The death of Firefox

1. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   For the record, I am pro-Firefox.
   
   "It doesn’t look good for Firefox: Almost every month for the last three years, Firefox has lost ground to Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari. For most of 2009 the trend was fairly straight as it fended off Chrome and nibbled away at IE, but between 2010 and today Firefox has lost a third of its market share, from a worldwide peak of around 30% down to 20%."
   
   http://digg.com/newsbar/story/the_death_of_firefox

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      TheMagicianposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Lost ground to IE? My goodness... that's hard to believe!

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2. 69

   Michael Willisposted 12 years ago

   The Firefox browsers after 3.6 are just awful! I finally deleted the newer Firefox and went back to the 3.6. It is better than any IE or Chrome when I have used them. I have major crashing when I use Internet Explorer or Chrome. (Note: I am on dial-up)

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   1. 59

      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I may have to change my OP from "am" to "was".

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   2. 62

      PhoenixVposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I use a 3.625 version with a bunch of config tweaks. I had hoped with all the newest versions they would have something I liked, but I don't like that searching seeking status thingy at the bottom of the screen and dont want to add style addons just to get rid of it. Firefox has too many cool addons to dump.

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   3. 0

      paxwillposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that it peaked around versions 3.5, 3.6ish.  Each new update has been worse than the last on my computer, and moreover it seems like they issue a new updated version every nanosecond.  Okay, I exaggerate, but not by much
      
      With the latest version I installed  I can't refresh the pages--either with the refresh button or with ctr+F5.
      
      I only keep it because I use it for testing websites I create, but I stopped using it for browsing a while ago.

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3. 89

   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   I dropped it some time ago.  The developers are fools.  It s bloated, crash  probe and slow.
   
   I use Chrome now,  Firefox was dead to me a long time ago.

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   1. 59

      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had no idea! I was blaming my computer problems on the fact that I have a cheap, low-memory machine. I'm glad I posted this!

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      1. 61

         rodocopposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Try the K-Meleon. It's the best option for old and low-end PCs.
         More onfo here:
         http://rodocop.hubpages.com/hub/k-meleon

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Odd.  I've been using it for a little over a year, accepting all upgrades as they came.
      
      It is never crashed or frozen in that time.  It does very occasionally refuse to load (1% of the time or less) a site, but simply clicking the "go" button again always fixes it. 
      
      Nor can it be taking too many resources; like paradigm I have an old machine with just 1 meg of memory and have IE running at the same time, which definitely IS a resource hog.  Even then the only time the computer as a whole slows down is when I have those two programs (plus an antivirus, messenger and a couple more small things) running and try to edit 4 or 5 good size photos at the same time.

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      1. 59

         paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It will be interesting to see what the majority opinion is here, if any.

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   3. 74

      Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I was Firefox for a long time but Chrome just turned out to be what it claimed to be 'faster'.. I did like the add ons like SEOQuake but when Yahoo site Explorer died and backlinks weren't showing I switched

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4. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

   I use an updated version on a Mac, and I have no problems with it. I also use a Fios connection. It hasn't let me down.
   I tried Chrome for a day or two and didn't like it at all.

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      Green Lotusposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I too have fewer problems using Firefox on my Mac . Since IE hasn't been an option for years now, I've come to rely on it, but I wonder if some of the site hang ups are related to the newer version. (there have been 2 upgrades within 3weeks).
      
      Safari is ok, but I keep going back to Firefox . Haven't tried chrome but if I can transfer all my bookmarks easily I will test it out too.

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   2. 0

      paxwillposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It works much better on Macs for me as well.

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5. 71

   aguasilverposted 12 years ago

   I was an advocate, but now use chrome, my rig is custom built for graphics, web design and CAD so no speed problems, but I do find FF clunky in the later versions.
   
   Having said that I am slowly turning from a Google aficionado to having an aversion to their desire to run my world their way, so maybe I will switch back at some point, just to escape the Google mantra.... and their new browser face... hate it!
   
   I needless to say still have it on my rig to check website design.
   
   John

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6. 82

   Alexander Markposted 12 years ago

   Thank you wilderness for posting a solution to a problem I am having with Firefox ONLY on my Vista laptop. Otherwise, Firefox has been completely awesome and improves with every update.
   
   IE, on the other hand, is slow and buggy. Chrome is okay, but their minimalist design drives me nuts. Firefox does the same but they make it easy to find your tools if you peek around.
   
   Until I read all the responses, I thought Firefox had become THE standard for web browsers because I see the other ones often playing catch up. Oh well, if I'm not right, at least in MY mind Firefox is the leader ;-)

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7. 60

   Repairguy47posted 12 years ago

   Firefox is great!IE,Chrome not so great.

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8. 60

   Casey Strouseposted 12 years ago

   Seriously who cares about browser wars.  I use Safari and Opera because I prefer them and the Webkit engine.  Chrome has given me nothing but problems with caching and that hurts my ability to troubleshoot issues on my client's websites.  Never really used Firefox or IE.

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9. 70

   Kris Heeterposted 12 years ago

   Interesting - thanks for sharing this.  I've noticed some increased problems in Firefox over the last few months but have attributed it to the need to clean up and defrag my Mac.

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10. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    There are far more users online than even a few years ago. FF still has many happy users. Chrome is boring for me and I always have a lot of tabs open which FF seems to handle easier than Chrome or Safari.

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11. 88

    lobobrandonposted 12 years ago

    For the past few months I do get problems of FF not responding - I thought it was my comp. But now its fine and I continue to use FF. Will give chrome a try though.

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12. 61

    Scribenetposted 12 years ago

    I have used Firefox and had problems, so I uninstalled it. Same with Opera. I didn't like Chrome, so I have been using Internet Explorer seems to work for me with some freezing, but nothing bad. I just installed Safari as a backup browser and it looks okay...I am using it right now...it is the first time I have tried Safari.

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13. 61

    Justjedposted 12 years ago

    So unfortunate for fire fox. I am more comfortable with firefox than any other browser

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14. 71

    AEvansposted 12 years ago

    I am partial to Chrome and always had problems with Firefox. IE8 is my secondary browser but Chrome to me is pretty fantastic, but I have high-speed Internet.

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15. 58

    theinfoplanetposted 12 years ago

    I have noticed the new firefox is not good anymore aswell. I have Firefox, chrome and IE9, and the clear fastest is chrome, and between Firefox and IE, they are about the same.

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16. 83

    SweetiePieposted 12 years ago

    I prefer using Firefox because the plugins allow me to post my content to a blog, Facebook, or Twitter with ease.  I was never a huge fan of IE, and Chrome was okay for the few days I used it.  Firefox rarely ever crashes on me, but I would not pout if it went away tomorrow.  I am simply interested in writing my blog posts and hubs, and working on my novel.

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17. 60

    FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years ago

    I had to use Firefox for access to a certain program that was part of an employment course I was in as it was interactive and that was what the company used. Prior to that I had never used it. I have't used it since.

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18. 60

    AfricaResourceposted 12 years ago

    I have had very few problems with firefox, a lot less than i have had with IE, especially 8 and 9. Google Chrome admittedly is great, but i still like the additional features on Firefox.

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19. 73

    WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

    I gave up using Firefox last year, because it had got so bloated. Currently I use IE and Chrome, but do not like either of them.

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20. 59

    Java Programsposted 12 years ago

    IE is worst ...
    firefox is good
    chrome works great ....

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21. 62

    Teylinaposted 12 years ago

    I like Firefox but agree it isn't as good a Mac

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22. 60

    iphone5newsposted 12 years ago

    I do not see firefox going anywhere - I have been a avid user for last 4 -5 years and see many others. IE is clearly the worst and there recent attempts to take the market with tv commercials are the least of firefox worries.

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23. 88

    Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

    I use Firefox and sometimes IE when I have to. Chrome froze up too many times and used too much memory

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    1. 89

       jenb0128posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I used to love Firefox, but it became a memory hog for me later on and I switched to Opera. When I bought my laptop in December, Chrome came pre-installed, so I started using it instead. Now I'm having issues with Chrome - constant stupid "aw, snap" and "he's dead Jim" errors, which annoy me more than a simple "couldn't load page" error message. (I can appreciate the attempt at humor, but when I'm having technical issues, the last thing I want is something silly like that). I'm considering going back to Firefox, but we'll see.

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24. 58

    iefox5posted 11 years ago

    I used Firefox for a while last year but the user experience is not so good. Google Chorme is much more user-friendly.

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25. 66

    Cheeky Girlposted 11 years ago

    There are plenty of browsers to choose from. Flock and Opera and Safari work very well. Firefox tends to update on my PC too much. It should not need to do that.
    
    I think the developers there wore out users' patience and mayby the users didn't like the browser slowing to a crawl on some slow connections. That is where bloated resource-hungry browsers become all too apparent.
    Firefox stil has the most useful add-ons of any browser, but it pays to not add too many. They slow it down terribly.

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26. 79

    Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

    Some of the FF plugins are still useful. for one thing, it's got a way to kill personalized results from Google, useful for keyword research. Also, it's a lot easier to program macros. i still switch to FF for some kinds of work. In some ways it's become more of a developer's web browser than a casual user's.
    
    Mozilla has gone through ebbs and flows before. It built Netscape Navigator up into a Communicator monstrosity that was bloated, cumbersome and unworkable, then a little known Mozilla kernel split off and created a lean, mean, fast Mac-native browser that eventually settled on the name Camino. That later became cross-platform and turned into Firefox.
    
    And Netscape originally evolved (I think?) out of NCSA Mosaic, the first really functional web browser.
    
    It's a long respectable lineage that's been called dead more times than Lazarus. I can't believe they won't strip it down and revamp at some point.
    
    The real miracle is that IE has survived all its bugs and lack of support for web standards. But of course it comes bundled on PCS. Otherwise it would've been dead a decade ago.
    
    (Oh, gosh, Flock, there's a browser I haven't thought about in a while! Very handy with Livejournal and Photobucket  support.)

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27. 72

    relacheposted 11 years ago

    Web browsers come, web browsers go...
    
    Remember Netscape?

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28. 36

    Dale Nelsonposted 11 years ago

    I still prefer the plugins available for firefox. The dropdowns for site research from an interent marketing point of view are priceless and IE nad google just cant compete for freeware.

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29. 88

    Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

    I just dropped them again. The pages are getting slower and slower to open ,if they do at all.
    I am now back to using IE, unbelievable that it is faster now.
    And also Chrome but Google refuses to open up hub pages or wizzley and reports that they are unavailable....is Google against all writing sites?
    Their bias is getting obvious?

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    1. 73

       WriteAngledposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I use Chrome for my other HP account and have not had any problems.

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30. 85

    Express10posted 11 years ago

    I have been using FireFox for several years always updating as updates become available. I did experience about 4 crashes during about a 4 year span. I prefer this to IE and haven't used Google Chrome. FF doesn't seem to be a hog for me but I'm open to change if I ever have the need.

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31. 0

    devjeetposted 11 years ago

    Firefox release 3.XX series in 2008 or 09 and it last for 2 or 3 years. After Firefox 4.XX they used to update their browser version so rapidly and it irritating to update browser again and again. Google chrome is faster than firefox and their graphical environment is also cool.

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32. 73

    WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

    Well, having dissed Firefox earlier in this thread, I now take back what I said.
    
    I like to have two separate browsers open simultaneously. IE9 had been getting worse and worse. I ended up having to wait 10 minutes just to change tags!
    
    So today I downloaded Firefox 13 beta. Imported all my bookmarks from Chrome and IE in a couple of seconds.
    
    Now I'm surfing with it, and its smooth, fast and wonderful! It's still using a lot of memory, but only shows me one process in Task Manager. Chrome is showing 25 processes, and I think their combined memory usage is higher than that of Firefox.

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33. 89

    Cliff Mendrezposted 11 years ago

    It's interesting to hear different experiences with various browsers. I'm a casual user and have found that IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera have all been pretty fantastic web browsers. I haven't had errors or any problems while using those four. Chrome seems to be a tad bit faster than the other three but I have a soft spot for Firefox. LOL. I just downloaded the latest FF13 and it works wonders for me. I sincerely hope that Firefox won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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       Stacie Lposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Well I just downloaded 13 as well and it's working much better.

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34. 60

    OronZimmerposted 11 years ago

    Personally, I prefer Chrome. It starts up more quickly and I duplicate tabs very often, which is very convenient and unfortunately isn't possible using Firefox.

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35. 64

    blessed365posted 11 years ago

    I use Firefox 11.0 and I have been a loyal user of this browser for many years. I thought the problems I was having such as freezing up, crashes and slow loading pages was my internet provider and antivirus fault. I may have to give Chrome a try to see how it performs.

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36. 84

    psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

    Firefox is memory hungry but IMHO runs fine if your system can cope with that.

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37. 83

    Danette Wattposted 11 years ago

    I've had a Mac for many years and have used Firefox for almost as long as it's been around (IE not an option on a mac) .
    
    The only problem I had was with one version some time ago it messed up my bookmarks. I don't use a lot of plug ins and maybe that's a good thing. But I have never had a problem with it otherwise and use 13.0.1 version.

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38. 87

    Cardisaposted 11 years ago

    I used Firefox for years and never had a problem. I fell in love with Chrome because it was faster. I still use Firefox from time to time and have never had a crash or any thing. I hate IE, it's slow and freezes up. Never used Safari, not interested. For me it's either Chrome or Firefox.

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    1. 59

       paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Same with me these days.

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39. 60

    dobo700posted 11 years ago

    Moved to Chrome and I'm not going back

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40. 75

    Anti-Valentineposted 11 years ago

    Well, I don't know if anyone posted this - I had a skim through to make sure. When Windows 8 rolls out, word has it you won't be able to install any third party browser. You'll have to use IE. That will be the final nail in the coffin for Firefox, probably.

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       Alexander Markposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I saw 8 on the pc's in the store, it looks very un-windowy, more like a series of apps on the main screen. I hate it.

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41. 82

    Alexander Markposted 11 years ago

    I recently had a huge problem with my Vista laptop, everything was slowing down, especially Firefox, it came to a crawl - absolutely ridiculous. On a whim, I decided to check my antivirus and found it was running scans for everything, especially on my browser. I already have Zone Alarm, I sure don't need another internet scanner for crying outloud. So I disabled all of the web scanning programs on Avast and now FF runs great. The only other problem I have is when I'm on Youtube on my Win7 desktop, when I'm scrolling, sometimes it hangs up for a full minute. Really annoying. Not sure if this is because of a program for my mouse that for some reason needs to be updated every week, or if it's FF. Sometimes FF crashes on me, but just about any program more complex than a word processor will do that. I'll take FF's features and flexibility and especially the under-the-hood capability with a crash now and then (it saves your open pages anyway) over the slowness of IE or the Apple-like simplicity of Chrome any day.

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    tabrezrocksposted 11 years ago

    I believe in firefox 3.6 the most reliable and fastest ever with bug free version. I still use this version of firefox for my all the works. The developer of firefox must think on this problem and resolve it as soon as possible otherwise they have lost all of their reputation and all.

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