Firefox is endangered


It’s my turn, as the 86 388th blogger, to write about Google Chrome. There are plenty of articles on the web about whether Google Chrome is better, faster, should be released for Linux and Mac, etc. Something I think have gone unnoticed, is that this most likely will mean that Firefox will die.

Firefox won’t disappear tomorrow, but with time the fox will disappear.

Why will the fox die out?

Mozilla, the developer of Firefox, have developed their own rendering system: Gecko. Google Chrome however uses WebKit for its rendering.

Wait, wait, wait – rendering system?

A browser can be divided into two parts. What you see around and on top and the main area – where the web page is. Around the web page you find stuff such as: Addons, Tabs, etc. In the main area the rendering occurs. Because of this, web pages do not look the same in different browsers. The goal is that of course that the web page is rendered in the same way in all browsers, which is a web developers wet dream. A web page is written in codes, such as a headline: <h1> Wait, wait, wait – rendering system?</ H1>. The different browsers to disagree on what this <h1> code and how it should appear / rendered on your screen.

Ok, keep on

So Google Chrome uses another open source renderings system: WebKit. Gecko (Firefox’s rendering system) can compete with WebKit today. But WebKit will evolve to become a standard of the Web that Gecko won’t be able to measure up against. To find out why, we’ll have to look at who’s behind WebKit.

The fact that Google is supporting the WebKit development can be enough to kill Firefox, but little Mozilla (the developer of the Gecko) must not only compete against big Google. The biggest contributor to WebKit is Apple, which uses WebKit for the Saferi browser on their Macs, PCs and iPhones, and if if that wasn’t enough, Nokia also supports WebKit.

What do you think? Does Mozilla stand a chance against Google, Apple and Nokia?

Popularity: 31% [?]

September 3rd, 2008 | Other


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15 comments

Thanks for all your replies! Especially yours, Stibbons, gave me some more insight

Comment by Jon Ramvi — November 30, 2008 @ 9:43 pm

Hei

IMHO google is “big Brother” in the Web as the nice work from Redmond is it to the PC – that’s why FF will never die, cos Moz.Foundation respects the privacy of it’s user. And what’s about security if everybody is using nice “klicky-bunty”? Right: more riskware. I think, FF to Chrome is “the same” as W$ to Linux – maybe it tooks longer time to reach one’s goal, but many people aren’t so trustful in google. Sorry, my english is aweful *g*

Ha de to norge!

Comment by TilliT — October 13, 2008 @ 11:52 pm

I don’t like particularly Safari, I’ve installed Ubuntu on my Mac Mini, and I’m happier with Firefox. I like Opera Mini on my smartphone, but I’ve found Opera browser less close to web standards. Maybe the last version…

Comment by Mosfet — September 11, 2008 @ 10:16 am

Actualy I believe neither firefox or google chrome will survive. First of all , firefox has been lost in dust ever since opera is out. And as for google chrome. It uses webkit wich is good and bad at the same time. Sure it can be much more performent. But Safari is the less secure browser around , even more than Konqueror. Sure its fast but its unsafe. I preffer Opera because 1st – it is fast and lightweight. and 2nd – it is incredibly safe , almost scary-safe.

Comment by norton_killer — September 5, 2008 @ 5:00 am

Firefox is based on gecko and integrating Webkit in Firefox is a non-sense. Don’t forget that firefox is just the visible part of the iceberg: a huge number of projects are based on XUL/gecko, and Firefox is the most famous one.

Chrome is a very bad news for IE8, and quite a bad one for firefox: users willing to switch out of IE8 will goes to Chrome instead of Firefox.
So, this will force Mozilla to develop FF and reduce memory usage, CPU time, etc, or they will die. Their community is extraordinary, and the powerful XUL architecture allows the extention system to be part of the identity of Firefox.

Don’t think because something is better now everything else has to die elsewhere.

Webkit as a web standard??? no, webkit follows the web standard, not perfectly, like gecko, but this IS not the web standard itself.

And Google is also supporting financially Mozilla up to 2011. That’s enough for Mozilla to prepare the worst case (google to drop out mozilla completly). I’m pretty confident that chrome will not be the nightmare of firefox BUT IE.

PS: the EULA of Chrome will be revised, don’t be so alarming. Google is not like Microsoft, when admit when they do mistakes.

PPS: Epiphany still use gecko as the main rendering system, but an experimental version uses Webkit. And Epiphany is absolutely NOT a fork of Firefox, it’s a complete different project that use the same rendering engine (Gecko), that’s all. Firefox is XUL based while Epiphany is GTK based.

Comment by Stibbons — September 4, 2008 @ 1:00 pm

@By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services@

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-chrome-sucks.html

I don|t want to use chrome ever. And also not in zour nice UbuntuEEE linux!

Comment by Katzenstreu — September 4, 2008 @ 7:13 am

Hehe, “how do we get people to stop using Adblock? We need more revenue!” “We could make a new browser and hype it?”

Comment by Jon Ramvi — September 4, 2008 @ 12:44 am

I’m putting Windows XP on my Eee PC 901 right now, so I can try out Chrome. It’s perfect for netbooks – it’s designed to run web apps, not view web pages, and it’s so dang FAST. Needs a fullscreen button, though. Can’t wait for the Linux version of it. I’d love Ubuntu EEE 8.04.1 + Chrome.

Comment by Josh Bancroft — September 4, 2008 @ 12:17 am

Stupid Chrome can’t comment on stuff on Facebook, pop out the chat, etc…

Comment by Jon Ramvi — September 3, 2008 @ 11:49 pm

Just tried it.. It’s fucking fast!

Comment by Thomas — September 3, 2008 @ 10:45 pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmitch/2507782995/

Comment by Mr Mitch — September 3, 2008 @ 10:40 pm

LazyFan, thanks for taking to time to answer me :) I’m replying from Chrome. This is what I’m experiencing:
- Spell checker in the text input box, as in Firefox, but I had to restart the browser to change the language to English.
- After I restarted the browser, my tabs didn’t come back up.
- I can resize the text input box – nice

Anyway, my reply:
1. Chrome also got tabs and an easy ui
2. I can absolutely see your plugin point. However, most users don’t download plugins..
3. There is already a fork of Firefox using the webkit rendering system: Epiphany. If people go from Firefox to Epiphan, Firefox is dying..

Comment by Jon Ramvi — September 3, 2008 @ 10:32 pm

Part of the Chrome EULA.

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.”

They want it all.

It looks like a great browser but this clause stinks.

Long live Firefox

Comment by Mr Mitch — September 3, 2008 @ 10:27 pm

I think your wrong and here is why:

Users like FF for many major reasons but the top two are:

1) Non Geek User
It has TABS and easy STANDARD UI.

2) Geek User
It has many great can’t live without plugin’s.

Lets suppose there is a third top reason:

3) Wants Best Renderer Engine And only the BEST type of User

Now what’s to stop FF developers including WebKit as a Rendering Engine and it is switch able between Gecko and Webkit?

Then I would say how can Chrome compete with FF that has two best of breed display engines?

Lets suppose FF refuses to include WebKit. Then it will be forked, welcome to the Open Source revolution.

What I think will really happen is FF will still be the winner but it won’t be the FF we use today!

Comment by LazyFan — September 3, 2008 @ 10:13 pm

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