Why is Firefox so Popular?

[ Thanks to Maarten Kooiker for this link. ]

"This week, several articles I read brought the breaking news that the market share of Microsoft's internet explorer is shrinking to below 70% for the first time since 1999). Internet Explorer gained a near monopoly, simply by forcing it to the customers by bundling/integrating it with the operating system Windows, and I believe this is the major reason why this browser still holds such a big percentage of market share. Many people simply use the browser they are given, unless there is an alternative that has significant advantages.

"On the other hand, apparently, the near-monopoly has made Microsoft extremely lazy, resulting in a browser that does not even meet the open web-standards, it is slow and has to catch up with alternative browsers. The lack of meeting open standards is an increasing frustration with web-designers and alternative producers of web-browsers like Opera). Having to catch up with other browsers is painfully clear when simply looking at tabbed browsing and extensions"

Complete Story

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