Re: Used Firefox from when it was Firebird
There are a number of us out here. I have never had anything but a Netscape or Netscape-derived primary browser on the PC. NN 2 was where I started... 3, 4 (where I learned to hate the phrase "illegal operation in mfc40.dll"), then the 6 preview... then Mozilla Suite, which I stuck with as a main browser until FF reached general release. Mozilla Suite, FF, Waterfox, Pale Moon... that's it from the start of the XP era in 2001 until the present. I never used IE for anything but Windows updates, and the first time I seriously evaluated anything else was when I tried Vivaldi, Brave, Slimjet, and Opera recently in light of the upcoming Firefox suicide. Nope... all of them are too similar to Firefox unmodified (in Australis form), which won't cut it.
Pale Moon intends to keep on fighting the good fight indefinitely... Waterfox intends to keep it up "as long as possible," which is unfortunately defeatist (sounds like the dev is already conceding that he will lose, but it's his choice to not make a career out of trying to de-stupidize FF). Both of them will support Firefox addons after FF itself stops.
How long, though, will the addons themselves remain viable without FF proper supporting them? Where will they be hosted if not on Mozilla's servers? Will the addon devs even bother? Several of the devs of my addons have already announced that it's the end of the line for them since FF is cutting XUL addon support off, and the fact that PM and WF will continue to allow them doesn't even register.
I have very specific requirements for a browser, and right now only Firefox and Firefox derivatives are good enough. How strange is it that there's soon to be no such thing as what I consider a usable browser, even though the browser is probably the most commonly used application possible? I've already accepted that there are no good Android browsers at all (and I've all but abandoned Android itself), but on the PC too?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
