Firefox is the default web browser installed on most Linux distributions. It is a well-known browser by Mozilla that respects user privacy by design, and
Because they signed one of the RMS letters, because they are being paid by large companies to promote them or because they have been doing random things with their money and closing a bunch of projects?
None of this stuff have an actual impact on firefox’s userbase. The people who decide to jump to another browser based on the things you listed are probably an irrelevant percentage. According to StatCounter, firefox has a ~7% marketshare in desktop browsers. Although this is a very small percentage compared to chromium-based browser’s market hegemony, in absolute numbers it’s actually a lot of users - who probably don’t care about any of these stuff or most likely don’t even know what you’re talking about if you ask them for their opinion about it. And even among the online firefox community, which is very vocal and critical about ethical decisions (rightfully so, mozilla went through a lot of controversial stuff recently), we can’t assume most of its disgruntled users are going to jump to chrome/edge/brave over these stuff, even if we bring in the controversial redesign
Browsers come bundled in phone, laptops/PC, tvs, whatever has access to the internet. Microsoft has pushed his renewed browser like hell on Windows. The pandemic made tech sales skyrocket, and most devices come with chrome or edge bundled in. Firefox on android has always had to deal with the crumbles left by chrome. It’s not part of an ecosystem, as its competitors are. I’m not surprised at all about its marketshare dropping this much over the past 1.5 year
Firefox’s only hope is for Linux desktops and phones to gain more market share, where Firefox is most commonly the default browser. However, I don’t see Linux (exclusing Android because it’s not relevant in this discussion) becoming a serious competitor in the consumer tech world, because most normal users don’t care about things like privacy, security, or FLOSS, and Linux does not have the R&D or marketing money to compete with proprietary operating systems in the mainstream consumer world. For servers, embedded, and the like, it’s obviously different, but those things are hidden from the average user, and the average user don’t really care to know how those things work anyway.
Even among programmers/developers, more people seem (from my admittedly limited observation, anyway) to use Mac than Linux. The lecture halls in my CS classes are a sea of Macs, some Windows laptops (mostly Surfaces), and like five people using Linux. Even the profs use Mac.
Because they signed one of the RMS letters, because they are being paid by large companies to promote them or because they have been doing random things with their money and closing a bunch of projects?
None of this stuff have an actual impact on firefox’s userbase. The people who decide to jump to another browser based on the things you listed are probably an irrelevant percentage. According to StatCounter, firefox has a ~7% marketshare in desktop browsers. Although this is a very small percentage compared to chromium-based browser’s market hegemony, in absolute numbers it’s actually a lot of users - who probably don’t care about any of these stuff or most likely don’t even know what you’re talking about if you ask them for their opinion about it. And even among the online firefox community, which is very vocal and critical about ethical decisions (rightfully so, mozilla went through a lot of controversial stuff recently), we can’t assume most of its disgruntled users are going to jump to chrome/edge/brave over these stuff, even if we bring in the controversial redesign
Browsers come bundled in phone, laptops/PC, tvs, whatever has access to the internet. Microsoft has pushed his renewed browser like hell on Windows. The pandemic made tech sales skyrocket, and most devices come with chrome or edge bundled in. Firefox on android has always had to deal with the crumbles left by chrome. It’s not part of an ecosystem, as its competitors are. I’m not surprised at all about its marketshare dropping this much over the past 1.5 year
I wasn’t thinking, thanks for a detailed reply. Tech sales make a bit more sense.
Firefox’s only hope is for Linux desktops and phones to gain more market share, where Firefox is most commonly the default browser. However, I don’t see Linux (exclusing Android because it’s not relevant in this discussion) becoming a serious competitor in the consumer tech world, because most normal users don’t care about things like privacy, security, or FLOSS, and Linux does not have the R&D or marketing money to compete with proprietary operating systems in the mainstream consumer world. For servers, embedded, and the like, it’s obviously different, but those things are hidden from the average user, and the average user don’t really care to know how those things work anyway.
Even among programmers/developers, more people seem (from my admittedly limited observation, anyway) to use Mac than Linux. The lecture halls in my CS classes are a sea of Macs, some Windows laptops (mostly Surfaces), and like five people using Linux. Even the profs use Mac.