Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/05/animation-shows-the-rise-and-f.html
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The Phoenix will rise again.
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I loved Mosiac. Back in the days when you could “browse the web” without being stalked by Mark Zuckerberg.
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Maybe you already know this, but here’s a fun fact: Firefox was originally named Phoenix, but had to change the name because of a trademark claim by a company of that name. Then the browser was named Firebird, but there was a little used database program already named Firebird, and their people objected. So Phoenix became Firebird, then Firebird became Firefox.
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Heh. This is like looking at the brand names of the best selling hammers since browsers are essentially a tool.
I want to see Stanley vs. DeWalt vs. Estwing.
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it’s interesting that IE totally dominated with ~95% at its peak, but Chrome can’t crack 75-80%. And FireFox had more than half of its users defect to Chrome.
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When the Firefox devs said, Hey, let’s make FF more like Chrome with a new release every Tuesday and Friday, and lots fewer good add-ons, most of the FF users probably decided fuck it, if I’m gonna use a Chrome clone, might as well switch to the real thing.
Me, I switched to Waterfox when the big XUL kill came in 2017, and have never looked back.
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Man I am out of it - I thought FF was more popular still.
I am wary of Chrome. I only use it for a few web based projects that seem to run better in it.
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Microsoft hadn’t yet been hit with the 2001 anti-trust decision at that point. A short time after they lose that case, you’ll see IE’s market share start its decline.
What’s interesting is how quickly Chrome overtook Firefox. Google may not have used monopoly power, but it shows how powerful a push by a corporation with incredible resources (in contrast to a foundation like Mozilla) can be in these cases.
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I can remember I was snide when I read about the waning tide
And something warmed me deep inside the day Internet Explorer died.
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See where Netscape Nav maxed out? That was all my mom.
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Or cars, also tools.
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Hey, hey, who here is old enough to remember having to make two different websites for the same client - one in netscape and one in IE?
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I actually remember using Firebird, if not Phoenix. Those were the bad old days of Linux on the desktop, and we were desperate for anything that wasn’t Netscape 4.
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whippersnappers! I member using Galeon based on the Gecko engine…
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“This website best viewed with Netscape Navigator 3.04.”
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I’m not so sure about this. I swear that for YEARS whenever you went to any Google site they gave you a little notification about how you should switch to Chrome because it’s better. Using your control of 3 of the most popular websites (gmail, google, youtube) to imply that your browser is broken because “why else would they be telling you that you need a better browser right?” could certainly be construed this way.
Pretty sure Chrome also did the thing where they’d just make up APIs, put them in Chrome, get people to use them, and then later push for standardization around a similar (but incompatible) API. Pretty sure Mozilla generally at least gets the standards process talking about features before they implement them.
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Interesting that Safari’s share changes so little. I’m about 80% Safari 20% FF on Mac/iOS and 100% FF on Windows. Is there a stable alternative to Chrome on Raspbian yet?
I just wish that it started earlier, when Mosaic was still a going concern.
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I remember, mostly because I started using it a Phoenix v0.8b. Those were desperate times with IE’s market dominance, I think I was limping along on some crusty old version of Navigator before that which wouldn’t display half the content on the web correctly due to IE being widely accepted and not sticking to actual standards. Phoenix / Firebird / Firefox was like a gift from the heavens by comparison, even in that early state.
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