Firefox’s quality isn’t going downhill, their security is getting tighter.
Do you know that web security is far and away the biggest threat to your average user? Browser exploits happen on a 0-day basis, meaning as soon as they’re discovered “in the wild,” there’s someone somewhere writing a bot or malware to exploit it. This is a big reason why most major corporations employ what’s known as a DMZ on their network to keep “wild” web servers out of the internal environment.
When you work as a systems admin, the biggest threat isn’t from the outside, it’s from within. Users who browse the web on insecure and outdated browsers on the corporate network are responsible for more virus outbreaks in the world than any single home user. Firefox is often termed as “buggy,” because they use a separate kernel from Windows. When Firefox starts up, you are literally starting an operating system on your machine with its own configuration, settings, cookie cache, certificate store, and script environment. The reason people see FF as “going downhill” is not due to a lack of quality but an increase in security.
What you deem “functional” in a browser like Opera, Safari, IE, and even Chrome, is actually walking a grey line on security. Firefox assumes you want to be safe. There are ways to turn off those safeguards if you wish. I personally prefer safety over usability.
“When Firefox starts up, you are literally starting an operating system on your machine with its own configuration, settings, cookie cache, certificate store, and script environment. The reason people see FF as “going downhill” is not due to a lack of quality but an increase in security.”
No wonder Firefox is a resource pig and an excellent vector for malware + virus infections. Cleaning out yet anothe piece of crapware from FF this morning.
There’s always two vectors that continually get exploited. Java and FF.