> then Google used anticompetitive practices to squash it

Not exactly. Apple happened.

Every "web designer" had to work on a macbook to be different like every one else. And firefox had dismal performances on those macbooks so said designers turned to the only browser with good tools and good enough performances: Chrome.

Next time you're told "performances don't matter", remember how it can be a differentiating feature and could cost you your market share.

> Every "web designer" had to work on a macbook

Sorry? Why? I must’ve missed that memo :)

Because working on Windows machines was a gigantic pain in the ass back then and Linux still kinda sucked as a desktop OS.

All the front-end devs I knew at the time switched to Macbooks after the Intel switch, because you could get a Unix-based machine that could run Safari and Firefox natively, and Internet Explorer in a VM. Chrome wasn’t even released at that point.

Google didn't use anticompetitive practices to squash it. They just made a better browser. When Chrome came out it was significantly better than Firefox. That's why people switched.

To be honest it's still better (at least if you ignore the manifest V3 nonsense).

I think it's pretty debatable that Chrome is currently better, but you're definitely correct. When Chrome first debuted (and for years afterwards) it was clearly superior to Firefox.