Advice Request Firefox is on the verge of extinction. What can they do about it?

[enaph]

Bit of a clickbait video title but definitely worth watching.

 

[bayasdev]

Firefox will eventually switch to a Chromium base, save this message

 

[silversurfer]

Well, I can provoke as well, this video it's worth watching only for people just dislike all about Firefox or even former users of Firefox who already switched for some reason to other browsers, just to find a reason those people are still on the right side...
We all see the same bla,bla,bla since years, but nothing like that happens, Firefox is still "alive"

 

[rain2reign]

I still use Firefox, mainly because I transferred my years old profile over again and again. It's just the way I want it. And only use Edge for the rare instance a site doesn't work properly, because it was built on pure Google's "(web) standards" for convience... Although even I have a lot of criticism about Mozilla non-stop, however it disappearing would mean that we officially lost the one thing everyone needs competition. Though they can hardly be called that in recent years.

Most true and hardcore chromium browser fans, I have had the pleasure of conversing with, all seem to be in the disbelief that chromium being open-source is separate from Google's influence over the project through the years. Almost to the near point that open-source software equals free as in freedom.

 

[ScandinavianFish]

Firefox has never been an rival to Chromium, nor will ever be, simply because its its snail pace speed when it comes to page loading times, nearly non-existant exploit mitigations, and CPU usage greater than Chromium.

 

[Arequire]

The web without Firefox will look practically the same as it does now. Firefox has so little market share, and Mozilla so little influence nowadays that it may as well be a web without Firefox.

I hear people proposing solutions to Firefox's continued downfall all the time, but I simply don't see it scraping back any market share at this point. Chrome won the browser war; Mozilla had every opportunity to see-off Chrome's ascendance back in the late 2000s (Firefox's market share was around 20% back then) but squandered the opportunity. Now the majority of users use Chrome, and beyond Mozilla's ideology or Firefox's underlying technical aspects (which the general population—who Mozilla would need to attract if they want to compete with Chrome—clearly don't care about), what reason is there for users to switch away from Chrome?

With that said, I don't see Firefox going anywhere, nor do I see it switching over to Chromium (which wouldn't do anything beyond fixing Firefox's compatibility issues). Google likely isn't going to stop funding it; not just because they get value from Firefox funnelling its users to their search engine, but because letting Firefox (and Gecko) perish will only focus the eye of regulators on what would be Google's new browser engine monopoly. And Firefox itself has a dedicated userbase, who may complain about Mozilla's seemingly endless stream of questionable decisions, but continues to use Firefox and in turn support Mozilla.

 

[SpiderWeb]

Firefox has always been the minority. And I think being the underdog that punches back will always attract a fanbase of people who want to go against the mainstream. I also don't think it will ever go out of business as long as Tor project depends on and contributes to it. HOWEVER if Tor decides to re-base on Chromium, all hell will break loose.

 

[Local Host]

Even back when everyone talked about Firefox, I never saw reason to use it over Internet Explorer. Especially when Firefox always been unstable and had issues with websites (not to mention the performance cost).

Google Chrome was the first proper browser we had, that could replace Internet Explorer, it wasn't for nothing it became so popular.

Microsoft was pretty much forced to improve their browser the first time in years, I say Microsoft Edge based on Chromium takes the cake now, but again people have no reason to drop Google Chrome (especially when Microsoft keeps adding bloatware to their browser).

 

[Azure]

Reading some of the comments/replies to the video.
I am incredibly surprised to see some people didn’t know of Firefox current situation.

“Wow. I had no idea Firefox had it this bad”

 

[Viking]

I am a die hard Firefox user. I use Edge occasionally. I haven't used Chrome in a few years now.

 

[SpiderWeb]

I started using Firefox late 2000s when Internet Explorer had become unbearable. Firefox main appeal was tabs and adblock extensions. Switched to Chrome around 2010 because FF had horrible RAM management. I only recently switched back to Firefox after the Proton redesign and with Fission/site isolation finally implemented. Firefox runs better on macOS than Chromium.

 

[ColonelMal]

Firefox excelled for its innovative features through addons. Opera was a genuinely innovative browser. These were my two browsers for a great many years. Recently I switched to Chrome and it's more and more unlikely that I'll go back to Firefox soon.

My experience with Firefox has been wonderful and I hope that this browser will survive. There's a wealth of skill and knowledge which its developers have and it would be a shame if it were lost.

 

[Wontkins]

They have said that same thing for years. Firefox will be history soon. Clearly they have made mistakes over the years. I've always used Firefox or one of it's clones, Waterfox, or Comodo IceDragon (now a dead browser). Used to use K-Meleon years ago as it was faster for me back in the day of dial up. I also used the old Opera back in the day.

Tried Brave but didn't care for some things about it. I didn't see any noticeable difference in speed with it or any other Chromium browsers I've tried. They do continue to grow, which is good because Google does need competition. That's one of my main complaints about Firefox actually, not caring what loyal users say. If they do switch to Chromium they will like everybody else. Why use them then, what will be the difference between Firefox and others. I'm going to try LibreWolf again. Like to migrate to it for daily browsing. I prefer the underdog to the bully.

 

[Sorrento]

Years ago when Chrome was in it's infancy I started using it for good reasons, it was IMO well thought out & it & the search engine was way ahead of anything, Mozilla had the opportunity to change but they didn't. The reason Firefox is in the position it is isn't Chromes fault it's Mozilla's - I keep trying Firefox but the same clunky problems are there that is why I don't use it.

 

[SpiderWeb]

Like others have said here. There has been a Mozilla is dead article since the death of Netscape. I think even in its worst case it will be a niche browser. The reason it's not leading is because it's not the default browser on any OS.

 

[M4RT1NE2]

I used the browser intermittently. But for me it was too slow compared to Chrome or Opera. At one time it had a communication problem with Kaspersky (I had this error at my place). Nothing lasts forever

 

[harlan4096]

Nor Mozilla used PUP/PUA type practices to install itself automatically on systems, integrated into the installers of other applications! as Chrome did and still do...

 

[Oldie1950]

I started with Netscape Navigator and am still using Firefox to this day. From time to time I use Edge as an exception. I don't see any reason to switch to another browser, because I don't sit in front of my PC with a stopwatch in my hand and measure the time it takes to load a website. I do not consider the speed differences to be significant in practical operation.

 

[blackice]

200 million users is hardly extinction and still much larger than most Chromium projects. It isn’t looking as good as the good old days, but they are settling into their niche.

 

[blackice]

And the best thing about Firefox is you can pop out any video in PiP. Even sites like Hulu that for some reason block that in Chrome.