Not Ready To Abandon Firefox

Many are saying that the end of Firefox is near. The Mozilla Foundation's major funding source, an agreement with Google, has expired, and there is no revenue stream to make up for the loss of income. In addition, Chrome is gaining ground on Firefox, and according to some (not all) sources, Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the second most popular browser.

I am hopeful, though, that someone will step up and keep the Mozilla Foundation going. Although it is possible that Google may renew its agreement, I seriously doubt that will happen. Google has a very good browser in Chrome, and I don't imagine it will be interested in funding one of its major competitors. Another major proponent of open source will need to come forth if Mozilla is to be saved.

I, for one, am not ready to throw in the towel. As I have written before, I continue to prefer Firefox as my browser. I think it still has the edge when it comes to web development, one of my primary activities. I simply can't live without the Firebug add-on.

Mozilla has come under some fire lately with its new rapid release cycle, and reports of slipping quality. Personally, I have run into issues with some web-based applications that I use. But I still find the product to be, generally, solid. I'm familiar with it, and it works to my liking. And Firefox Sync, in current versions, works very well.

But I think it will be very interesting to see where this all goes. Should development and support for Firefox halt, I will very likely move to Chrome (or Chromium), given the current choices. It's a very good browser, but I am leery of Google's stewardship of the product. Privacy is always a concern for me, and I don't really trust Google in that regard. Nor do I trust Microsoft, but IE is not an option for me anyway; I'm a Linux user. And Apple doesn't have the best track record for privacy either (I understand that Safari can run under Linux by using wine).

I suppose time will tell. But for now, I'll stick with what is, for me, reliable, trusted, and productive; Firefox.