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from the I-use-Lynx,-you-insensitive-clod! dept.
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: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:04AM (13 children)
Now, why would I start tearing stuff out of my system, to make room for a browser? Hmmm - what does it want to remove?
blueman
bluetooth
bluez
cryptsetup
cryptsetup-initramfs
eudev
gnome-bluetooth
gvfs
gvfs-daemons
initramfs-tools
initramfs-tools-core
libeudev-dev
libeudev1
libsane
That's far enough. Some of the stuff it wants to remove, I don't even use. Other stuff - well - if it borks my xserver by removing ~20 sxerver.org packages, the browser isn't going to do me much good.
I'll just stick with Firefox, which has NEVER prompted me to gut my operating system for it.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:22AM (8 children)
Why the fuck would a web browser conflict with cryptsetup?! That is just utterly broken.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:30AM
If you have to ask, you are already on the list. Noted.
(Score: 4, Informative) by petecox on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:36AM (6 children)
It wouldn't.
It sounds like a dependency version problem. A package might specify whatever versions it was built against. The package manager is trying to resolve the conflict by brute force, i.e. dumbly removing anything that prevents installation.
e.g. A vendor might support the latest Ubuntu LTS release. But if you're running the development release or plain debian, expect the versions not to match.
Which is why they offer a Snap.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:45AM (5 children)
Oh? Another reason to not bother then.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:56AM (4 children)
I just looked at their download page. It assumed I wanted the amd64 .deb but listed rpm & snap as options.
If either of us could be bothered we'd complain to Opera! :) They need to explicitly say what OS release they support or loosen up their versioning requirements. e.g. libABC 25.3 or higher instead of libABC 25.3.1
(Score: 4, Touché) by Arik on Tuesday August 04 2020, @05:47AM (3 children)
Nah, that'd be craaaaazy.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @07:48PM
The problem is the bugs. They test it with certain version of a library and don't want to have people saying "oh it doesn't work on linux" because some package maintainer understandably got busy in his life.
I mean, browser is not easy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @09:56PM (1 child)
The problem of releasing the source is that people could see those backdoors and build-in tracking... you do not want to know about those, right!
(Score: 1) by MIRV888 on Thursday August 13 2020, @09:32AM
There's no free lunch. Open source keeps it honest. Better code is better code. Would you rather be lied to about your software's vulnerability?
We are chasing the perfect mousetrap.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 04 2020, @05:42AM (3 children)
At least under Windows, it comes in a portable version [portableapps.com] that doesn't have to interfere with other installs. If you don't like it (or the version you downloaded), close it and delete the whole directory. No registry settings, no add/remove programs, no files randomly strewn about.
If you want to try a new version, save off the 'Data' directory (containing all the app settings) from the previous version, drop it over the 'Data' directory in the new version, and start it up. This also allows you to keep a few different versions at a time in different directories on your Windows box.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 04 2020, @06:44AM (2 children)
Sane applications do the same on *nixes. Download a .tar.gz file, unpack it, and everything is self contained, within that directory. I was an early adopter of Firefox, when it was still in milestone versions. (0.51 I think was my first version) You could download the nightly build, and test it - if it didn't do what you wanted, you just delete it, and use whichever previous version did work.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Common Joe on Tuesday August 04 2020, @07:25PM (1 child)
I don't think it's very popular, but I've gotten to like AppImage files when they are available and if I'm looking for portability. That way, you can skip the unzipping altogether. Interestingly, it's a lot smaller than snap installations. A good example to look at is LibreOffice. It's available with Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @01:43PM
+1 for AppImage. The format is so simple. Include libraries, set RPATH to $ORIGIN, insert a stub that extract to tmp (preferably in memory). Fire up a firejail shell (or other sandboxing) and you have it sandboxed.