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Mozilla needs to stop chasing Google in this never ending quest to turn Firefox, quite literally, into the winning combination that is Chrome. Just because Chr

Mozilla needs to stop chasing Google in this never ending quest to turn Firefox, quite literally, into the winning combination that is Chrome. Just because Chrome is a winning formulation, doesn't mean it is the only one. My armchair example is themes... both chrome and ff now look like alien invaders of corporate identity on my desktop. While that makes sense for Google, it hurts Mozilla's image with the community of hackers/tinkers that love Firefox for features just like that one; features that quietly say, "its your browser, you likely know best". Especially because themes worked reasonably well for so long(at least from the users perspective, I'm told the implementation was fragile). Maybe its time to go all in on the hacker community and make Firefox, a "Linux first" browser. The PC market shrinking, no one is arguing that. Trying to squabble over pieces of an ever shrinking pie is not a recipe for success. This is especially true for Mozilla. All its competition can simply forget about their browser products and still be profitable. A failed Firefox likely means Mozilla disappearing for the digital landscape. I propose that the Linux/Hacker community is the logical conclusion of PC itself and, by proxy, the PC browser market. Long after everyone has gone tablet or whatever, the last hold out of the PC market will be the Linux diehards, why not cater to them from the get go? You are going to be catering to them when all is said and done. As a tangent, a great starting "performance feature", which is what all this e10s stuff is getting at, would be vaapi support for hardware accelerated video on linux. You can't really call your browser fast when it chokes the CPU on any 4k video. The the only browser to currently support it on linux... sigh... chromium.

toyg 9y ago
> make Firefox, a "Linux first" browser. I don't know, in many ways that's exactly what the original Mozilla was, to little success. When the project steered to Phoenix / Firebird / Firefox and focused on Windows, things improved pretty dramatically. I didn't like the "betrayal" of the suite at the time, but it can't be argued that project velocity got so much better afterwards. "Linux first" would be a step back both technically and commercially (after all, FF pretty much own that entire niche already, there is no growth to be found there).
remir 9y ago
Let's go further; I believe Firefox should compete against ChromeOS. The web is the ultimate platform, Mozilla should know that, but now it's more and more Google's platform. The reality is that Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are great computers for the masses. They're safe, secure, always up to date, no virus. They're great for the elderly, schools, public libraries, etc. You can buy a 85$ Chromebit dongle you plug into an HDMI port in your TV and you can browse the web on your big screen, watch Netflix, etc. Where is Mozilla? Nowhere.
- callahad 9y ago
  We tried, in part, with Firefox OS. We failed.
  - sliken 9y ago
    Seems like Firefox OS should have been like Mint. Build on someone else's hard work (ubuntu or debian), tune it for an inexpensive platform (like the most popular netbook/chromebook/cheap laptop) and then work on on what makes it easy to use and useful. Things like a nice default desktop, integrate some cloud storage, automatic backups, user friendly tutorials, etc. Generally being incompatible with whatever platforms applications (iOS, android, or debian/ubuntu) is a kiss of death. People need their apps and developers need aren't going to cater to a new minority platform with approximately zero users.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  On the other side, Google now require cast devices to have Google controlled private keys so you can't use Chromecast without using Android or Chrome. This means there couldn't be a compatible "Mozillacast" implementation.
mdibaiee 9y ago
regarding use of hardware acceleration, that's the reason Mozilla is working on Servo, the (only?) browser engine that runs on the GPU - http://servo.org/ http://servo.org/
newscracker 9y ago
> Maybe its time to go all in on the hacker community and make Firefox, a "Linux first" browser. Considering that one of Mozilla's funding sources is tie-ups with Google and Yahoo (and others?) for placement as default search engine and getting money from those searches, a "Linux first" strategy could probably become a financial disaster. I'd rather have Mozilla continue to exist (there's no other company/foundation of equal competence and values to "save the web" to whatever extent possible). I'd prefer Mozilla to focus on providing great native experiences on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android (sorry if I missed other larger platforms where Firefox is available and used).

toyg 9y ago

> make Firefox, a "Linux first" browser. I don't know, in many ways that's exactly what the original Mozilla was, to little success. When the project steered to Phoenix / Firebird / Firefox and focused on Windows, things improved pretty dramatically. I didn't like the "betrayal" of the suite at the time, but it can't be argued that project velocity got so much better afterwards. "Linux first" would be a step back both technically and commercially (after all, FF pretty much own that entire niche already, there is no growth to be found there).

remir 9y ago

Let's go further; I believe Firefox should compete against ChromeOS. The web is the ultimate platform, Mozilla should know that, but now it's more and more Google's platform. The reality is that Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are great computers for the masses. They're safe, secure, always up to date, no virus. They're great for the elderly, schools, public libraries, etc. You can buy a 85$ Chromebit dongle you plug into an HDMI port in your TV and you can browse the web on your big screen, watch Netflix, etc. Where is Mozilla? Nowhere.

callahad 9y ago
We tried, in part, with Firefox OS. We failed.
- sliken 9y ago
  Seems like Firefox OS should have been like Mint. Build on someone else's hard work (ubuntu or debian), tune it for an inexpensive platform (like the most popular netbook/chromebook/cheap laptop) and then work on on what makes it easy to use and useful. Things like a nice default desktop, integrate some cloud storage, automatic backups, user friendly tutorials, etc. Generally being incompatible with whatever platforms applications (iOS, android, or debian/ubuntu) is a kiss of death. People need their apps and developers need aren't going to cater to a new minority platform with approximately zero users.
voltagex_ 9y ago
On the other side, Google now require cast devices to have Google controlled private keys so you can't use Chromecast without using Android or Chrome. This means there couldn't be a compatible "Mozillacast" implementation.

mdibaiee 9y ago

regarding use of hardware acceleration, that's the reason Mozilla is working on Servo, the (only?) browser engine that runs on the GPU - http://servo.org/ http://servo.org/

newscracker 9y ago

> Maybe its time to go all in on the hacker community and make Firefox, a "Linux first" browser. Considering that one of Mozilla's funding sources is tie-ups with Google and Yahoo (and others?) for placement as default search engine and getting money from those searches, a "Linux first" strategy could probably become a financial disaster. I'd rather have Mozilla continue to exist (there's no other company/foundation of equal competence and values to "save the web" to whatever extent possible). I'd prefer Mozilla to focus on providing great native experiences on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android (sorry if I missed other larger platforms where Firefox is available and used).