Also they're starting to phase out -webkit tags for experimental chrome only features. They're hidden behind flags so you basically can't use them in production unless it's endorsed as part of the spec.
Not to derail but safari mobile is the real IE6, plus lock in so users can't even get away from it.
It's going to be harder to unseat Chrome. IE 6 wasn't so difficult due to an increase in competition who offered features that IE wasn't even working on (standards, tabs, etc). How would you even unseat Chrome?
I miss the "DOM" tab, that Firebug for Firefox had features had, and I haven't found anywhere else. You can browse the DOM tree state and edit - similar to Smalltalk and Windows Registry - very useful & powerful. Sadly, they just killed Firebug, broke the addon, deactivated it with an update and replaced it with a still not feature-complete (at the moment sub-par) solution.
It's in the Fx DevTools sinve v48 [1]. You may need to enable it though in the DevTools settings.
> Sadly, they just killed Firebug, broke the addon, deactivated it with an update and replaced it with a still not feature-complete (at the moment sub-par) solution.
Who's they? The Firebug Team works with the DevTools team since forever to port all functionality to the internal tools. The Firebug Team decided it was not worth to maintain the standalone version beyond v2 (also related to architectural changes to Fx, see project e10s) since they almost achieved feature parity by now and are working on the last remaining pieces [3]. Firebug v3 is Fx DevTools + a lot of extra features that Firebug never had. If you miss a feature in the DevTools, try Fx DevEdition [3].
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/DOM_Property_...
[2] https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/12/firebug-lives-on-in-firefo...
But my guess is that Google will become more and more monopolistic, more and more close in disguise. And closer to the big companies interest with DRM and such.
And if Mozilla keeps being Mozilla, they will be a natural alternative.
Nah, people have lots of memory.
I honestly don't know (but...then that's not such a bad thing, right?).
Some examples:
- debugging with source maps: it doesn't work properly (I can set breakpoints and debug variables content on typescript files in Chrome, but not in FF)
- JS exceptions: clicking on the filename inside the stack opens a new window with the source of the JS file, not the debugger (ugh)
- doesn't support typescript highlighting
[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Firefox&c...
I won't directly mention the project that's best placed to do that, as it's not yet ready for primetime, but let's just say Chrome may not have the performance crown in the next 5 years.
Also, aside from on the Mac, what's holding back Firefox? I accept that the Mac version seems to have more problems than the Windows or Linux versions (I have no technical explanation for this, it's just what I've heard anecdotally), but on Windows it seems to be a solid choice. Is it just about momentum for Chrome rather than superiority at this point?
(And don't get me started on services like XMarks. They're miles behind.)
Servo?
The other thing is that major libraries (CSS, JS: jQuery, bootstrap, React) make sure they work on all browsers so you don't have to worry about that part.
The winXP-IE6 was hell because that never happened, you always had to changes to make it work on IE6 and some other changes to support IE7 and so on.
I did not check on mobile though.
Known issue and I'm yet to see a fix (other than "mbasic" which you have to use for messenger anyway).
Almost everything else seems to be fixed with uBlock Origin and/or Reading Mode.
most web problems are now bugs either by the site developer or in a specific browser.
thats a long way from ie6 problems where either you needed a unique site configuration for every browser or supported ie6 only.
Certainly you realize this kind of cycle has been going on for longer than that. In browsers, yeah, but that's only because browsers have only existed that long.
This is pretty much the way of all software cycles since the dawn of computers. No area of software that i'm aware of has really broken out of this kind of cyclic behavior.
Sorry :(
I'm always surprised why this is the case. Firefox Mobile + UBlock Origin works really well and is only very slightly slower than Chrome, while also blocking ads
It’s not that sites support Firefox, it’s that Firefox tries to implement 1:1 what Chrome does. At far less than a tenth of the budget.
Probably doesn't help that google plaster "get google chrome" over all of their services.
Read: Google is the internet. Google is whom you should trust.
What I don't understand about Firefox is that Mozilla have a lot of money but progress seems very slow. Sure they get there in the end (or most of the way) but it just seems to take forever. Why?
Money isn't necessarily the issue for Mozilla, they managed to create a decent browser with a fraction of the big player's budget. As always, it's the triangle of complexity and time and manpower, they just can't fight on all fronts at once. At the moment, they are trying to get rid of a lot of legacy that prevented them from improving some aspects of the system (see project e10s, WebExtensions, etc.) all while preserving as much of the ecosystem as possible – which is very hard due to the current extension system that was created more than 10 years ago and just doesn't fit the bill anymore. E.g. e10s is already going on for 5 years or so and it just started rolling out a few months ago.
Good news is that with these projects completing (improving overall responsiveness), there's a huge new project starting (Project Quantum) that aims to overhaul major parts of the rendering engine. This will integrate a lot of the research and investment poured into Rust and Servo, which will probably outrun current browsers by an order of magnitude (at least in some aspects that has already been shown, see WebRender).
As opposed to Google, Apple and Microsoft?
Consider what happened to Opera. I think you vastly underestimate the complexity of modern browsers. By orders of magnitude.
while i also hate that chrome has such a big influence, if all of them implement the common specs, i would be ok with that.
When someone calls me ignorant I don't necessarily feel like replying.
Our opinions are based on life experience, watching the same cycles unfold time and time again.
The next one will be the demise of open source ideals after everyone has migrated away from GPL for everything but the Linux kernel.
I will give it around 10 years for it to happen.
What about updating the BSD distribution on the PS4?
Firefox Mobile does not meet that rule for us. I know personally a single person who uses it, and that's only because he's fiercely anti-Google.
There's just little sense testing against something no one is using, lest we want to test NetPositive [1].
Maybe because (almost) no one uses it? It's definitely a vicious cycle (If there are no users, there won't be any testing on that platform. If there is no testing on that platform, there are no users.).
Developer time/resources are not unlimited. It's not worth their while to target an obscure platform.
This is logical. If you have limited developer resources, it makes sense to target the most popular combos first. Until we have true "write once run anywhere" it will always be this way.
PS - I miss Presto-based Opera.
It is slowly starting too look like in the early 00's, most developers are starting to support only chrome, with no testing in Firefox or latest IE.
On Android it is even worse, no one is testing with Firefox Mobile (Fennec) - this is WinXP-IE6 all over again.