Matisyahu's Blog

I’ve installed Firefox 127.0.2 along with uBlock Origin and so far things are going pretty good – as much as the ‘all Apple’ ecosystems nice I can’t help but get frustrated by the crippled experience with the new extension model that is being pushed upon users over the next year with Chrome at the head of that change. At the moment the only real alternative to the current direction that Chromium and Webkit browsers are taking is to embrace Firefox. Do I think that it’ll make a huge difference to the market share of Firefox? well, it comes down to the percentage of users who depend upon extensions, the ‘technological vanguard’ if you will, the sort of early adopters who adopted Firefox early, who jumped on Chrome early, whether they make the first move and maybe bring along the tech enthusiast crowd (people who aren’t necessarily technically inclined but are interested in technology).

I don’t see Firefox market share ever getting back to where it was pre-Chrome but I could see them maybe (at least on the desktop) getting to 15-20% (which would be around 13-14 points higher than where they are based on the numbers over on Stat counter (link)). If they eventually get to 20-25% (me being super optimistic) then I could imagine it would force the big platforms to maintain compatibility with Firefox – for all the criticisms that people may have of Google, I don’t see Google being like Microsoft and forcing people to use Chrome because at the end of the day if you’re using Google services then why would it matter whether it is being accessed via Webkit, Firefox or Chrome.

Side note: At the moment I’m still recovering however I will be going to the doctors on either Monday or Tuesday to find out what is wrong and whether they can prescribe something – I’ve emailed them with all the details because I’ve lost my voice but I’m going to have to ring them up tomorrow when I wake up if I don’t see an email response to the email I sent I’ll phone them up and try with the croaky voice I have at the moment.

Side note to the side note: It would be nice if Apple was forced to open up iOS to allow the Firefox web engine to run on iOS outside of the European Union. That being said, the Pixel 9 is going to be released within the next couple of months so it’ll be interesting to see what Google has in store in terms of hardware. It is also interesting that the first batches of Bluetooth tags that are compatible with the Google service are now shipping. I guess it is a bit like Microsoft – when you don’t do everything yourself and depend on third parties. I guess for a lot of silicon valley with the downsizing bought on by higher interest rates, and growth slowing, that the sort of pet projects or products that couldn’t be justified are being reassessed – don’t expect earth shattering new features coming out but rather the consolidation of products, a simplification of back end maintenance by consolidating on a core set of technologies while focusing on fit and finish. The WWDC keynote this year gave a good insight – it isn’t about novelty technologies but delivering on AI in a meaningful way for end users outside what are neat demos but are entirely useless for the average person.