“Firefox maker Mozilla is touting early figures that suggest its overhauled browser, Quantum, is winning new users from Chrome,” Liam Tung reports for ZDNet. “Since Quantum’s release a month ago, there have been 44 percent more downloads from Chrome users compared with this time last year, according to Mozilla.”
“It also says 170 million people worldwide have already installed Firefox Quantum,” Tung reports. “While the Firefox Quantum’s big architectural changes only made its desktop browser lighter and faster, Mozilla also reports a 24 percent increase in Firefox installs on iOS and Android.”
“Firefox senior vice president Mark Mayo told ZDNet site CNET he is excited by the ‘halo effect’ the desktop overhaul is having on mobile,” Tung reports. “Growth in installs and actual usage will be important for Mozilla’s revenues, which helped bankroll the Firefox overhaul. Its revenue comes primarily from search deals with Google, Yandex, and until recently, Yahoo. Mozilla revealed this month its revenues reached a record high of $520m in 2016. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re Safari users through and through, but if you’ve tried Firefox Quantum on either the Mac or iPhone/iPad, let us know what you think!
It’s fast, ugly, not very intuitive, seems to make layout design changes solely for the sake of making changes. As far as I’m concerned, moving tabs and the bookmarks bar to the top of the window makes no sense.
So where’s your complaint about Chrome?
I’ve switched to Firefox Quantum 57.0+. It’s more stable than Safari or Chrome, and my bookmarks actually sync properly between my Mac, iPad and iPhone. Can’t say that about Safari or Chrome.
Plus, there is no annoying bug that plagues Safari and Chrome. i.e. the browser freezing for 3-5 seconds every time you go to enter something in the address bar or a text field.
That’s funny. My Firefox at work just froze this morning when I tried to enter a search for an extension chord on the Home Depot website.
carry a lot of data and would crash most browsers.
I was a pretty consistent Firefox user until this version came out. Now random windows seem to pop up unexpectedly when you’re going to a site. It was difficult to see what was happening at first and you would just have to close that window to get where you were going.
Tried different setting in preferences to no avail.
It might just be me but I’m back to using Safari now.
I use Chrome on websites that do not play well with Safari.
1-The New York Times for some reason does not play well on Safari compared to Chrome despite the same extensions and settings. Of course, the NYT website is a kludge with different parts using different technologies for stuff as basic as media and seeing the comments.
2-DIRECTVNOW does not work on Safari unless you install Microsoft Silverlight. Seriously, in late 2017. Not going to put Silverlight on my Primary browser. In this case I use Chrome and the Pepper version of the Flash player.
3-The WaPo has video content that does not work on Safari as I have it configured. I use Chrome for that video content.
4-HBO website is also very flash heavy the last time I checked and I will not run Flash On Safari.
It is amazing how many major websites still cling to Flash and how some try to force feed Silverlight- AT&T’s DIRECTVNOW comes to mind.
Also amazing is how many of these streaming video services (Hulu, PlayStation, YouTube TV, DIRECTVNOW, etc.) develop iOS apps but ignore the Mac and push Flash. Too effing lazy to write a Mac OS app. Only Sling TV from Dish has a Mac app.
dont care
Your comment is missing at least one thing; intelligence. No one cares that you “don’t care”! Try gardening.
Just change the user agent in Safari…if sites want flash, change the agent to iPad..
Finally a well written and intelligent comment. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Do it all the time. You just may not agree.
I have been using Quantum since the Beta and all i can say is that it’s Fast and very stable.
It is installed on both my Macs.
I’ve been a browser glutton since the internet beginning, tried all of them, except Chrome (it’s hard, but I try to avoid things associated with goog). But I keep coming back to Safari. For the most part, it Just Works®. Except for one government site I must use, Safari doesn’t work right so I must always have an alternate browser. For now, it’s Firefox.
Had an issue with Safari that made me use Chrome for web access to work via Citrix that lasted for close to 3 years.
I sent bug report after bug report through the Beta program complete with ICA files to Apple and it only recently got fixed.
Safari on Mac would see the ICA as illegitimate and block the launch of the Citrix client. Safari on iOS, Windows, etc worked just fine. To be fair, it involved both Citrix and Apple, but this should have never been allowed to drag on for this long.
I could never bring myself to use GOOGLE’S CHROME browser knowing full well that it reports just about all of your activities to either them, or to other unscrupulous sources. This is how I came to find an alternative for GOOGLE’S CHROME that uses the CHROME engine, but has strip out all of its “unscrupulous-ware.” https://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10160
Chromium has all the Google phone home stripped out. You can also put a leash on Chrome with extensions and Intego SW.
Indeed. If there is a way, there is a will. What is nice about this is the fact that there is ALWAYS someone who is WILLING to show and/or open a door to a different WAY.
Thanks for the tip.
(Tips Bollinger hat, puts up collar on trench coat, lights cigar, shrugs shoulders and disappears into the shadows of dark alley)
How do they make money with Firefox?
It says right at the end of the article:
Its revenue comes primarily from search deals with Google, Yandex, and until recently, Yahoo. Mozilla revealed this month its revenues reached a record high of $520m in 2016. ”
Read all the article? That’s crazy talk!!
I am impressed with Firefox 57.
Fastest browser I have tried on the following websites – Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily.
Seems really stable so far.
AdBlock Plus had a few initial issues in the first couple of weeks. Since the 3.02 update these issues seem to have disappeared.
FireFox 57 runs slower than crap on a last-gen MacPro tower maxed out running Sierra for video production. Unusable. Previous version of FireFox runs fine, as do other browsers. There’s just something wrong with this config, and running FireFox in Safe Mode does nothing to fix it.
\
Anyone use Tor?
Yes, Tor is very safe, but it’s slow.
Love the extensibility that Firefox offers.
Firefox 57 has been solid and fast for me. A lot of extensions need to catch up but that’s par for the course. The Quantum tweaking does deliver a huge speed boost.
I fail to see what is superior or intuitive about Safari or Chrome. There are another dozen browsers to choose from that use the same underpinnings as Chrome and Safari, so there isn’t much fundamental performance difference there. Mostly just aesthetic. Frankly I am tired of Apple’s overly minimalist aesthetic. Firefox kills them all in usability and customization.
What I do not like about Firefox Quantum is the fact that so many of my browser add-ons were negatively impacted by the engine change that they will not work with this new version. In addition, and even worse, is the fact that many of them have elected not to update and/or upgrade their add-on to conform to the new requirements. I cannot say that I have liked having my bookmarks literally destroyed by this kind of mischievous folly.
Firefox quantum is faster than Chrome or Safari, if it remains faster I’ll continue to use it. I wish Mozilla would build in ad-blocking and tracking software. Mozilla Focus works like a charm on Safari on iOS. But on the desktop i have to install ublock origin and ghostery on all my browsers. It’s a pain. Brave is not too bad, built on Chromium, open source.