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Every OS is a first tier platform for mozilla.

by zxcvcxz 10y ago

nickpsecurity 10y ago
Mozilla is a business. They likely prioritize where they invest effort based on where their ad revenue comes from. Doing otherwise can hurt the business. kibwen implies that most revenue is from Windows users. So, Mozilla wants the Windows experience rock solid. That they have two, serious competitors on that platform reinforces that need. Fortunately for us, they also put plenty of effort into making it work on less-popular platforms like my Linux desktop. I'm grateful even if it's lower priority. :) Note: I'd be curious what OS's most Firefox and Rust developers use.
- dikaiosune 10y ago
  That question may be answered soon (although the survey is also targeted at people not using Rust): http://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/05/09/survey.html http://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/05/09/survey.html I think it's about to close in the next couple of days. wink wink nudge nudge
- zxcvcxz 10y ago
  Well I've used Firefox on both Linux and Windows for years and the Linux version is better than the Windows version. More polished, faster, feels better integrated. The windows version is great too, but I believe a lot of the developers respect open source philosophy and therefore we get first class software for opensource operating systems. Chrome on the other hand sucked on Linux for a long time (but was really good when it first came out). Chrome is pretty good nowadays but still takes three minutes to start, whereas firefox just opens up. I don't use a lot of other mozilla software except rust (a little) and from what I remember they had spotty support for Windows when Rust first came out, but this is true of pretty much all new languages unless Microsoft creates it.
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    I also thought Firefox ran better on Linux a bit. I decided to test your Chrome claim on my Core Duo 2 box running Ubuntu. I just downloaded Chrome from Software Center. First run took 2-3 seconds to usable browser. Something is wrong with your PC, distro, or installation. "but I believe a lot of the developers respect open source philosophy and therefore we get first class software for opensource operating systems" That's probably true to some degree. That the least, there might be more developers on FOSS boxes testing it which spots more problems. Hypothetical as I have no data on Rust to test it with.
  - zokier 10y ago
    > Well I've used Firefox on both Linux and Windows for years and the Linux version is better than the Windows version. More polished, faster, feels better integrated Do you have any numbers on the "faster" aspect? Most comparisons I've seen put the Linux version solidly behind Windows version. As for features, for example video playback on Linux Firefox has severely lagged behind Windows version. It's not very long time ago that I needed to make some "non-recommended" about:config changes to get youtube working. Even integration-wise I think I have had more problems on Linux than on Windows, file associations, copy-paste, and misapplied themes being most notable issues that come to mind. I'm pretty sure that I've seen even Mozilla say that majority of developer effort goes to Windows first, and it shows. While you anecdotally might have had good luck, I'd claim that is atypical
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      That's all true. I was referring to regular web surfing and such. Video and integration are substantially better on Windows.
- Sylos 10y ago
  I can tell you that Servo, for the longest time, had no build instructions for Windows, so at least among the developers working on Servo, Unix seems to be the clear winner...
- richdougherty 10y ago
  My impression is that the Mozilla developers are motivated by helping people and keeping the web open. To answer your question about OSes, most Mozilla developers who I've met run Linux or Mac OS on their machines, but they also try to use Windows sometimes because Windows is such an important desktop platform.
  - cpeterso 10y ago
    I work for Mozilla and estimate the usage of Mac/Linux/Windows by Mozilla developers is probably 50/40/10% respectively, whereas the general population of Firefox users is more like 8/2/90%. Windows XP is still about 15%, more than Mac or Windows 10!

Every OS is a first tier platform for mozilla.

by zxcvcxz 10y ago

Every OS is a first tier platform for mozilla.

Mozilla is a business. They likely prioritize where they invest effort based on where their ad revenue comes from. Doing otherwise can hurt the business. kibwen implies that most revenue is from Windows users. So, Mozilla wants the Windows experience rock solid. That they have two, serious competitors on that platform reinforces that need. Fortunately for us, they also put plenty of effort into making it work on less-popular platforms like my Linux desktop. I'm grateful even if it's lower priority. :) Note: I'd be curious what OS's most Firefox and Rust developers use.

dikaiosune 10y ago
That question may be answered soon (although the survey is also targeted at people not using Rust): http://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/05/09/survey.html http://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/05/09/survey.html I think it's about to close in the next couple of days. wink wink nudge nudge
zxcvcxz 10y ago
Well I've used Firefox on both Linux and Windows for years and the Linux version is better than the Windows version. More polished, faster, feels better integrated. The windows version is great too, but I believe a lot of the developers respect open source philosophy and therefore we get first class software for opensource operating systems. Chrome on the other hand sucked on Linux for a long time (but was really good when it first came out). Chrome is pretty good nowadays but still takes three minutes to start, whereas firefox just opens up. I don't use a lot of other mozilla software except rust (a little) and from what I remember they had spotty support for Windows when Rust first came out, but this is true of pretty much all new languages unless Microsoft creates it.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  I also thought Firefox ran better on Linux a bit. I decided to test your Chrome claim on my Core Duo 2 box running Ubuntu. I just downloaded Chrome from Software Center. First run took 2-3 seconds to usable browser. Something is wrong with your PC, distro, or installation. "but I believe a lot of the developers respect open source philosophy and therefore we get first class software for opensource operating systems" That's probably true to some degree. That the least, there might be more developers on FOSS boxes testing it which spots more problems. Hypothetical as I have no data on Rust to test it with.
- zokier 10y ago
  > Well I've used Firefox on both Linux and Windows for years and the Linux version is better than the Windows version. More polished, faster, feels better integrated Do you have any numbers on the "faster" aspect? Most comparisons I've seen put the Linux version solidly behind Windows version. As for features, for example video playback on Linux Firefox has severely lagged behind Windows version. It's not very long time ago that I needed to make some "non-recommended" about:config changes to get youtube working. Even integration-wise I think I have had more problems on Linux than on Windows, file associations, copy-paste, and misapplied themes being most notable issues that come to mind. I'm pretty sure that I've seen even Mozilla say that majority of developer effort goes to Windows first, and it shows. While you anecdotally might have had good luck, I'd claim that is atypical
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    That's all true. I was referring to regular web surfing and such. Video and integration are substantially better on Windows.
Sylos 10y ago
I can tell you that Servo, for the longest time, had no build instructions for Windows, so at least among the developers working on Servo, Unix seems to be the clear winner...
richdougherty 10y ago
My impression is that the Mozilla developers are motivated by helping people and keeping the web open. To answer your question about OSes, most Mozilla developers who I've met run Linux or Mac OS on their machines, but they also try to use Windows sometimes because Windows is such an important desktop platform.
- cpeterso 10y ago
  I work for Mozilla and estimate the usage of Mac/Linux/Windows by Mozilla developers is probably 50/40/10% respectively, whereas the general population of Firefox users is more like 8/2/90%. Windows XP is still about 15%, more than Mac or Windows 10!