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Ask HN: Where do you see Firefox going?

5 points by _Microft 5y ago

I have remained loyal to Firefox since the earliest time (think eff-ing Phoenix) but lately, changes are really going on my nerves (latest: replacing the reload button on Firefox for iOS with a button for the "Home" screen for whatever reason). I am certainly not averse to change but I don't like change as a purpose in itself instead of for the better. Unfortunately, a lot of changes nowadays feel like they are solely to keep the UX team employed. Losing Firefox just for that would be a bad bargain. Gecko is the only decent non-chrome/ium browser engine that is left and Firefox is the only browser that is using it. We sorely need this remaining bit of diversity! It needs to survive. Despite that, the current leadership of Mozilla is either hell-bent on actively running it into a brick wall or outright ignorant of the fact that this is actually happening for a while already. Do you think they will somehow turn the corner or is Firefox inevitably going to die? I cannot see how they could possibly avoid it if they keep on doing what they currently are doing. (As sad as it is but I wouldn't even put it past them to read one day that "sustaining a browser with a low digit marketshare is not a reasonable use of our resources anymore" and that "Mozilla is glad to announce that from now on, we rather focus on the broader mission instead").

markyc 5y ago
but what exactly is their mission other than firefox?
- _Microft 5y ago
  I always thought that they see the "open web" as their actual mission and Firefox is a means to that end.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > I always thought... You must be new here: That's what they changed their mission statement to. Originally, it was just simply to support development of the browser.
- swiley 5y ago
  Lately it’s looked like applying AI to CRT/political correctness or so.
sillycross 5y ago
IMO browser is a tool, just like operating system. The ultimate praise of a tool is "it works". For browser this means rendering every web page correctly, and for OS this means working on every hardware configuration correctly. So if we already have a working tool, why do we want to spend the redundant work to invent more tools that solves the same problem, or to maintain the other tools so they are all standard-compliant? Of course, it's a different story if the existing tool is monopolized by a commercial company. But Chrome is open sourced, and there is a committee steering the future Web standards. So imo we don't need another Chrome, just like we don't need another Linux.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > So imo we don't need another Chrome, just like we don't need another Linux. With your preceding reasoning you don't need Linux either, since Windows already exists.
  - sillycross 5y ago
    As already mentioned, the difference is that Windows is monopolized by a commercial company, is not open-sourced and does not accept outside contribution. You may also be interested by MS Edge's decision to abandon their ChakraCore engine, which is similar to what I reasoned above [1] [1] https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/06/microsoft-edge-making-the-web-better-through-more-open-source-collaboration/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/06/micro...
anshumankmr 5y ago
I am new to the using Firefox, but I hope they get some of the features that Chrome has. I know progress will be slow, but they can and should market themselves as a "privacy first" browser. Brave keeps spamming me with ads for the same thing. Of course for Firefox to achieve that, they need would need some capital which I am not a 100% sure they have.