Talk about software that has lost its luster - Part 2

Last time we looked back at the Microsoft's browser that was once very popular, but now has fallen into the era. Today, let's see the decline of Firefox.

The rise of Chromium brings a similar fate to all browser products that use proprietary kernels. Microsoft's browser is dead, and so is Firefox. Firefox has long used its own Gecko kernel, but now IE/Edge and Opera, which also use their own kernel, have surrendered to Chromium, making Firefox unique.

Firefox was originally the netscape browser, which was acquired by AOL after it was defeated by Internet explorer. 

The Mozilla foundation has since developed a suite of Internet application components, including the Gecko typography engine, XUL user interface tools, Necko network libraries, and other components that together form the foundation of Firefox. Thanks to this design, Firefox has the power to extend what ordinary users call "plugins." Due to its powerful expansibility, Firefox and IE were able to compete with each other in the market. In terms of technology, Firefox was the No. 1 browser at that time.

 

Firefox, however, has one fatal flaw - it's too thin to have a strong enough backer.

 

Mozilla foundation's economic income mainly comes from financing. For example, Google once signed an agreement with Mozilla, which may cost as much as $300 million every three years. However, Google gets a large amount of advertising revenue from the search box of Firefox (which Mozilla shares with Google), and Mozilla foundation also gets more than 85% of the revenue from Google.

 

                     

Firefox was an important counterweight to IE for Google for a long time, but then things changed.

 

However, as we all know, Google went out of its way to fight, and the support center naturally shifted from Firefox to Chrome.

Google to kill off all the way from the commanding heights of the mobile Internet, other browsers simply overwhelmed, although the Mozilla foundation tried to launch the Firefox OS a foothold in the mobile marketbut in the end did not shake the iOS and android both mountain - Microsoft could not do, count on an open source of fund, also seems to be too escapist. 

 

            

 

 

Firefox OS features Web applications but has not been a success.

 

With the loss of the mobile market, Firefox has lost the means to fight back. The market share has been dropped from a peak of 30% to 5% or so. But Firefox still insist on using the kernel, which allows it to maintain its high playability and openness - Firefox has a lot more customizable space than Chrome.

 

           

 

Firefox's market share is at rock bottom. How much longer can it hold out?

 

Firefox's decline due to the lack of a strong backing, it is not like IE/Edge and Chrome, has big wet nurse on the back with a constant supply of ammo. Firefox is not blind to the direction of the mobile Internet, but limited by volume is too small, powerless.

 

However, Firefox still has its unique charm. Although Firefox's market share is slipping to the point of "other", it still has a lot of iron powder. Under the offensive of the Chromium, How long can Firefox insist on?

Hopefully, in addition to Safari, which has iOS and macOS as basic disks, we can still experience non-chromium browsers like Firefox all the time. 

 

 

To be continued.