Well, yes, actually. I just think Apple's failure to support Flash and Google's overtly political decision to drop H.264 support are far more relevant to real users today than the various emerging technologies that bring the browser one step closer to being an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of an operating system. I just don't see that as the right path to take anyway, and I certainly don't see it as a higher priority than supporting the numerous existing web sites that use Flash or holding up what should be the killer feature of HTML5 for the immediate future.
Of course I would prefer that all browsers support all useful standards with complete compliance, but in the real world we have to prioritise to some extent, and I prefer Microsoft's choices at this particular moment in time.
> What do you mean by "performance of the UI slowed".
I haven't diagnosed the problems in detail. I'm just getting bored of waiting several seconds for my browser to start up, one slow-loading tab holding up all the others, horribly slow scrolling on pages with certain CSS styles applied (usually some sort of fixed background), and other obvious delays during routine use. Neither IE nor Chrome exhibits these problems, and Firefox never used to. I realise that it's possible that these delays are actually due to the extensions I use, but there are only a few and they are all very popular ones without which Firefox is seriously lacking in basic functionality, so I don't see much point in distinguishing the core browser from the software I actually use when it comes to the user experience.
> You mention running tabs independently (as independent processes presumably) I didn't know that IE8 did this?
Actually, IE8 did it first, Chrome did it next, and two years later IE still doesn't do it at all.
See, for example, http://www.nofullstop.com/2008/09/30/independent-tabs-featur...
Ah, I think the disconnect is that this isn't the UI that's at fault it's the application. For me all the browsers work equally crummily and that appears mainly to be Flash's fault.
I didn't realise IE8 had independent tabs because I've only ever had the whole app go down. Similarly Chrome locks up for me as much as FF. FF does seem to have gotten a little slower up to FF3 but I think that FF4 is an improvement.
You mean like satisfying current internet standards and meeting the draft standards head on to allow browsers to exploit the latest advances in web design and development off the bat rather than having to wait years-and-years and drag back the whole development of the www as a medium.
>Meanwhile, I have been less impressed with each successive version of Firefox, as performance of the UI slowed, things got moved around or more cluttered, and they didn't keep up with what I regard as essential features in a web app world like running tabs independently.
What do you mean by "performance of the UI slowed". You've stated quite clearly that performance is only a factor for you up to the point it is fast enough. So, it seems something in the UI is so slow as to be unusable for you - the UI is pretty much non existent though isn't it. There's an address bar, couple of buttons, search bar - what is significantly slowing you down there? The actual user interfaces save a few niceties (like Chrome's tab closing, optional tabs on top in Chrome/FF/Op, etc.) are pretty similar in their standard forms.
You mention running tabs independently (as independent processes presumably) I didn't know that IE8 did this?