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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: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday August 04 2020, @09:04PM
Yeah, I should look to see what version of Firefox I'm running. It's not my main browser anymore, but it finally prompted me to figure out how to go into the package manager settings and tell it "stop asking me to update this fucking thing constantly, because it only ever breaks things and gets rid of features I like." I think I did because if I had dist-upgraded it would've bumped me up something like 14 FF versions and broken all my extensions.
For a number of years I used Pale Moon,* which I still do when I need my extensions, but now my day-to-day browser is Chromium. They changed something, either in Pale Moon or this one online game I play daily, that ended up somehow breaking the latter with how it uses iframes, so I sort of wound up in Chromium by default because it worked over there.
I miss classic 3.6-era Firefox back before the rapid release, when extensions worked and everything was in about:config.
*even PM isn't untainted by idiocy, though...I remember there was drama when the main guy who maintains it got butthurt about NoScript for some reason and made you jump through hoops to turn off his "I don't like this, don't use it" enabled-by-default deterrents in the addons system. Because who would ever want to use NoScript, in a fork of Firefox, specifically for technical/extension users? Can't think of anybody. /s
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"