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from the left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-hand-is-doing dept.
Mozilla has sent mixed signals about the future of the Firefox Web browser:
The head of Mozilla's Firefox browser is looking to the future. And, for the moment at least, it seems to lie in rival Chrome. Senior VP Mark Mayo caused a storm by revealing that the Firefox team is working on a next-generation browser that will run on the same technology as Google's Chrome browser.
"Let's jump right in and say yes, the rumors are true, we're working on browser prototypes that look and feel almost nothing like the current Firefox," Mayo wrote in a blog post. "The premise for these experiments couldn't be simpler: what we need a browser to do for us – both on PCs and mobile devices – has changed a lot since Firefox 1.0, and we're long overdue for some fresh approaches."
The biggest surprise, however, was that the project, named Tofino, will not use Firefox's core technology – Gecko – but will instead plumb for Electron, which is built on the technology behind Google's rival Chrome browser, called Chromium.
However, Mayo updated his post to say that "I should have been clearer that Project Tofino is wholly focused on UX explorations and not the technology platform. We are working with the Platform team on technology platform futures too, and we're excited about the Gecko and Servo-based futures being discussed!" Mozilla's CTO also reaffirmed the company's commitment to the Gecko rendering engine:
Just two days after Mayo broke ranks, Mozilla's CTO jumped up and announced another new project – this one called Positron (geddit?) – which will take the Electron API and "wrap it around Gecko." Or, in other words, make it possible to take Mayo's new, better browser and pull it off Chromium and back into the safe hands of Gecko. And so the status quo seeks to reassert itself.
Also at CNET.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2016, @01:25PM
Have they really? I personally don't think so. We're browsing the same web as 12 years ago. Sure more JS with ads, spam and malware has been sprinkled on the poor old web but no rational person will allow any of that download or much less run. And then of course there are plenty of Software as service platforms out there offering a slower version of something you have running on your own machine that also spies on your data and could vanish overnight without you having any say in the matter... There also are a few new HTML elements but one has to expect some change in 12 years.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 13 2016, @01:55PM
Yes, but not in the way the Mozilla developers think. Back in the days of Firefox 1.0, I didn't need a whole set of extensions just to protect myself/my computer from all the bad stuff on the web.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Kawumpa on Wednesday April 13 2016, @03:50PM
...just to protect myself/my computer from all the bad stuff on the web.
And therein lies the problem. You think of Javascript/AJAX-functionality that disables browser functionality, advertisements and user tracking as "bad stuff" while it's really not. It is technology that is designed to make web consumer experience much convenient and pleasurable. It allows to carefully guide and enhance the consumers' view of the world and themselves in ways TV broadcasting was never capable of. Look at how may people out there feel empowered by all the forums and comment sections. The masses are finally herd...heard and it's not a one way street... :-)