Re: [LUG] Mozilla losing the plot a little bit further

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Subject: Re: [LUG] Mozilla losing the plot a little bit further

From: Simon Avery <digdilem@xxxxxxxxx>

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:52:17 +0000

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I'm confused. Why does the default search engine make you feel better
about moving to a proprietary browser?

If you don't like Yahoo, change to Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo with two clicks.

Bigger picture. I do actually care about Mozilla, having been a user and supporter for a very very long time.

It hurts me to see major decisions being railroaded through against user opinion time and time again.

Three examples off the top of my head:

1. Entering into and exaggerating the version wars, discarding a well used, logical and established methodology "because Chrome's got a higher version number than us"

2. Dramatically changing the UI to be almost identical to Chrome's, and making this a difficult thing to reverse (requiring a third party plugin). FF isn't Chrome, it should value its own identity.Â

Both of these show Mozilla are mentally playing catch-up to Chrome and trying to be as much like it as they can. I think that's a horrible mistake and removes a lot of choice to the user. FF should strive to be itself.

3. This. I understand (but dislike) the logic, but don't accept that it is in the user's best interests to give them a lower quality default. Yes - it's a default, but take a look at the wider picture. Two clicks doesn't include the time to understand, research and apply the fix - especially for non-technical users. They might not understand it's even possible.

Yes - all browsers (except maybe Opera) are 'free', and what you get for that is amazing. I think the choice now isÂ

1. Iexplore because you're non-technical and don't know better.Â

2. Chrome because it's fast, free and well supported.Â

3. Firefox because there are far more plugins for it (which are less liable to break between versions than Chrome)

4. Opera/various because you're very niche.

The differences between 2 and 3 are minimal from a user's pov and I think chrome is better for most people overall. A personal opinion and one that's no more valid than someone else's. I'm annoyed about this and the other reasons because I care about choice and don't want Mozilla to misguidedly sleepwalk into making a copy of somebody else software.