Prologue

You might not know it, but Firefox was once widely considered to be an innovative browser. It wasn’t just an alternative to Internet Explorer (and now Chrome). Firefox introduced honest-to-goodness new features that people loved and rely on to this day.

  • BenEnglish
    4•1 year ago

    This is a very messed up article.

    The problem isn’t that Firefox loses when it tries to copy Chrome. The problem is that, due to popularity and massively larger userbase, it is Chrome which sets habits used in browsers - and so with something like ‘reopen last tab’ function being different in Firefox is a problem for 1000 Chrome users but only 1 Firefox user.

    The actual bug here is #1 Nearly Everyone Learned to use Chrome. They learn new, they learn bad, and in their ignorance, they blame the (sometimes original and better) Firefox for being wrong.

    • yoasifOP
      2•1 year ago

      That’s an interesting interpretation! I definitely agree that that is the underlying bug, but it also seems to rob people – Firefox users, developers, managers, contributors of agency - we are all in thrall to the almighty Google.

      I think we can do more to even in the face of that stiff competition (and ignorance) - which is why I wrote.