Firefox Users Down to 4%!

"They don't support FireFox", as if there should be any special effort. The truth is that they use complicated web building tools that do their utmost to be fully compatible with only *one* browser and be a nuisance to the rest. Follow the money!

Jeroen Belleman

Firefox on windows 10 works more or less OK so far as far as I can tell, I only run Edge if I see some problem.

On Android it is a completely different story. At some point they did a major "update", about a year ago - which was more like a new browser, a completely useless one at that. "About: config" had gone, everything had become a lot clunkier. I keep the newest version of the old firefox on my phone - which is far from perfect, e.g. there is no way to render an image full screen, the address bar is always there, but for my main use with the phone while out and about it works.

Chrome works as well for that use but is heavier thus slower (higher latency, rather), or may be not but I am just used to the other one.

Now *why* did firefox decide to gradually shut down their operation is beyond me but this is obviously the path they have taken. Or all marginally competent programmers on the planet have died out.

Dimiter

====================================================== Dimiter Popoff, TGI

Try Opera if you want something none Chrome. FF is now F*****

I keep all my bookmarks in a Dropbox folder. Any browser can open them.

We've found many websites don't work without "reasonably current" versions of browsers. The downside to web-based services is the service provider is in control of versioning; THEY can decide that *you* need to update your client, regardless of your intent.

By contrast, locally hosted services let you control the update process.

Doesn't matter. Folks have limited IT budgets and rely heavily on scripted solutions to build their sites. Whatever those tools decide to support is what you're stuck with.

And this is exactly the boat you are in with web-based services! When the site is (re)built using technologies that your older software (browser) doesn't support, you have two choices: stop using the site or update to a supported browser (client)

But only for trivial applications! I can run an email client on a 386 with 4MB (that's MEGA, not GIGA) of RAM and a 20MB (again, MEGA) disk drive. But, laying out a PCB on that box will take me *days*! Playing video... <shrug>

I'm using FireFox and have no problems with 99.9% of the web sites I visit. The ones I do have trouble with appear to be geared to a single browser like Chrome.

AIR this happened before in the 90s when Netscape tried to corner the market. Didn't work out well for them then, not sure it will now.

Google is NOT your friend!

John :-#(#

I use Firefox for most everything on my desktops, Chrome on my Chromebooks, Firefox on my Windoze laptops, and Chrome on my phone. I have the most problems with Firefox on my desktops because I haven't cleaned up my Firefox options file and history mess from 19 years of Firefox updates.

Not Netscape. It was Microsoft who contrived Internet Explorer Extensions, that only worked in IE, and could not be licensed by competitors. If you tried to use a web page running on a server built from Front Page, or used IE Extensions, you browsing experience would be less than satisfactory.

Google was Mozilla's friend by paying large amounts of cash to make Google Search the default search engine in Firefox. They stopped doing that about 2 years ago. Without the Google revenue, Mozilla was forced to slow Firefox development and look for other sources of income.

I find it interesting that Microsoft's 1996 strategy for destroying Netscape was to give away for free, what Netscape was selling. That caused Netscape to collapse. Now, we have Google doing something similar to Mozilla.

Rick C snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

I have been a Firefox user since it's inception. I like that I can put fractals or other motifs on the title and border areas. I have never had a problem with it. Recently had one with the Adobe plug in, but is Adobe's problem. And I have the full Acrobat product too. They are (greedy) idiots over there. I use Chrome on my phones because it easily retains what you were doing and pops it back up, so stopping for a message or call doesn't have you losing what you were up to.

Jeff Urban snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

That is stupid. I am fully updated and have never used Edge and Microsift has never deleted anything.

I think it was operator error wrongly attributed to a culprit other than the dope in front of the keyboard.

Jeroen Belleman snipped-for-privacy@nospam.please wrote in news:s3ao6g$cmk$1 @gioia.aioe.org:

Thanks for the corrections, and background on what is happening to FireFox.

Someone needs to break up Google...they have way too much power.

John :-#(#

Opera, like Edge, is Chromium with a different wrapper.

I have a friend who does web development and every brand of browser has unique "features" aka bugs that have to be worked around. So yes, each browser has to be supported.

She works on the internal browser based interfaces for a medical testing lab. I'm not sure why they can't mandate everyone use the same browser, but apparently that is mandated by other sources which vary depending on which part of the operation is being addressed. Rather than write code for a custom application, they use the browser to do the heavy lifting. Not a bad way to go.

I also happen to do a bit of web development from time to time. There are indeed differences in JavaScript libraries between different browsers. The trick is to not use those features. This is one reason why I avoid using web building tools, because that would make me loose control of such issues.

When I make a web site, I make sure it works with any browser. Nobody should mandate any particular browser.

Jeroen Belleman

Do you ever do pro bono work? I have a friend who runs a non-profit that adheres to that philosophy, lol. He could use some help with the web site. He gets lots of complaints about not having a certificate. I tried to fix the problem with a free certificate, but the site was written with a bunch of internal references that are http: and they continue to cause problems. He is still looking for a solution I believe.