‘Firefox update schedule tarnished its reputation’ says employee

If you ask most disgruntled Firefox users there seem to be trio of problems that have made them move to another browser, or consider moving. They normally include frequent flash player crashes, memory usage leaks and the rapid release schedule that has been blamed for breaking add ons.

A Mozilla employee, John DiCarlo, says the way that Mozilla organised the Firefox release schedule  has been the final nail in the coffin for the browser and seen many users switch to other browsers, notably Chrome. The reason why most users have shifted to Chrome after leaving Firefox is because it provides the only real alternative to Internet Explorer, which is why most people were using Firefox in the first place.

The developer, John DiCarlo, also went on to say that Firefox now looks like an inferior version of Google Chrome because Mozilla pushed a never ending stream of updates to users who just didn’t want them. John DiCarlo says what he has learned the most from his spell of working at Mozilla is that the best way to keep software usable for consumers is to change the UI on very rare occasions.

“There’s no UI better than one you already know, and no UI worse than one you thought you knew but now have to relearn”

John DiCarlo also went on to say that whenever someone finds out he is an employee of Mozilla he gets an earful about how the release schedule breaks plug ins and is obtrusive, unlike Chrome which updates silently and in the background.

However, he seemed pessimist about Firefox’s chances of resurgence. Stating that even though Firefox have mended their ways it may be too little too late given most users have already jumped ship to Chrome. Not to mention the fact it is really difficult to get people to switch browser unless something about their current browser really irritates them.

Having switched from Firefox to Chrome myself because of Flash player and memory leakage issues, I can honestly say I don’t regret moving and have no intentions of coming back to the fox. So perhaps John DiCarlo does have a point, what do you think?

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