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An open letter to MOZILLA
13 years ago
>> Throw me some love! <<
http://www.patreon.com/cobalt
Dear Mozilla,
I have been content with your web browser, Firefox, for a good many years. I have fond memories of Netscape Navigator from the wild and wooly days of the early web, and it's good to know that the browser I'm using comes from such pedigree stock. Also, it isn't Internet Explorer.
Now, I have an iPod touch, and although it is quite nice, it has a few annoyances built into it. The lack of a Firefox browser is one of them. And, as there seemed to be a firm dismissal from your company that one would ever appear on the iDevice platform, I resigned myself to using the built-in Safari browser, because it was already there.
I was therefore pleased to hear that a new offering was in the works - a Mozilla browser for the iOS. And I eagerly sat down to watch the discussion video on this webpage:
https://air.mozilla.org/product-design-at-mozilla/
It was a bit off-putting. And not so much due to the tech demo, as due to the clueless nature of the discussion:
Why would anyone choose Firefox over Chrome?
Since your employee there seems to think that there isn't a reason, allow me to give you one: PLUGINS.
That's it. That's the reason your icon is on my desktop. That and nothing else.
I use Firefox for the plugins I have attached to it. My Adblock, My Noscript. My Ghostery, and on and on and on.
When I started using Firefox, it was the only browser that offered these. I got it so I could get them.
So, when your man there starts saying that in order to stay one jump ahead of everybody, that you need to do the tried & true thing, of screwing with the interface, I can only respond thusly: STOP WASTING MY TIME.
One of the great things about Firefox, is that over the years, and through all the varied tampering with the interface by your employees, from one version to the next, Firefox's plug-in architecture and skinning have allowed me to undo damn near every single change they have introduced. My Firefox looks and acts almost exactly the same way it has since that day I first installed it.
Because that's how I want it.
You want to impress me? You want me to use your client on an iDevice? Then give me what Safari can't.
Give me my damn plugins.
Give me my customization.
Give me control of my user experience.
Freedom Of Choice is the killer app.
You want in?
Get on it.
I have been content with your web browser, Firefox, for a good many years. I have fond memories of Netscape Navigator from the wild and wooly days of the early web, and it's good to know that the browser I'm using comes from such pedigree stock. Also, it isn't Internet Explorer.
Now, I have an iPod touch, and although it is quite nice, it has a few annoyances built into it. The lack of a Firefox browser is one of them. And, as there seemed to be a firm dismissal from your company that one would ever appear on the iDevice platform, I resigned myself to using the built-in Safari browser, because it was already there.
I was therefore pleased to hear that a new offering was in the works - a Mozilla browser for the iOS. And I eagerly sat down to watch the discussion video on this webpage:
https://air.mozilla.org/product-design-at-mozilla/
It was a bit off-putting. And not so much due to the tech demo, as due to the clueless nature of the discussion:
Why would anyone choose Firefox over Chrome?
Since your employee there seems to think that there isn't a reason, allow me to give you one: PLUGINS.
That's it. That's the reason your icon is on my desktop. That and nothing else.
I use Firefox for the plugins I have attached to it. My Adblock, My Noscript. My Ghostery, and on and on and on.
When I started using Firefox, it was the only browser that offered these. I got it so I could get them.
So, when your man there starts saying that in order to stay one jump ahead of everybody, that you need to do the tried & true thing, of screwing with the interface, I can only respond thusly: STOP WASTING MY TIME.
One of the great things about Firefox, is that over the years, and through all the varied tampering with the interface by your employees, from one version to the next, Firefox's plug-in architecture and skinning have allowed me to undo damn near every single change they have introduced. My Firefox looks and acts almost exactly the same way it has since that day I first installed it.
Because that's how I want it.
You want to impress me? You want me to use your client on an iDevice? Then give me what Safari can't.
Give me my damn plugins.
Give me my customization.
Give me control of my user experience.
Freedom Of Choice is the killer app.
You want in?
Get on it.
Firefox, stop turning into Chrome. If I wanted to use Chrome, I'd be using Chrome.
The only thing I didn't like was not seeing the title of the page at the top like in previous versions. But then I found a plugin for that.
I also plan on making a custom skin for it too.
Chrome's interface seems to just say "Here are some tabs, an address bar, and a nice button if you need to do anything else".
I stuck with firefox for a while because of the plugins, but once I got adblock for Chrome, I switched. I have to say, I very much enjoy my web browser now, because it fades into the background. It just backs away, and lets you get to browsing.
The reason to stick with firefox used to be the plugins, but most of those have Chrome equivalents now. Mozilla just seems to be running the project into the ground. :C
Anyways, my two cents.
Thought this would be about the resize problems in Win7 that appeared in the last FF update.
Also, if you want a better browser for a mobile device try looking up dolphin.
Also, I want my empty new tabs back, I'd rather not know what kind of porn my friends like.