Moses had a very significant role in the history of the Jewish people, maybe the most significant. According to the bible, he led the exodus, the departure of the Israeli people from slavery in ancient egypt. Moses then led the people to the promised land, a journey which took 40 years. Along the way, Moses received the Ten Commandments which signify the most important convent between God and the Jewish people. Pretty much the beginning of Judaism as we know it.
Firefox had a similar role. We were all slaves in the hands of Microsoft. Using ancient versions of Internet Explorer which were specifically designed to be proprietary and non-standard, making sure we remain locked in the hands of our dark masters.
Then came Firefox, stood up and said: "let my people go". The IE market share was around 99.99% at that point. It seemed like an impossible task. Many web sites didn't even work properly in Firefox, which preached for standards based internet for all and the freedom to choose your tools. It was a slow campaign, but, luckily, it didn't take 40 years.
Moses did not enter Israel. He died in the desert after seeing the promised land from afar. This is tragic, but it is very significant. There are many stories and interpretations around this. Most people agree that this is because of a sin in his past. The whole point of walking in the desert for 40 years, was to "dispose" of the old, sinful generation (what we call "the desert generation") and start fresh and clean. No sins. Moses did his job by bringing the people to the point where they can start fresh. But he had to go, eventually, so they can start fresh.
Firefox has done his job. Now, when the promised land is in sight, it is time for him to go. Firefox is showing its' age. It is no longer innovative, it is now lagging behind. It is slow and consumes a lot of resources.
One of the key benefits of Firefox was plugins. True, IE had plugins, but the open nature of the Firefox community created a massive number of plugins for all purposes. Many of these plugins kept me from moving to other browsers. The same plugins are also responsible for many of the problems, or at least for making them worse. They leak memory, they slow you down and they crash. For the common user, it is impossible to attribute these problems to a specific plugin. It is perceived as Firefox issues.
Firefox played an important role in the history of the web. It did its' part. It is now time for the new generation of browsers to take the stage, the WebKit generation: Chrome and Safari. We will always cherish Firefox for its' role. Farewell old friend.
