Well, I'm Back: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get a Choice
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165 More Next Blog» Well, I'm Back Robert O'Callahan. Christian. Repatriate Kiwi. Mozilla hacker. FRIDAY, 8 AUGUST 2014 Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice I know it's not the greatest marketing pitch, but it's the truth. Google is bent on establishing platform domination unlike anything we've ever s even from late-1990s Microsoft. Google controls Android, which is winning; Chro which is winning; and key Web properties in Search, Youtube, Gmail and Docs, are all winning. The potential for lock-in is vast and they're already exploiting it, f example by restricting certain Google Docs features (e.g. offline support) to Chro users, and by writing contracts with Android OEMs forcing them to make Chrom default browser. Other bad things are happening that I can't even talk about. Ind people and groups want to do the right thing but the corporation routes around th (E.g. PNaCl and Chromecast avoided Blink's Web standards commitments by d themselves not part of Blink.) If Google achieves a state where the Internet is re accessible through Chrome (or Android apps), that situation will be very difficult escape from, and it will give Google more power than any company has ever ha Microsoft and Apple will try to stop Google but even if they were to succeed, the only to replace one victor with another. So if you want an Internet --- which means, in many ways, a world --- that isn't co by Google, you must stop using Chrome now and encourage others to do the you don't, and Google wins, then in years to come you'll wish you had a choice a only yourself to blame for spurning it now. Of course, Firefox is the best alternative :-). We have a good browser, and lots o dedicated and brilliant people improving it. Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Mozilla is committed to the standards-based Web platform as a long-term strategy against And one thing I can say for certain is that of all the contenders, Mozilla is least li establish world domination :-). BLOG ARCHIVE Posted by Robert at 13:33 ▼ 2014 (32) +165 Recommend this on Google ▼ August (3) Labels: Mozilla Milestones On The Road To Christianity cf1e5386ecde9c2eb9416c9b07 125 comments: 416686 Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choic... David 8 August 2014 14:52 I have always asked people: "How much more do you want Google to know ► July (2) It's that simple. ► May (3) Reply ► April (4) ► March (11) Replies ► February (5) Anonymous 8 August 2014 15:15 ► January (4) is it that simple? ► 2013 (58) It's not that simple for me. For me, I actually think Firefox is a grea ► 2012 (45) It works well for certain things. Such as Google Hangouts on Ma ► 2011 (63) simply runs hangouts without any hiccups, while I often have prob ► 2010 (83) hangouts on Chrome. ► 2009 (55) Use firefox because it's a good piece of software. Underrated, in my ► 2008 (87) ► 2007 (113) Reply ► 2006 (64) ► 2005 (75) ► 2004 (4) Alexander 8 August 2014 14:56 Very ironic though that you're using Blogger from "Google" instead of hosti blog with an open source alternative. ;) Reply Replies Robert 8 August 2014 14:59 Yeah. I use GMail too. Fortunately, switching browsers is ea switching hosted services ... for now ... and I think it also has more i Anonymous 8 August 2014 15:51 There's always jekyll/octopress (on github pages). or heroku. or op self-hosting it. There are tons of options that don't rely on google th or very cheap. Fira 9 August 2014 00:00 There's also Wordpress.com. While it isn't self-hosting, it enabl self-host later on. I believe there's a way to import Blogger data into I don't remember how. evanwp 9 August 2014 02:23 http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/coming-from-blogger/ :) Reply Anonymous 8 August 2014 15:03 "Of course, Firefox is the best alternative :-)" Chromium. Reply Replies Robert 8 August 2014 15:08 Google controls Chromium, and using it contributes to Google's con platform almost as much as using Chrome does. Ditto Opera. Salam Kaser 8 August 2014 20:03 What do you mean Opera? Is it Google-controlled? Robert 8 August 2014 20:19 Opera's browser is based on the Blink engine. Blink is controlled by Reply artfuldodga 8 August 2014 15:08 should of thought of the implications before everyone jumped on the goo bandwagon- they are not google is not good for the web in fact they are worse than Microsoft ever was personally I'm using Palemoon and IE11 doing my part to keep the we chrome is anything but standard Reply Replies Anonymous 8 August 2014 15:18 With no argument supporting your claim you might as well put a sa at the end of your post. Anonymous 16 August 2014 10:24 "Should HAVE". Reply Mathieu Pellerin 8 August 2014 15:11 Robert, I don't understand why Mozilla doesn't do a better job a beating th privacy with _groundbreaking_ privacy improvements within the Firefox br inc. Firefox Android. I.e. it shouldn't just be a big slogan on your (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/desktop/), but actually rely o improvements in every new version of Firefox. For e.g., if I go to see what's new in the Firefox Beta notes (https://www /en-US/firefox/32.0beta/releasenotes/), and search for privacy, I see ze Maybe nice privacy improvements are happening under the hood, b department isn't doing a good job at highlighting it systematically. You gu HTML5 ] tag, you should add a [ PRIVACY ] tag to raise the issue to deserves :) Considering Google's economy is based on user data gathering, the privacy appeals to people, is a battle that's guaranteed to be won by you guys. Reply Replies Robert 8 August 2014 15:26 That's a fair comment and I strongly agree that privacy is a key wa differentiate ourselves. We have put a lot of effort into privacy-related initiatives over the DNT, Lightbeam, Cookie Clearinghouse, restricting fingerprinting v Web API design, etc. They've generally been coopted by our co subverted, blocked, or just ineffective. But we haven't stopped t there's another major initiative getting ready to ship soon. Unfortunately, a lot of the ideas bandied about by privacy activ practical for the mass market, so the problems are generally harde than they think. But we're always open to new ideas, especially if p willing to help implement them. Mathieu Pellerin 8 August 2014 16:27 Lightbeam is cool, but it is really only a gadget that's not even integ Firefox by default. Your last paragraph is IMO the line of thinking that hurts Moz moment: "ideas ... aren't practical for the mass market". That's wh can't get away from because of what it fundamentally is, but Mozill should. Your trying to appeal to Internet users who care about the not the mass market. That said, I realize its easier said than done, and one must be prac how that's being approached. Yet, following planet.mozilla.org development of Firefox via mozilla-central pushlog for ages, I feel not being daring enough on that front, and rather seem to want to the status quo. Web standards and superior technology is what got you to take ov Explorer back then. I remember Mozilla taking on some pretty ha vis-a-vis standards vs compatibility. You ignored the status quo an forward, and you won the users. This time around, the debate privacy, not superior technology, and being shy and/or going o established status quo needs to stop :) Robert 8 August 2014 16:35 The problem is that we can't restrict ourselves to users who are make significant sacrifices for improved privacy --- which is wha privacy approaches (e.g. Tor browser) currently require. That's to market to be viable (I think). By viable, I mean enough market share devs test their sites in your browser. The minimum to shoot for would be that we're as good as other bro with better privacy. I think that's reachable. Mathieu Pellerin 8 August 2014 16:51 Right. Tech-wise, nowadays, Chrome and Firefox are as a whole pr So yeah, differentiating yourself with privacy is the way to go. And you seem to have both a perception and feature gab to sell y superior. When people talk of a Firefox vs. Chrome privacy comparison, superficial, revolving around "Google is evil data gatherer, Mozil That's not sufficient. There needs to be specific _default_ be features that can be marketed as tangible arguments you guys are s Mathieu Pellerin 8 August 2014 16:54 The comment by David (14:52) is actually a pretty good example was referring in the last post as "superficial" :) What does Firefox do that's different from Google on that front? That's what nee coded/tweaked, shown up in tech news coverage, on mozilla.org's f in the release notes, etc. michael 9 August 2014 02:57 Apple increasingly emphasizes privacy and users owning their ow that seems to indicate those themes have a mass audience. Reply Anonymous 8 August 2014 15:13 Haters all around. Hateful posts everywhere. I want to be ruled by a thousand mice. Reply Tuan Quyen Nguyen 8 August 2014 15:24 Stop using Chrome to prevent Google from dominating the Internet? What idea.