I started using the new Firefox browser and it’s weirdly delicious
My usual response is, “Yeah, yeah. It’s gonna be so exciting.”
One way or another, browsers themselves largely seemed boring until Microsoft Edge came along.
Yes, its creators decided that the best way to impress you was to get on your nerves, but at least it had turned Chromium into something that seemed vaguely new and fast.
This week, Firefox pushed me to upgrade to its latest version, Firefox 89.
I can’t claim my enthusiasm was high, despite being a very long engaged Firefox user.
It’s not like I find Firefox overly nice in terms of aesthetics or anything really functional.
I just want to support companies that still have a vestige of heart and soul. I want to support businesses that value privacy can have a role to play in upholding the hearts and souls of others.
Dutifully, I made the change without thinking too much. He was likely to look alike, right? I installed all the updates, are there really 89? – without really noticing much of a difference.
I had a busy day and suddenly realized I had nine tabs open. As I moved to close one or two, I realized that something was missing.
Please don’t ask me what that something was, because – I suspect like many other people – I tolerate things about technology that I don’t like, but I can’t bother to do anything. Were they icons of stuff? Was it bookmarks? It was certainly more elements.
Yet now that thing under the browser window was suddenly gone. All I could see were pleasantly floating rounded tabs – which looked larger and clearer – and nothing else. There was simply more clean space.
It is not a revolution, of course. And I wouldn’t think of suggesting that you should immediately throw your Chromic or Edgy tendencies to the wind. (You’ve probably been gone too long for that.)
Also: Empty Google Chrome in 3 steps
But when a well-meaning company goes to the trouble of making the connection between your eyes, your brain, and your feelings a little more pleasurable, I want to give them a hug.
Yes, I know Firefox’s market share is only 3.4%. I know I’m kind of a lonely man, wandering the streets, mumbling existential thoughts.
But a tech company did something aesthetically pleasing and spiritually calming, so hosannas to that.