Firefox lost market share because Chrome was a leaner, faster, and better browser. I have started to hear more stories about folks switching back to Firefox because a lot of their issues with the browser have been fixed. And based on independent review sites like Tom's Hardware, there is no longer an appreciable gap in the performance of Firefox and Chrome.
As regards market share, Firefox's market share would be in the low single-digit percentages if all was lost. This is indeed not the case. With the profiling and telemetry tools and infrastructure, the Firefox team has built a foundation that will ensure future releases do not regress memory usage and overall browser snappiness. Market share is a fickle metric for success because it is amenable to change. The strides made in the last few months by the Firefox team have paved the way for adoption growth in the future. Let us have a constructive conversation around what they need to do next to ensure more switchers among the HN community.
"I have started to hear more stories about folks switching back to Firefox because a lot of their issues with the browser have been fixed"
There was a time, some number of releases ago (a year ago?) when FF's memory problems became too much for me, and I used Chrome(ium). I never liked it, personal preference.
Finally some time within that last year FF became acceptable again, then more than acceptable, and I came back. I have not noticed my browser for months now, which is all I ask of any program: I don't want to see or notice the program, only what I'm working on with it. Don't make me notice you, it's distracting.
Although I use Firefox, Firefox is not actually my browser. Firefox plus the particular addons I install is my browser. To me they are very different things.
As a dev I moved to chrome for all the reasons everyone else did. Now I'm seeing chrome renderer chewing all my ram across multiple processes, and actually have had it crash a number of times. Google, don't think I won't switch again, because I will.
Firefox 4, 5, and 6 were not good releases when it came to memory consumption. Firefox 7 had some big improvements. Firefox 8--14 all had smaller improvements. Firefox 15 has this add-on leak prevention, which is another big win. And we're still working on this :)
>Firefox lost market share because Chrome was a leaner, faster, and better browser.
Not to mention secure. Sandboxed PDF reader, java whitelisting, sandboxed and auto-updating flash, etc while FF and IE were arrogantly telling users "Fuck you, update your own add ons, they're not our problem" even when all the exploits were from these add ons. Now IE and FF ape some of these features. I can't wait to hear the next angry Asa Doztler diatribe aimed at enterprise IT admins and their demands. Asa is a roadmap on how to lose users and quickly become 3rd best.
Good to hear FF is starting to get competitive again. I hope this trend continues.
I always wonder why Firefox gives the option to update Java and Flash et al when it never works. Has anyone ever gotten plugins to update from within Firefox?
Ha ha, "install missing plugins" is such a zombie feature, I hope some (ex-) development manager from Mozilla cringes every time they see that on a new installation.
I use XPDF, mostly like how it works (I generally dislike PDFs, but that's another issue).
Auto-updating is a misfeature on a package-based Linux distro (e.g.: any sane one).
The extensions management is better in Chrome. But not the permissions handling. I'd prefer to tell my browser what it is/isn't allowed to say about me, and for extensions to sort out the damage (is it worth it to you, Mr./Mrs. Extension Author, to forgo marketshare if user declines to provide some/all data?).
Meh, I probably overstepped on that one. I'm not sure how the FF permissions work, and frankly, the extensions infrastructure is one that leaves me a bit queazy. That said, I'd prefer both (or rather, all) browsers acted as I indicated: allow the user to state what data are shared, with what granularity and retention policies, and report on what site(s) request/receive it. Apps can work out whether or not they care to play.
As regards market share, Firefox's market share would be in the low single-digit percentages if all was lost. This is indeed not the case. With the profiling and telemetry tools and infrastructure, the Firefox team has built a foundation that will ensure future releases do not regress memory usage and overall browser snappiness. Market share is a fickle metric for success because it is amenable to change. The strides made in the last few months by the Firefox team have paved the way for adoption growth in the future. Let us have a constructive conversation around what they need to do next to ensure more switchers among the HN community.