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"a proper open source browser never took off" That's... not accurate at all. Firefox was extremely popular at one point, and completely ate the lunch of everyt
by phyzome 1y ago
"a proper open source browser never took off"
That's... not accurate at all. Firefox was extremely popular at one point, and completely ate the lunch of everything else out there. (And then Google used anticompetitive practices to squash it, but that came later.)
- arkh 1y ago> then Google used anticompetitive practices to squash it Not exactly. Apple happened. Every "web designer" had to work on a macbook to be different like every one else. And firefox had dismal performances on those macbooks so said designers turned to the only browser with good tools and good enough performances: Chrome. Next time you're told "performances don't matter", remember how it can be a differentiating feature and could cost you your market share.
- jaoane 1y ago> Every "web designer" had to work on a macbook Sorry? Why? I must’ve missed that memo :)
- martin82 1y agoBecause working on Windows machines was a gigantic pain in the ass back then and Linux still kinda sucked as a desktop OS.
- robin_reala 1y agoAll the front-end devs I knew at the time switched to Macbooks after the Intel switch, because you could get a Unix-based machine that could run Safari and Firefox natively, and Internet Explorer in a VM. Chrome wasn’t even released at that point.
- IshKebab 1y agoGoogle didn't use anticompetitive practices to squash it. They just made a better browser. When Chrome came out it was significantly better than Firefox. That's why people switched. To be honest it's still better (at least if you ignore the manifest V3 nonsense).
- everdrive 1y agoI think it's pretty debatable that Chrome is currently better, but you're definitely correct. When Chrome first debuted (and for years afterwards) it was clearly superior to Firefox.