Article

2015-12-30 Science & Technology

Live by the sword, die by the sword. I stopped using Firefox when this insanity raised its ugly head. Then to Chromium, then to Chrome. Much happier, now.
THE OPEN WEB is in constant peril. Almost a generation ago, everyone worried Microsoft, which had the dominant web browser of the time, could dictate the content people saw and the tools developers use. Its dominance faded, but the rise of mobile prompted new concerns about the role Apple and Google play as gatekeepers to the web. And Facebook’s control over what people see and share online continues growing.

Since its founding in 2003, the Mozilla Foundation has served as a check on the power of tech giants like those. It’s among the few organizations in Silicon Valley that isn’t out to make anyone rich. Although its for-profit subsidiary, the Mozilla Corp., has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars through its partnership with Google, that money finances the development of the Firefox web browser and other open source projects. Unlike other tech companies, Mozilla needn’t collect massive amounts of personal data to mine for marketing gold.

Given the intrusive nature of government surveillance, Mozilla—with its dedication to privacy and independence from corporate and government interests—should be more vital than ever. But in the age of social media and mobile devices, it has struggled to maintain relevance and failed to transition to a world where the desktop browser is fading in importance. Mozilla hasn’t even dented the mobile market with mobile versions of its browser or its Firefox OS smartphone operating system. And the organization has done little to counteract Facebook’s expanding influence. What’s more, its foothold on the desktop continues to slip as Google Chrome grows in popularity.

Its prospects for the future are fuzzy at a time when the web needs an open alternative more than ever.

Posted by badanov 2015-12-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Note to college comp sci majors: volunteer work on firefox looks good on your resume....

Posted by Sven the pelter 2015-12-30 00:45|| 2015-12-30 00:45|| Front Page Top

#2 I use both for different types of browsing. I have discovered when google glitches - firefox doesn't

Posted by 3dc 2015-12-30 01:19|| 2015-12-30 01:19|| Front Page Top

#3 I like firefox but the major problem using firefox is that they have frequent updates and bugs. Using it every now and then, something goes wrong. When you go for support, they say initialise everything, and so you lose your setup and it rarely fixes anything. So about a year ago, I switched to Pale Moon, which is firefox fork. I love it. It's still firefox but its a lot better.

Posted by BernardZ 2015-12-30 04:07|| 2015-12-30 04:07|| Front Page Top

#4 I use Pale Moon but it has serious hiccups with videos and some websites. Always have to have a backup.

Posted by Procopius2k 2015-12-30 08:20|| 2015-12-30 08:20|| Front Page Top

#5 they'll take my Netscape from my cold dead hands. Anyone have an AOL disk?

Posted by Frank G 2015-12-30 08:51|| 2015-12-30 08:51|| Front Page Top

#6 Firefox was becoming more problematic as if IE was leaching into its soul. So Chrome became my goto browser but as a backup I chose Arora (I always use Linux at home).

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839 2015-12-30 10:07|| 2015-12-30 10:07|| Front Page Top

#7 NCSA Mosaic 'nuff said.

Posted by CrazyFool 2015-12-30 10:34|| 2015-12-30 10:34|| Front Page Top

#8 When they switched to gmail where I work I switched to Chrome. Resistance became futile so I assimilated. But face it, except for IE they're all included with that SiliconValley/California lunacy. And IE sucks. I like Pale Moon but, as has been noted, it is glitchy with video.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2015-12-30 11:19|| 2015-12-30 11:19|| Front Page Top

#9 Who needs infected video and images? Lynx forever - and it comes with a file system browser!

Posted by KBK 2015-12-30 14:10|| 2015-12-30 14:10|| Front Page Top

#10 Is Netscape still around, #5 Frank?

Who knew?

Posted by Barbara 2015-12-30 14:17|| 2015-12-30 14:17|| Front Page Top

#11 I still use Firefox, with Chrome as fallback. Noscript, UBlock, Ghostery etc. as add ons make the Web a safer place.

Posted by European Conservative 2015-12-30 15:05|| 2015-12-30 15:05|| Front Page Top

#12 Epic Privacy Browser & Firefox.

Posted by Iblis 2015-12-30 16:30|| 2015-12-30 16:30|| Front Page Top

#13 telnet www.rantburg.com. 80
...

Posted by CrazyFool 2015-12-30 16:58|| 2015-12-30 16:58|| Front Page Top

08:52 Matt
08:38 Gleng Whaick2262
08:35 Gleng Whaick2262
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08:33 Gleng Whaick2262
08:32 Gleng Whaick2262
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08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
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07:36 Procopius2k
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07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
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07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker