Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Silicon Valley Columnist Idiotically Gives Firefox Obit

It was absolutely amazing to read Chris O'Brien in the San Jose Mercury News claim that Firefox will soon die. Can there be a more misinformed column than that one? Correct me if I'm wrong, but when Internet Explorer goes from 90% share to 42% in 5 years, shouldn't it be that browser talked about going under?

The point of the article seems to be the rapid increase in market share for Google Chrome, a browser I'm not that crazy about. Plus the fact that Google account for 86% of Mozilla's revenue in 2009. Thus what would happen if Google stopped supporting Mozilla?

The writer seems to be saying (using quotes from an IDC analyst)  Mozilla is "groping for a rationale for it's existence". That is absurd. The point is to improve standards & create better browsers. It was never about killing all other browsers. Without Firefox Microsoft would never have improved IE to the point that it meets standards that previously only Firefox & Opera met.

Firefox won't be going away anytime soon. Neither will Internet Explorer. Having choice is a good thing.

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