Firefox Is Dead (Opinions Are Like Noses)

Everyone has one, and most people think theirs smells the best. Over at PC World, someone identified as Keir Thomas wrote an article yesterday, predicting the demise of the Firefox browser. In fact, he says the deceased simply doesn’t know it yet.

As evidenced by the the up and down votes, he just might have started a furor that hasn’t been seen the likes of at PC World since the debate over Vista and its porcine nature.

This is an exciting time for Web browsers. Google Chrome is now available in alpha for Linux, and I downloaded it for Ubuntu. Despite the fact that I was running it on my rather underpowered Dell Mini 9, it started in the blink of an eye. Additionally, any JavaScript-heavy sites like Gmail or Google Docs were so responsive that it’s almost unbelievable.

Does that sound familiar? That’s right. It’s just like how Firefox used to be.

Run Chrome and Firefox side-by-side, and Firefox is embarrassingly slow. It’s not even in the same league. It’s an old man on the running track trying to compete against a sprightly 20-year-old.

I think Firefox has lost the plot. This is a British phrase, and I’m not sure it’s used widely in the US, so perhaps it requires some explanation. But it’s not hard to work out. It implies a blind dedication to something questionable. If a car owner becomes obsessed with tricking out his vehicle, to the extent of wiping out his kids’ college fund to raise the cash, then he might be described as losing the plot. Yeah, he’s admirably determined, and the car does look very cool. But he’s lost all concept of what’s actually important.

Mozilla have several grand aims, and there’s much to be admired, but they’ve forgotten how to make a decent browser. I feel plenty of loyalty for them, because they’ve done more than anybody else to further the cause of open source software in the real world. But when I tried Chrome, as incomplete as it was, I realized I’d found a replacement for Firefox. As soon as it gets to beta under Linux, I will switch to Chrome. No question. It’s just infinitely better. It’s like when we all switched from Alta Vista (or Yahoo!) to Google back in the early noughties. The king is dead! Long live the king!

One thing is certain: Firefox is no longer the darling of the Internet digerati. Take a look at the comments on this Slashdot thread. There’s a surprising amount of vitriol out there nowadays.

I’m just one guy, so why should Mozilla care? Why should they even care if a million people stop using their browser? After all, this is open source, and open source software is technology driven. That’s why it’s better than proprietary software. There’s no pressing need to keep users sweet.

The problem for Mozilla is that its income comes from end-users. Every time you search using Firefox’s built-in search, Mozilla gets a small cut. Multiply that by millions of searches every day and it adds up. Effectively, Google pays for Mozilla’s continued existence, but without any of us using Firefox, Mozilla is up a creek without a paddle.

I fear that the Firefox project is a juggernaut that can’t stop. It’s got too much momentum and is determined to head in the direction it has chosen. In short, I honestly think it’s too late. Despite the fact it’s not really ready for human consumption, Chrome has won. Firefox is already dead. The only way the situation can be altered is for Mozilla to slam on the brakes, lean out of the window of the truck, apologize for going the wrong way, and turn around. But that’s unimaginable.

You might disagree with me. But will you do me a favor? In two or three years time, when you’re using Chrome (or maybe a forked project), will you come back here and admit I was right?

As correct as he might be about the speed of Chrome, it is, for most of us, more than simply speed that motivates our choice of browser. Firefox is so much more customizable, it will be a long and difficult road for Chrome to overtake the ‘fox in user’s hearts and minds.  As an Opera user, but once Firefox user, I get it. I’d still be using Firefox if the extensions I liked were ever updated as frequently as the browser.

But Chrome? It’s less customizable (right now) than Internet Exploder 8, so it isn’t going to win anyone over that likes a browser to conform to their ways of doing things. Strike one.

It’s also aggressively ugly. This is in the eye of the beholder, I know, but this beholder has had many people agree with me.  Strike two.

Speed, sure, we all like it, But how many of us are going to be graded on how fast we do things in a browser? Certainly not me. No one I know of, who works in an office setting works that way. So exactly who is the user who will look at something ugly for a few hours a day, with little in the way of making something more personally usable, for the sake of a few seconds here and there?

**(Those so inclined should be flocking like lemmings off the cliff to Safari, which is faster still, and not nearly as ugly, having a few ways to customize – so where the hell is this guy’s argument now?)**

Keir Thomas, that’s one.  Anyone else?

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It was a perfect marriage. She didn’t want to and he couldn’t.   - Spike Milligan