1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
|
Firefox, the once mighty web browser that could, has been <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/">bleeding market share</a> and, perhaps more importantly, developer mind share, for some time.
Between bundling unwanted features like Pocket, popcorn worthy CEO dramas, tone deaf, seemingly clueless management and the fact that that Chrome feels faster, stabler and less bloated, Firefox long ago started to feel like a project in need of eulogy.
In fact Firefox feels a bit like it has come full circle. The browser that started as a fork of the bloated, poorly managed Netscape project has become the very same thing itself. That sort of symmetry makes Firefox feel a bit dead.
It's tempting to dance on Firefox's grave, but that doesn't help the web. Firefox and yes, Mozilla.org, were a huge part of making the web the standards-friendly, accessible thing that it is today.
Firefox will soon be the only browser not using the WebKit rendering engine. Despite what what some web developers would have you believe, monocultures, whether <a href="http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/agriculture_02">potatoes</a> or web browser are almost always bad for users.
Firefox is also the only web browser not developed by a major corporation with shareholders to answer to, putting it in a unique position to give voice to a non-corporate or even anti-corporate agenda for the web.
In short, we need Firefox. The web needs Firefox.
But the web needs the Firefox of old, not the Firefox of pointless Pocket integrations, homophobic CEOs and pointless UI tinkering.
The good news is that Mozilla seems to be slowly waking up to the reality around it. Earlier this week Dave Camp, Firefox’s director of engineering, fired off two emails outlining what sounds like a big shift in focus for the company and, one hopes, the future of Firefox.
In the <a href="https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/firefox-dev/2015-July/003062.html">first email</a> Camp outlines three areas Mozilla intends to change, namely, less bloat in the browser, smarter, optional partnership integrations (making things like the Pocket integration optional) and more user-facing features like some upcoming improvements to Firefox's Private Browsing mode.
Perhaps the most encouraging big of Camp's email is the news that Mozilla has a new effort dubbed "Great or Dead". "Every feature in the browser should be polished, functional, and a joy to use," writes Camp. "Where we can't get it to that state, we shouldn't do it at all." In other words, if it isn't great it should go.
Top of that list for many users would be the Pocket integration that showed up recently amid much gnashing of user teeth. Users wanted to know why a service that only a tiny fraction of Firefox users actually use was made a default, non-removable part of the browser.
The answer of course is money. Partnerships like the one with Pocket help Mozilla stay afloat.
That said, Camp acknowledges that "Pocket should have been a bundled add-on that could have been more easily removed entirely from the browser... fixing that for Pocket and any future partner integrations is one concrete piece of engineering work we need to get done."
In other words don't expect Pocket to be the last bundled deal Firefox pushes out, but in the future it will be easier to disable. Given the current state of software in general, users have already become experts in disabling things.
Another item in Camp's list of things that need to be Great or Dead is Firefox's transition to per-tab process. This effort, known as the Electrolysis project or "e10s" for short, will mean that each Firefox tab runs in a separate process. That means one tab crashing does not effect the rest of the browser. It also provides better security by sandboxing each tab. If all goes according to plan the early versions of this effort -- which will separate the web content process from the Firefox UI process -- should arrive by the end of the year.
While the Electrolysis project will eventually make Firefox more stable and secure, it's worth noting that Chrome and even IE have worked this way for years now.
In a <a href="https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/firefox-dev/2015-July/003063.html">second email</a> covering more technical details about Firefox's future, Camp says that Mozilla intends to "move Firefox away from XUL and XBL", two largely outdated bits of technology that help Firefox render on your screen. It's still in the very early discussion stages, but ditching XUL should help streamline Firefox's code base.
The problematic part of the change is that XUL is heavily used in add-on development, which will likely make this transition a long, drawn out process. But it's something that needs to be done. Part of what seems to be holding Firefox back is the company's (understandable) desire not to break add-ons, which are one of the last advantages Firefox has over competitors.
In a way Firefox has become the Windows of the web -- its desire not to break any backward compatibility has become a wall it continues to butt its head against. At some point it will have to break that wall down or it will indeed need a eulogy.
Firefox's biggest problems though may not technical at all. However it might be inside Mozilla, judging by Firefox's direction and development over the last couple years the company feels lost. That, perhaps more so than any technical problem is what has sent developers looking elsewhere. Chrome just feels sleeker and performs noticeably faster at common tasks, like switching between tabs.
Unfortunately, Chrome, sleek and speedy though it may be is, essentially spyware (yes, even Chromium). After download, Chrome/Chromium will remotely install audio-snooping code that is capable of listening to you. It's a feature of course, part of Google's hands free search for your desktop. And Google <a href="https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=500922#c6">claims it doesn't activate the audio component</a> in question unless you explicitly tell it to, but only the most willfully ignorant would argue that Google is a good bet if you want to maintain your privacy online.
And therein lies the reason the web needs Firefox, but the Firefox of old. Whether or not Mozilla's revamped focus can bring back the Firefox of old remains to be seen, but hopefully reports of Firefox's demise will turn out to be premature.
|
