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I switched to the new Firefox and removed chrome because I tried it and liked it better, not because Chrome is the worst. Also I'm curious how people went from

by dcow 9y ago

I switched to the new Firefox and removed chrome because I tried it and liked it better, not because Chrome is the worst. Also I'm curious how people went from Firefox to Chrome in the first place using your "move away from the worst" logic. Certainly something else happened there or FF was much worst than I remember.

Veen 9y ago
But most people aren't even going to try Firefox. Unless Google do something seriously stupid with Chrome, the average user has no incentive to move. Chrome is good enough.
- squid_ca 9y ago
  I don't know, I feel like many people started using Chrome because technical-minded folk recommended it to them (certainly, I told many family members to switch to it). So, maybe the same thing will happen with Firefox (I have just switched from Chrome to Firefox and am prepared to recommend it as someone's default browser).
  - addicted 9y ago
    Looking towards technical minded relatives and friends definitely helped, but what really pushed Chrome over the top IMO was Google.com, Gmail, Youtube, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Hangouts, etc. all insisting you must use Chrome.
    - addicted 9y ago
      To explain why I think this, the Quality delta between Firefox and IE when Firefox reached about 20-30% marketshare was orders of magnitude greater than the delta between Chrome and Firefox over the period Chrome managed to push to 60-70% marketshare.
  - pletnes 9y ago
    I wonder why they did - FF was always safer in so many ways, helping you instead of the advertisers, having a separate certificate store made it safe against nasty BIOS level viruses, etc etc
    - tinus_hn 9y ago
      > having a separate certificate store made it safe against nasty BIOS level viruses Sorry but that’s just wishful thinking. In this regard Firefox is less of a target than Chrome/Internet Explorer because it isn’t the dominant monoculture, similar to how Mac OS is less of a target than Windows. That doesn’t mean its safe.
      - pletnes 9y ago
        Firefox cannot be a dominant monoculture like windows can. It is not an operating system.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
pletnes 9y ago
I think google did a «good job» (not as in «good guy» but as in «effectively») pushing chrome by shoving it down your throat on the google search page. They will keep doing it. Therefore, it’ll be the first alternative after booting into windows the first time. As people switch computers, more and more users drift over to chrome. Most people stop bothering at that point, they set up their computers once and consider themselves done.
bobajeff 9y ago
A organization the size of Mozilla is at a huge disadvantage compared to Microsoft, Google and Apple who can afford to buy marketshare. Internet Explorer was just bad enough that they lost about 20% (from 90%) to Firefox. Don't expect that to happen with Chrome.
bastawhiz 9y ago
Firefox installations quickly got slow and bad. Profiles became corrupt. Third party software installed toolbars that were difficult (or impossible, in some cases) to remove. It wasn't until fairly recently that Mozilla stopped third parties from sideloading crapware extensions. Firefox dev tools got slow to the point of unusability and lacked critical features (e.g., almost anything related to websockets). Standards support lagged far behind. When Gary Kovacs shifted the focus to Firefox OS, the desktop browser lost pretty much any advantage it once had.
OnlyLys 9y ago
I moved away from Firefox because they removed the Ctrl+E to quick search many years ago. I know Ctrl+E is back on Firefox now but back then there was no way to set my own key commands so I tried Chrome (which kept Ctrl+E) and never turned back.
dingo_bat 9y ago
I moved away from Firefox because it was literally unable to scroll without dropping frames.

by dcow 9y ago

Veen 9y ago

But most people aren't even going to try Firefox. Unless Google do something seriously stupid with Chrome, the average user has no incentive to move. Chrome is good enough.

squid_ca 9y ago
I don't know, I feel like many people started using Chrome because technical-minded folk recommended it to them (certainly, I told many family members to switch to it). So, maybe the same thing will happen with Firefox (I have just switched from Chrome to Firefox and am prepared to recommend it as someone's default browser).
- addicted 9y ago
  Looking towards technical minded relatives and friends definitely helped, but what really pushed Chrome over the top IMO was Google.com, Gmail, Youtube, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Hangouts, etc. all insisting you must use Chrome.
  - addicted 9y ago
    To explain why I think this, the Quality delta between Firefox and IE when Firefox reached about 20-30% marketshare was orders of magnitude greater than the delta between Chrome and Firefox over the period Chrome managed to push to 60-70% marketshare.
- pletnes 9y ago
  I wonder why they did - FF was always safer in so many ways, helping you instead of the advertisers, having a separate certificate store made it safe against nasty BIOS level viruses, etc etc
  - tinus_hn 9y ago
    > having a separate certificate store made it safe against nasty BIOS level viruses Sorry but that’s just wishful thinking. In this regard Firefox is less of a target than Chrome/Internet Explorer because it isn’t the dominant monoculture, similar to how Mac OS is less of a target than Windows. That doesn’t mean its safe.
    - pletnes 9y ago
      Firefox cannot be a dominant monoculture like windows can. It is not an operating system.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

pletnes 9y ago

I think google did a «good job» (not as in «good guy» but as in «effectively») pushing chrome by shoving it down your throat on the google search page. They will keep doing it. Therefore, it’ll be the first alternative after booting into windows the first time. As people switch computers, more and more users drift over to chrome. Most people stop bothering at that point, they set up their computers once and consider themselves done.

bobajeff 9y ago

A organization the size of Mozilla is at a huge disadvantage compared to Microsoft, Google and Apple who can afford to buy marketshare. Internet Explorer was just bad enough that they lost about 20% (from 90%) to Firefox. Don't expect that to happen with Chrome.

bastawhiz 9y ago

Firefox installations quickly got slow and bad. Profiles became corrupt. Third party software installed toolbars that were difficult (or impossible, in some cases) to remove. It wasn't until fairly recently that Mozilla stopped third parties from sideloading crapware extensions. Firefox dev tools got slow to the point of unusability and lacked critical features (e.g., almost anything related to websockets). Standards support lagged far behind. When Gary Kovacs shifted the focus to Firefox OS, the desktop browser lost pretty much any advantage it once had.

OnlyLys 9y ago

I moved away from Firefox because they removed the Ctrl+E to quick search many years ago. I know Ctrl+E is back on Firefox now but back then there was no way to set my own key commands so I tried Chrome (which kept Ctrl+E) and never turned back.

dingo_bat 9y ago

I moved away from Firefox because it was literally unable to scroll without dropping frames.