The browser war is over, all hail the King… Google Chrome!
It took a while for Google’s Chrome browser to hit number one in desktop market share, but now that it has, it’s decimating the opposition. Of course, Microsoft aided and abetted Chrome’s cause by changing the default browser in Windows 10 – with Internet Explorer hidden away in Windows 10, and its replacement Edge not finding favor, it appears more and more users are looking to 3rd party alternatives.
The latest statistics from the well respected NetMarketShare show Chrome dominating desktop browser market share with almost 20% more users than Internet Explorer and Firefox combined:
It seems that in trying to take on Google’s Chrome by way of emulation, both Microsoft and Mozilla have only succeeded in shooting themselves in the foot. At a mere 7.69% market share, just ahead of Edge, Firefox is now in real danger of becoming a browser non-entity. While there is possibly hope for Edge, which is still young and evolving, it’s difficult at this time to imagine Firefox staging any sort of meaningful comeback.
Windows 10 Hits 23% Market Share
Windows 10 has slowly but surely been gaining ground on Windows 7 as the preferred desktop operating system, currently sitting at a tick under 23% total desktop operating system market share.
It remains to be seen how that progresses now that the Windows 10 free upgrade period has expired, not to mention recent issues with the Anniversary Update. However, as Windows 7 grows nearer and nearer to its end of extended support date (January, 2020), one would expect the trend toward Windows 10 to accelerate accordingly. One thing for sure, January 2020 will be crunch time for all those users who have sworn never to install Windows 10 and to migrate over to either Linux or Mac. We’ll see. 🙂
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Sad to see this happening to Firefox. It’s still by browser of choice.
Agreed. Strangely, most of the DCT team are Firefox users and, whenever we publish an article such as this one, it will attract mostly similar comments to your own.
On the face of it, seems Firefox remains popular with more savvy users but not among your average Mum and Dad users.
Of course, Google enjoys the added advantage of owning the most popular search engine on the planet which it can (and does) utilize to promote Chrome from within any browser.
Chrome won’t delete browsing history on exit and IE does a poor job at it. I cleaned up a customers PC today that had 1.5 G of crap on it! Set it up to run CCleaner at startup. I’ll stick with Firefox thank you.
Me too. Downloaded Chrome recently just to try, opened it, played with it, then deleted it. Love FF.
I run FF in everything from XP to W10 and yes even in my Linux VM’s. It is about the only supported browser that will work on XP.
I have tried both Edge and Chrome and do not care for either one.
Jim. When they compile this information about Firefox, does it just include Firefox, or all the others like Waterfox, PaleMoon, etc.., Mindblower!
Good question MB. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure but I’d assume that the numbers relate only to Firefox itself and do not include any of the spin-offs.
Then Jim, there lies the problem. Since Firefox only supports 32 bit, I know of several who like me opt for Waterfox which supports 64 bit. Just as there are those who prefer the other Firefox spin-offs. This means the so-called study does not reflect the correct number of Firefox users. A real pity, taken that true browser users are not swayed by public masses, rather personal experience and practical knowledge, Mindblower!
Although you still have to look for it (at least until later this month), a stable (non-beta) Firefox x64 for Windows has been available from Mozilla since Dec. 2015 (Fx43).
???
My computers are 64-bit and I have Firefox on them. Never seen or used any of those spin-offs as you called them.
Tony,
Mindblower meant that Firefox doesn’t have a version which supports the 64-bit architecture. 32-bit Firefox will still run fine on 64-bit systems but won’t take advantage of the 64-bit architecture.
There are about half a dozen Firefox based browsers (or spin-offs) but the two most well known are Waterfox and PaleMoon.
It bewilders me why “Cyberfox” which is actually powered by Firefox source code, is hardly ever mentioned around IT forums. It supports 64 bit, and compared to all others, including Chrome… its streets aheaed. Fast ( I mean really fast) clean, all the add-ons as does Firefox, and the reason I trialed it a year ago because chrome was using too much resources and bogging down all the time is… it uses less memory it seems. Its been over a year now and I am as happy as Larry with it. I use the portable version, but maybe its even faster with a fully installed version. Plz do try it. Get the portable version because its easy to trash it if you are not impressed.
It seems all about whether one is an indivdual or one of the crowd. The former are frequently victims of the later. I have eschewed the latest religeon having not accepted The Lord Mark Zuckerberg as my savior. I enjoy Firefox x64 on PCLinuxOS which accesses Win 7 & 10 files on the other 2 hard drives. I don’t boot 10 at all at this time as I read about some glitch in an anniversary patch. My Android Tablet provides the mobile internet but due to a planed power outage this morning I’ve been forced back on Chrome on my tablet. When I cut my computer teeth on XP at 69 I couldn’t imagine racking up 6 OSs in another dozen years.
Its unfortunate that Firefox’s spun-off hybrids are not accounted for in this study, as I believe that a significant number of users have migrated away from Firefox for any number of valid reasons. I switched to Pale Moon about a year ago, and haven’t regretted the move one bit. Firefox lost me. Its constant attempts to emulate or “one-up” Chrome became a pain that I just couldn’t continue to bear. Every “update” forced me to reinstall a long list of extensions or add-ons that I had grown to rely on for comfortable browsing, and the supposed improvements or security fixes were indiscernible at best. When the “updates” started coming every couple of weeks or so, the headaches just weren’t worth the effort any more. I can’t speak for the other Mozilla-like iterations, but Pale Moon has been very effective for me.
I don’t know that for a fact. However, even if they are not included, accounting for all spin-offs would have to cover all Chromium based browsers too, which may well make the comparative numbers even worse.
I can say that we aren’t doing any better.
The add-ons that use JetPack are not going to work in our Pale Moon 27, which is a shame.
Many developers refuse to support Pale Moon, and the developers in Pale Moon want everyone to become developers to make the JetPack add-ons, without the JetPack method, from scratch to work for Pale Moon.
I was also upset when some of my favorite add-ons were not working or making the browser impossible to work with, so I had to remove them, so many gone to the bin in years. (I forgot most of them since it’s been a long while, let’s not forget BarTab which still is installed but it’s bugged even in Firefox)
Firefox doesn’t let me customize the browser how I want it but it still supports JetPack, plus it has better compatibility on many sites, it could be leaner like Pale Moon, though. Also, Firefox wants to work around the problems with hangs by using their multi-thread e10s, while Pale Moon developers want to reduce the hangs as much as possible without resorting to the e10s.
This DCT member loves Chrome. Could it be I always loved shiny bumpers on cars that were made of chrome? No I just like how fast it is how it streamlines with my ANdroid phone and everything I do. Go Chrome!
Yeah exactly why I use Chrome as it syncs easy with my phone so I can get my history, bookmarks and stuff with ease. Yeah there are ways you can do this with other browsers but it’s just easy with chrome and a lot sleeker.
I used to use Firefox but flash kept crashing, although it was probably my old pc that was the cause of this. I found a lot of people love Firefox for the add-ons, but if you used a lot it would slow everything down, and while Chrome was slow getting add-ons it seems okay now.
I don’t get the Flash crash now, but too often I’m stuck on “Unresponsive Script” – “Stop Script” or “Continue”.
Chrome will not print cards from American Greetings. Need Firefox for that. Any info?
I’ve never done it but just above the red “print at home folded greeting card”, there’s an extra instruction “Please click here for directions on how to print cards when using Google Chrome.”