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Firefox Browser Use Drops As Mozilla's Worst Microsoft Edge Fears Come True
Back in April, we reported that the Edge browser is quickly gaining market share now that Microsoft has transitioned from the EdgeHTML engine to the more widely used Chromium engine (which also underpins Google's Chrome browser). At the time, Edge slipped into the second-place slot for desktop web browsers, with a 7.59 percent share of the market. This dropped Mozilla's Firefox – which has long been the second-place browser behind Chrome – into third place.
Now, at the start of August, we're getting some fresh numbers in for the desktop browser market, and things aren't looking good for Mozilla. Microsoft increased its share of the browser market from 8.07 percent in June to 8.46 percent in July. Likewise, Firefox fell from 7.58 percent to 7.27 percent according to NetMarketShare.
[...] As for Mozilla, the company wasn't too happy when Microsoft first announced that it was going to use Chromium for Edge way back in December 2018. Mozilla's Chris Beard at the time accused Microsoft of "giving up" by abandoning EdgeHTML in favor of Chromium. "Microsoft's decision gives Google more ability to single-handedly decide what possibilities are available to each one of us," said Beard at the time. "We compete with Google because the health of the internet and online life depend on competition and choice."
[...] Microsoft developer Kenneth Auchenberg fought back the following January, writing, "Thought: It's time for Mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower. The web is dominated by Chromium, if they really *cared* about the web they would be contributing instead of building a parallel universe that's used by less than 5 percent."
Is the browser monoculture inevitable or will Firefox hang in there?
Previously:
Mozilla Teases Chromium-Based Firefox, Then Pulls Back
Firefox Tops Microsoft Browser Market Share for First Time
Netmarketshare Claims Mozilla Firefox Usage Drops Below Ten Percent
Microsoft Intercepting Firefox, Chrome Installation on Windows 10 Insider Build
Microsoft Reportedly Building a Chromium-Based Web Browser to Replace Edge, and "Windows Lite" OS
Mozilla CEO Warns Microsoft's Switch to Chromium Will Give More Control of the Web to Google
Microsoft Employee Sparks Outrage by Suggesting Firefox Switch Browser Engine to Chromium
Mozilla Was "Outfoxed" by Google
Microsoft Edge Shares Privacy-Busting Telemetry, Research Alleges
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kreuzfeld on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:52AM (6 children)
Same here (though not old yet!). But in all honesty: what is the appeal of Chrome & Chromium-derived browsers over Firefox (my default browser of choice when I'm not in Icecat). Is there some underlying benefit to these other browsers that eludes me?
(Score: 5, Informative) by TheRaven on Tuesday August 04 2020, @10:22AM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @01:50PM
firefox was single thread, but long ago switch to have now different threads, that was one of the main reasons to drop the old add-ons, they enforced the "one process" (some could be turn to multi-process, but not all and that and the security problem made the old api go away).
Now you have several threads for rendering, gui, add-ons, javascript.
Firefox share those threads between several tabs(where they apply of course, there is only one GUI), so save memory (and this is one of the reason too for firefox using much less ram than chrome), but those threads also have several layers of isolation. Chrome have several threads for EACH tab, that may increase the security, but also waste lot more resources and turn chrome very heavy if you use many tabs. People that only use a few tabs do not notice that problem, but everyone that have many open tabs already noticed that chrome eats all he machine resources.
Mozilla is increasing the threads isolation and get more process to multi-thread (via mostly rust) to increase performance and security. This is a slow migration process, unlike khtml (WebKit base code forked from kde) the that was build around being multi-thread
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Tuesday August 04 2020, @02:10PM
The appeal is the ability to use hardware decoding on linux. After 10 years mozilla is finally addressing it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @04:32PM
What's the appeal?, you ask...you've got the wrong end of the stick for a lot of us here, it's a case of expediency..
Just like 'back in the day' a subset of sites 'broke' if you didn't use IE (hello, my bank of old..) you now get the same (hello, my bank of the now...) if you don't use a browser which identifies as Chrome(ish).
Ok, so you change/spoof the UA string, and somewhere in the wankload of obfuscated javascript that lurks menacingly on their pages, something horribly chromeish breaks..
I'm typing this in a Chrome tab, running on the Slackware install on my primary laptop, not because I'm particularly taken with Chrome, but it's the path of least resistance as I'm currently logged into an industrial auction site which does not really do Firefox well, it's expediency and less 'resource intensive' on the ageing hardware (4Gig ram,Celeron T3500@2.10GHz) than spinning up a copy of Firefox/whatever..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @06:50PM (1 child)
Supposedly, browsing without adblock and also running any javascript a remote site throws your way, chrome/chromium-based browsers are faster. But, if you are browsing the web without adblock, and allowing all random remote code you stumble upon to run on your computer, I would say that you are doing it wrong. And, with ublock origin and umatrix, firefox is very fast.
I use firefox for almost everything, but keep chromium installed for broken sites that only work with chrome. For me, this is mostly airline sites. So, I guess another "benefit" is that chrome/chromium browsers work with broken ie8^H^H^H chrome-only websites. I expect this issue to get worse now that ms is just re-badging chrome.
(Score: 3, Touché) by tangomargarine on Tuesday August 04 2020, @09:21PM
Why would you do that? They have uBlock Origin and whatnot for Chrome. I know because I run it.
If Chrome is fast without an adblocker, just imagine how much faster it'll be *with* one!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"