4 ms·

It's very interesting to see how rapidly FF fell out of favor for some reason. Went from poster child to pariah in what seemed like no time.

luciusdomitius 5y ago
Well. The actual lead dev got kicked out as Mozilla Foundation chair and got replaced by some SJWs over his support for banning abortions, same-sex marriages or something similar.
- rockdoe 5y ago
  Not sure I'd consider a "CTO" to be the "lead dev". Definitely not in a bigger org.
pessimizer 5y ago
It's amazing to see how rapidly Firefox users fell out of favor with Mozilla for some reason. Their bugtrackers went from joyful to friendly to silent to openly hostile as they tore out every feature that distinguished them from Chrome. Branding must be really important if people are expected to enjoy using a completely different product because they enjoyed the old product. MS Office doesn't expect me to do that; they give me essentially the same thing in 2022 as they gave me in 1997. They don't expect me to be loyal out of some sense of love or obligation.
brimble 5y ago
Niche opinion, probably, but I think they took a hard wrong turn not later than 3.0 (yes, that long ago) and never recovered. Here we have this bug that's "not in telemetry" (strictly true) but for which telemetry increased the severity/blast-radius from "partial failure for many users" to "complete failure for most users". But FTP—an actual feature for users, unlike spyware "features" that keep some chart-readers employed—had to go because that's too risky to keep. OK.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  A quick google search revealed FTP was supported until v90, so I'm curious as to what is that you are referring to when you say 'they took a hard wrong turn not later than 3.0 (yes, that long ago) and never recovered'.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Not related to the 3.0 release, just an example of a recent cut of an actual feature while spyware is apparently essential. IIRC 3.0 (might have been one of the 2 series?) was when the browser suddenly got a lot fatter and the UI less responsive, and never made meaningful progress back the other direction, contrary to its feather-weight beginnings which were a big part of why I loved it so much. I kept using it for quite a while longer but never loved it again.

luciusdomitius 5y ago

Well. The actual lead dev got kicked out as Mozilla Foundation chair and got replaced by some SJWs over his support for banning abortions, same-sex marriages or something similar.

rockdoe 5y ago
Not sure I'd consider a "CTO" to be the "lead dev". Definitely not in a bigger org.

pessimizer 5y ago

It's amazing to see how rapidly Firefox users fell out of favor with Mozilla for some reason. Their bugtrackers went from joyful to friendly to silent to openly hostile as they tore out every feature that distinguished them from Chrome. Branding must be really important if people are expected to enjoy using a completely different product because they enjoyed the old product. MS Office doesn't expect me to do that; they give me essentially the same thing in 2022 as they gave me in 1997. They don't expect me to be loyal out of some sense of love or obligation.

brimble 5y ago

Niche opinion, probably, but I think they took a hard wrong turn not later than 3.0 (yes, that long ago) and never recovered. Here we have this bug that's "not in telemetry" (strictly true) but for which telemetry increased the severity/blast-radius from "partial failure for many users" to "complete failure for most users". But FTP—an actual feature for users, unlike spyware "features" that keep some chart-readers employed—had to go because that's too risky to keep. OK.

ricardobayes 5y ago
A quick google search revealed FTP was supported until v90, so I'm curious as to what is that you are referring to when you say 'they took a hard wrong turn not later than 3.0 (yes, that long ago) and never recovered'.
- brimble 5y ago
  Not related to the 3.0 release, just an example of a recent cut of an actual feature while spyware is apparently essential. IIRC 3.0 (might have been one of the 2 series?) was when the browser suddenly got a lot fatter and the UI less responsive, and never made meaningful progress back the other direction, contrary to its feather-weight beginnings which were a big part of why I loved it so much. I kept using it for quite a while longer but never loved it again.