Why Firefox Is Dead (The Many Mistakes Of Mozilla)

I'm a big proponent of free and open source software and as a big fan of free and open source software today I wanted to talk about one of the most popular pieces of free and open source software on the planet that has done a very good job of destroying itself and that program is Mozilla Firefox when we talk about free and open source software when you talk about the most popular programs that are free and open source software obviously you got to talk about the g/ Linux operating system Linux is the operating system running on hundreds of millions of servers around the world you've got to talk about programs like VC which is a crossplatform multimedia player that's probably got hundreds of millions of users around the world possibly billions of users I don't know how many people have used VLC historically over the years but it's a large number the same thing with uh open Office SL lib office before it was for you're talking about probably hundreds of millions if not billions of downloads of that particular Suite uh that office site which is free and open source software and of course mozzilla Firefox was once one of the most popular web browsers on the planet and now as of today it has something like 2 to 3% market share as far as browser market share worldwide now what inspired me to make today's video was earlier today I I I don't use Firefox as my main browser anymore I actually use the brave browser but I do have Mozilla Firefox installed on my computer I forgot it was there and I launched it earlier accidentally and and I realized you know what it had been probably 2 years since the last time I actually launched Firefox and did anything in Firefox as my browser you know I actually uh spent any real time in it because these days I am using Brave which is a chromium based web browser and you know I really like Brave and it does everything that I need a browser to do and it kind of makes me sad because I used Firefox probably for 20 years I was a Firefox user when it was initially created right Firefox I think came out around 2002 or something and you know I used it until just a couple of years ago you know I I had to get off of Firefox because it just wasn't working for me anymore I I wanted to explore something else I could see the writing on the wall with Firefox as a browser it it wasn't it wasn't a good experience for me anymore and it's not a good experience for a lot of people because you can see a a lot of people have given up on Mozilla Firefox in the early years you know it came out in 2002 and I would say it reached its peak I think around 2009 or so where it had like a third of the market share the browser market share and that was when it was competing especially with Microsoft's Internet Explorer at that time but after 2009 its market share has done nothing but drop and part of that is due to the rise of Google Chrome because Google Chrome came out and of course Google has such a a large marketing campaign it has so much money obviously anytime you go to Google services like Google search YouTube I don't know probably things like Google Docs Gmail whatever it happens to be you know they they promote their own products such as using Google Chrome as the browser right so obviously a company like Mozilla a smaller company like Mozilla can't compete with a large trillion dollar company like Google as far as advertising so obviously Google Chrome became very popular it became the deao standard as far as the web browser most people used very quickly but I don't think the rise of Google Chrome necessarily is the reason for firefox's demise because there's still so many people there's a not an insignificant amount of people out there that would use Firefox strictly for philosophical reasons maybe you like free and open source software the ideology behind the free software movement the open source movement or some people would use it out of privacy reasons security reasons some people would use it just out of spite because they don't like Google the company you know there are many people that would gravitate to mozzilla Firefox still you know but the problem is Firefox just has it hasn't done a good job to cater to the crowd that wants an alternative to Google Chrome I think what is especially damning is the fact that open- Source software in the last 10 years especially has exploded in popularity and you have these companies that traditionally were very anti-open Source like Microsoft and Google and meta yeah to various degrees but you know all of these very large trillion doll companies now are on board with open- Source software so as open source software has gained in popularity a lot of pieces of Open Source software for example the Linux operating system is also exploding in popularity like we're seeing major gains on Linux on the desktop even right we're seeing major adoption but Firefox is not seeing any adoption in fact it is losing tens of millions of users like every year why is that I think the biggest reason is that Mozilla just doesn't cater to that crowd that would use their product and we're talking about the people that you know love free and open source software as far as the ideology behind it we're also talking about people that are really serious about privacy and security because when you first install Firefox if you go to the download page page for Firefox if you go to the homepage for Milla Firefox you immediately you know they State up front that they're all about your privacy all about your security and it ends up being total and complete BS when you actually look at the product that they're giving you because what is the default search engine in Firefox well it's Google search right and Google search do you think Google search is privacy respecting obviously not all of the Mozilla website and Firefox website and everything it's full of Google analytics it uses the Google double click service so that they can track data so that they can see how well mozilla's marketing campaigns are doing Firefox sends geolocation information to Google Firefox uses Google's safe browsing service that's that thing that you know tells you if you're potentially viewing a malicious website or downloading something that could be malicious you know there's a lot of Google tied into Firefox like it's like everything that's running in the background that you don't know about it it's like all Google services all the time and that's really weird for a browser that claims to be privacy focused and security focused now to be fair I understand why Mozilla has all of these Google products and Google services tied into their web browser Google pays them money Google pays them money to use the Google search engine by default right Google gives Mozilla I think $500 million every year and essentially Google is is the only thing keeping Mozilla afloat and the reason Google is doing this is not because they like Mozilla or they like Firefox what Google is doing is Google really doesn't have any serious competitor as far as web browsers and they don't ever want to be in a situation where they're considered a monopoly so they're trying to keep Firefox alive but even all of that money that Google is giving Firefox it's not working because again Firefox you know its popularity in the last 15 years has went from about 33% down to like 2% right it's just been a steady decline to where you know more than 90% of the people that used to use your browser don't use your browser anymore another big concern for those that are focused on privacy is the fact that Firefox its default privacy settings aren't great right it's it's not really uh privacy focused out of the box you got to go in and play with some settings to get you know serious about your privacy and your security also uh the pocket integration there is a Sur is called pocket that displays like news services and you can save news feeds or whatever I I don't really understand the whole thing about pocket but I do know this pocket has some serious privacy things going on with it as far as its privacy policy it collects data on users and that's concerning again why is that integrated into a web browser that all over their site they say hey we're focused on privacy we're focused on security and but it's all lip service you know there's a difference between what the website says and then what the product is actually delivering one of the problems with pocket is that it uses cookies you know again it's it's data mining you right it's it's tracking you the other thing is Firefox itself has some built-in Telemetry right Mozilla itself is collecting a little bit of data on you and then the Telemetry is opt out like if you want to get out of sending this information to Mozilla you have to go and opt out of that instead of opt in which I think again it's kind of weird if you're privacy focused and security focused you know like you claim it's just everything just seems off with Mozilla these days one of the craziest things happened in 2017 this was when I was still a Firefox user again I used Firefox for like 20 years and I was a big Firefox fan a big Firefox proponent but in 2017 I remembered when they just for whatever reason decided to install a plugin like the Mr Robot plugin and some TV show or something I don't know what Mr Robot is but anyway they just decided they were going to install a plugin in your browser a plugin you didn't ask for you know obviously the people that use this browser many of them are big-time proponents of free software open source software and they're really concerned about privacy and then you install a third-party plugin in my browser no now what really made me jump ship from Firefox over to Brave was it the I saw the writing on the wall I knew that Firefox was really doomed when they started hinting that it's okay to have some forms of censorship on the internet which is really really weird again it's a a free and open source web browser you're supposed to be all in on free software the free software movement you should be against any form of censorship on the internet the internet above anything else the internet has to remain free and when you tell people that you know some forms of censorship are okay we we got to go out there and you know stop anybody that's spreads disinformation and fake news and you know whatever and that was just it's like no no like literally nobody that takes free and open source software seriously would ever support any form of censorship I don't I don't care you know what political ideology that you subscribe to censorship is never okay if you take the free software movement seriously and the open source software movement seriously and this is one of the things I've complained about many times on camera is that some of these very large free and open source software projects and Foundations sometimes they all of a sudden for whatever reason become overly political and by overly political I mean they're taking political stances that have absolutely nothing to do with promoting free and open source software obviously there's a political component to free open source software but for example you know why are the donations that you make to Mozilla because Mozilla has a donations page you know you can donate to help support Firefox but none of this money goes to software development and they tell you upfront your donations to Mozilla is not going to help support development of Firefox in any way it's for various social projects you know social activist foundations projects things that they're working on to improve life around the world or whatever which hey you know maybe that's a a no mobile goal but why am I going to Mozilla to donate money for various activist kinds of like if I really wanted to donate money to I don't know I don't maybe a women's rights organization or to help feed starving children in Africa what whatever social thing I want to do why do I want to do that through Mozilla a software company it's just very odd it's very odd that so many especially the free open source software projects get into these things it's like you're not the right person to be driving those social agendas anyway you're a software company and the biggest problem with Mozilla alienating all of the people that would use their browser so we're talking about again the people that are really enthusiastic about free software open source software privacy security the problem with them alienating that crowd is that Firefox objectively is not a good browser if you're comparing it to chromium based browsers it's just not Chrome is a better browser I mean let's just be honest I know Chrome Google Chrome itself is proprietary garbage right it's not fre open source software but as far as performance Google Chrome is a better browser than Firefox now thankfully the chromium engine is open source and we do have many open- Source chromium based browsers such as Brave which is a fantastic browser if you if you're looking for a really good piece of free and open source software as far as a web browser that just works and it's kind of minimal by Design and really just focuses on being a web browser a really good web browser and it has a really great search engine a privacy respecting search engine the brave search engine that they created again Brave kind of gets it right Brave really focuses on free and open source software and privacy like that's they're all in on it and because they know that's the crowd that they're trying to capture you know that's that's that demographic they want because they understand Firefox lost that demographic and that's where a lot of the Firefox users are gravitating to is they're gravitating to Brave and matter of fact the CEO of Brave was a former CEO of Firefox he had a lot to do with the creation of Firefox the early days of Firefox so it makes sense why Brave is kind of really the modern day continuation of what what was great about Firefox in the past that's what Brave is doing in the present now for me personally I don't necessarily care that Google Chrome performs better is objectively a better browser as far as performance than Firefox I've said this many times because I'm such a big fan of free and open source software I will gladly use something that I know is an inferior product to a proprietary alternative as long as it's reasonably close and as long as it respects me as a user but in the case of Firefox Firefox has kind of kind of lost that trust also in a world where things are increasingly on mobile you know Firefox on mobile devices is not good right your your Android roid device you know I've got an Android phone Firefox on the phone was never a good browser right but Brave on the phone is actually quite fantastic and for those of you that don't mind using proprietary software obviously Google Chrome Works on all devices it syncs well between all devices which is something Firefox isn't necessarily great at so I'm willing to use Firefox even though objectively it's not necessarily a great browser but you know it it better be all in on free and open source software I mean that that's the thing it has to be all in on free software movement the open source movement it has to be truly privacy respecting you know you can't just talk about it on your website you've got to actually do the thing right and you can't talk about censoring people you can't you can't ever come out with anything that just immediately you know like 90% of the people in the free and open source software Community are just going to be staunchly against because that is really in the end what killed Firefox and it's not coming back at this point Point again you used to have 32 33% market share browser market share and you've taken it all the way down to 2% those people are never coming back and this is kind of human nature when people get angry at a product because of you know it did something that they didn't like or it just doesn't work as well as it used to when people you know that used to use a product leave it for something else they find a better alternative they don't come back and that's just seriously it you know a brand new open source browser starting today would have a better shot than Firefox because it doesn't come with all of that baggage from the past that Firefox does because there are a lot of people when they get angry at something you know a piece of software you know this didn't respect my privacy in the past I didn't like the Mr Robot plug-in whatever what whatever drove you away whatever made you leave you're never going to forget it some of you will never forget it you're never going to go back and I just at this point I consider Firefox a dead project you know it's not coming back and I'm kind of you know it's out of mind and a common question that I get from a lot of you guys especially you guys that are fans of Firefox that still use Firefox promote Firefox I get this question all the time hey D you got to switch back to Firefox you've got to use Firefox you've got to promote Firefox on your channel keep talking about Firefox because it's important if we want a truly free and open web you know a web that Google doesn't control we have to support Firefox and I get that but guess what at this this point that that argument doesn't make any sense because Firefox again it's a 2% market share it doesn't matter anymore literally if Firefox doubled its user base tomorrow it' still only have a 4% market share so at this point you like we we lost that battle like if we wanted to fight that battle Firefox is not the one that's going to win that battle for us at this point we need to Hitch our wagon to a different horse like if we want something that's not chromium based but is still a free and open Source browser I know there's nothing else out there right now other than Firefox but who knows maybe one day somebody with some Deep Pockets that really loves free and open source software but thinks they can compete with Google who knows maybe we'll probably get some Alternatives in the near future but for right now I understand yeah Mozilla is it but but again that's that's not a real alternative because at this point we can consider Mozilla almost irrelevant and I know I'm going to get some comments hey DT you're just a a Firefox hater even though obviously I used Firefox for 20 years I'm still going to get those comments no I'm just a a realist and I've always told you guys this you can't live in imagination you can't dream of this utopian view of the world right I I I'd love for Mozilla to have 100% market share free and open source web and all of that but honestly I'm a realist I I see what's going on and I can accept it and at this point Firefox is largely irrelevant and I've moved on anyway just my my thoughts on the matter peace guys

Channel: DistroTube

Views: 47,269

Keywords:

Id: X5YPjNKR3iM

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024