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https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/mozilla-market-share/
When Firefox was introduced in 2004, it was designed to be a lean and optimized web browser, based on the bloated code from the Mozilla Suite. Between 2004 and 2009, many considered Firefox to be the best web browser, since it was faster, more secure, offered tabbed browsing and was more customizable through extensions than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. When Chrome was introduced in 2008, it took many of Firefox's best ideas and improved on them. Since 2010, Chrome has eaten away at Firefox's market share, relegating Firefox to a tiny niche of free software enthusiasts and tinkerers who like the customization of its XUL extensions.
According to StatCounter, Firefox's market share of web browsers has fallen from 31.8% in December 2009 to just 6.1% today. Firefox can take comfort in the fact that it is now virtually tied with its former arch-nemesis, Internet Explorer and its variants. All of Microsoft's browsers only account for 6.2% of current web browsing according to StatCounter. Microsoft has largely been replaced by Google, whose web browsers now controls 56.5% of the market. Even worse, is the fact that the WebKit engine used by Google now represents over 83% of web browsing, so web sites are increasingly focusing on compatibility with just one web engine. While Google and Apple are more supportive of W3C and open standards than Microsoft was in the late 90s, the web is increasingly being monopolized by one web engine and two companies, whose business models are not always based on the best interests of users or their rights.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by arcz on Sunday November 26 2017, @05:32AM (4 children)
I never used firefox because it was "faster". I used it because it was less bullshit than chrome and had better extensions.
Oh wait, firefox broke backwards compatibility with extensions! That was the dumb move that killed them. I knew they were dead when they broke backwards compatibility with the extensions that made firefox the better browser.
Firefox changed APIs and design too fast and didn't do enough work on polishing.
Chrome can get away with it because most chrome users were there because it was lightweight, not for the extensions. Firefox couldn't. hence, firefox dies.
Number one rule: Software that breaks backwards compatibility is ALWAYS doomed to failure. Wonder why Windows is on all computers and not Linux, even though the Linux OS is better? It's because of poor backwards compatibility.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @05:36AM (1 child)
Most of the extensions that existed were crap and most of the ones that weren't got updated.
Your post is a yawn argument.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday November 26 2017, @07:48AM
Before 57 that may have been true; there were a few extensions that I miss, but yes, the majority got updated.
With 57, it's no longer just a matter of updating; for some of the extensions the necessary interfaces are simply not there.
And also note that quite a few extensions I use are just to undo the changes Mozilla tried to force upon me.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @07:14AM
Being better can be a form of success. So can being popular. Linux has a fair bit of popularity for providing services on the Internet.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday November 26 2017, @02:35PM
I don't think that's the reason. A large number of older windows executables, *especially* the 16- and 32-bit ones, that don't have any hope of running on any modern Windows despite "compatibility options," run fine on any modern, up-to-date GNU/Linux+Wine system.
I am not saying that Firefox isn't run by a bunch of apparent syphilitic monkeys with no concept of providing any service to their users, quite the contrary; I simply don't think that this is the analogy to illustrate it.