Firefox May Already Be Dead

By Keir Thomas, PC World, 03/20/09

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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.

Browser Showdown: IE 8 vs. Firefox

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.

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