A Personal Blog
As The Fox Cometh
FireFox was downloaded 1,000,000 times in less than a week. To me, FireFox is exactly where IE was before it became the dominant browser. I wish I’d written my “Why Netscape?” post earlier this week, as it’d frame this discussion very well.
Suffice to say that Netscape, in my opinion, lost to the better browser. IE was more developer friendly. IE was deemed The Best Browser by every publication in that quarter. IE had huge geek momentum. I don’t want to get into that discussion too much right now because I’ll be writing the post later, but suffice to say the situation really reminds me of where FireFox is at right now.
FireFox is now more developer friendly than IE.
FireFox was recently deemed the Best Browser by every major plubication.
FireFox has huge geek momentum.
And, FireFox has momentum all to itself this month (as IE did at the time it took the lead from Netscape).
Realistically, all it would take is for FireFox to keep it’s current momentum for a year. It would then be the dominant browser.
The question isn’t if or will this happen, as that’s really anyone’s best guess. I don’t want to get into predictions.
The question, from me, is how the world would look with FireFox as the lead browser. So many corporate decisions are made with IE in mind. So many things are simply assumed because IE’s the lead browser.
It really is hard for me to imagine a world where the lead browser isn’t made by the lead OS manufacturer. I can see how it would be good. I can see how it would be bad. Just like it’s hard for me to imagine a world where the OS throne is not held by Microsoft.
I wish the FireFox crew all the best, because ultimately the best browser should win (as happened with IE). My hope? That the FireFox crew doesn’t get complacent like the IE crew did. There is, after all, so much you can do with a web browser. You implement every W3C specification … And then what? Release a new version every year to implement the W3C’s new specs and updated specs?
Should the browser push innovation? I know everyone hates when things are done in a non-standard way, but realistically is the W3C going to push innovation or is it simply meant to standardize innovation? Who is pushing innovation on the web these days? Why can’t it be FireFox (or Microsoft? Or Macromedia? Or anyone really?)?
Why is the web effectively the same today as it was 10 years ago? Sure, things are easier. Things are prettier. Things work better. But the web is basically the same today as it was a decade ago when I programmed Microsoft’s and IBM’s first websites.
Sad, isn’t it?
Okay, that was 3 rants in one. Sorry ;-)
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on September 18, 2004 at 3:02 pm, and is filed under IT Thoughts. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
Comments are closed.
about 7 years ago
One advantage I think Firefox has over IE, Netscape, etc. is its non-commercialism. They won’t be trying to lock you into a particular OS, won’t be trying to push third-party stuff on you by bundling it in and bloating the browser, and so on. It shouldn’t have much trouble staying a lean and mean basic browser. Geeks can add whatever else they want via plugins.
about 7 years ago
While I agree, it’s not like IE suffers from that anymore than FF does. Where IE has ActiveX, FF has XUL. Same type of job (though ActiveX has a security model at least).
My hope is that FF will stay lean and mean. But, really, once you hit a certain plateau, isn’t it the natural tendency to want to “plus” the software?
about 7 years ago
I’ll try to address your rants/comments as best I can:
IE not being the dominant browser:
Initially it will make a lot of IE-only sites reconsider their decision and possibly start supporting non-IE browsers. After that, the status quo will be “IE and Mozilla”, or “any browser” (what I’d prefer to happen, but sometimes webmasters are lazy) and not just IE. I don’t think anybody is going to specifically code for Mozilla only for a long time, if ever. Like coding only for IE currently, it’s not the smartest decision to make.
Complacency:
I think everyone’s learned the lesson of complacency. Actually, this browser war reminds me of “the tortoise and the hare” (a tale I’m sure you’ll probably recite a few times as your kids grow up). IE pushed to get adoption as quickly as possible, then took a nap. Now other browsers are catching up or exceeding IE in places where it used to hold the top spot. As long as the Mozilla group doesn’t forget the lesson learned there they will be okay.
Innovation:
Yes, Firefox should innovate. So should Microsoft. They should also both follow standards. The question was never about adhering only to standards and nothing else as some would believe, but rather the order in which they’re implemented. In my mind a browser should ensure interoperability first, then innovate with new/useful features. There are things that MS did with IE that other browser devs found useful and copied (innerHTML, XMLHTTP, overflow-x and overflow-y in CSS, etc.). These either still aren’t part of a standard, or were standardized later. Where IE fell short was between IE5 and IE5.5/6, where almost nothing but proprietary features were added and nothing in the way of new W3C specs were implemented. As long as the browser innovations don’t interfere or otherwise undermine other oft-used and implemented specs, I don’t see why innovation can’t continue.