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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: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @06:36AM (3 children)
The UI is the last thing you want to change. You can take a UI that is on top of C, then port it to an application written in Python, to Rust, then JavaScript, then Haskell, Go, Prolog, and F# to fix your coding itch and it is perfectly possible no one will notice. You move an icon 1 pixel to the left or change the color by .5% and everyone will notice and have an opinion. Mozilla's problem is that they have all these UI people that have to justify their existence, so you get changes for no apparent reason just to keep their process going. No one else would care if Word, Windows, Chrome, Firefox, Photoshop, etc. looked the same they did in 2000, as long as they could still get their work done.
And that doesn't even get to where they actively cause problems, replacing menus with ribbons, getting rid of status bars, flattening everything so you can't tell what is text and what is a button, changing action icons from their established symbols, and changing designs wholesale between versions. Each and every time some program decides to change their icon, I get calls for weeks from people saying their computer is broken or they can't find their program because the familiar environment changed just enough to throw them off.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @09:48AM (1 child)
Those UI people could spend their time designing sensible form controls or something. But that'd be work, I guess.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 04 2020, @08:50PM
For which companies like Microsoft and Apple pay money. You know, for the work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:05PM
The same thing happened with Unity desktop which I am cursed to have to used.
Obviously no menus any more. Just light grey on light grey barely visible unlabeled buttons. And who the hell decided disabling right-click was the way forward? Want to create a shortcut on the Desktop? Want to change a setting? Want to save your documents?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha fuck off!