Lately I've been noticing a number of people criticising the performance of the latest versions of Firefox, since 1.5. With IE7 coming very soon, with many of the features that Firefox has (tabs, RSS integration, etc), now is not a good time for Firefox to lose developer support. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but remember when Netscape got overtaken by IE circa 1997? From an article I wrote a couple of years ago in Digital Web Magazine:
"By 1997 Microsoft had finally caught up with and indeed overtaken Netscape in browser technology. While Netscape was the first to release its 4.0 browser, in June 1997, Microsoft soon trumped it with the release of IE 4.0 in October that year. IE 4.0 was widely seen as being a superior product—for example, IE’s stylesheet support was better than Navigator’s."
Well the signs are beginning to show that Microsoft may do it again - nearly 10 years later - and trump the technical leader in the browser wars. The ball is in Firefox's court though and it's by no means too late to stop the rot. Firefox desparately needs to keep the upper hand in browser innovation and performance.
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
Firefox has better security and features. I.E. is struggling to keep up. Internet Explorer has too many security flaws and doesn't render html and css 100% true.
Firefox is still the major secure browser.
Posted by: matt k. | February 13, 2006 3:59 PM
All great points Matt and I agree about Firefox's security. However I'm not so sure that "I.E. is struggling to keep up". They've shown time and again that they can very quickly catch up - and surpass. I'm cheering for Firefox, I use it and I generally love it. But they can't get complacent and let performance slip...
Posted by: Richard MacManus | February 13, 2006 4:07 PM
Security aside (cause face it, every popular thing will have them), I would hate to have IE win and go back to sleep. I would use another browser just so IE has competition if it comes to that. IE is simply catching up, not creating anything new IMO.
But Firefox is far more productive and enjoyable to use, with it's extensions. Does IE have greasemonkey? Honestly, I didn't know there could be so much more to browsing before I switched.
Posted by: Klim | February 13, 2006 5:01 PM
I will continue to use Firefox, because of all the cool and useful extensions, which I don't see coming to IE any time soon.
Posted by: loom001 | February 13, 2006 8:06 PM
Really funny to read this just as I start wondering about my use of Firefox. I've been using it for about 6 months now and yesterday I had a problem with it so tried with IE and it worked fine, in fact faster/better. Got me thinking why I and so many others were using Ff and concluded that other than supposed functionality advantages, it probably has a lot to do with being anti-establishment!!! Up to a point of course and when that point is reached (when something goes mainstream) then the law of diminishing returns kicks in. I then wondered if this might be happening to Ff??? Then I read your post...
Posted by: Stephen Danelutti | February 14, 2006 5:22 AM
" the technical leader in the browser wars "
you should take a look at Opera.
Posted by: ashot | February 14, 2006 11:32 PM
I use Firefox on all my computers, I simply prefer it. As I'm constantly testing new stuff I gave IE 7 a whirl and I have to say that if the final release of IE7 is anything like it's 2nd Beta Firefox has nothing to worry about. IE7 B2 is terrible in so many ways, it comes across as a minimalist rip-off of Firefox that screws up CSS left right and centre.
Firefox just need to keep pushing the envelope and play with new concepts, even if they don't make it into final releases and only get released as extensions. Take Microsoft's Group Bar for instance (a fantastic concept IMO) and see if the same grouping concept could be beneficial to Firefox.
Posted by: Daniel, Rogue Connect | February 16, 2006 12:41 PM
Firefox is a memory hog. It crashes on me about 3 times daily. Grr...
Posted by: Kenny | February 25, 2006 4:10 AM