I've been using Firefox in combination with Firebug for years and it seemed that most web developers are quite fond of that combination. But in the recent year or so the development of Firebug not only has slowed down, but seems to be target of mockery.<p>I've been listening to a ton of podcasts this year and everytime the topics browser or development tools comes up people are talking about Chrome. Sometimes mentioning Firefox with a certain tone that implies "If you're still using that old...".<p>I'm surprised. I like Firefox as my main browser. But there is probably a connection between the development speed of Firebug and the popularity of Chrome's developer tools. Having two browsers running using only one of them to develop feels rather odd, but I feel like I'm missing out otherwise.<p>What happened that made Firefox vanish out of the vocabulary of most developers?
I made the switch from FF to Chrome about a year and a half ago. Here's my two cents:<p>What sold me was better memory management and better (in general) CSS3 rendering. I normally work with two windows open, one that has all my cookies and stuff so I can do web searches, and another with a blank persona so I can do development. Having two instances of Chrome running vs. one instance of Chrome and Firefox running seemed to lead to less crashes.<p>Regarding the dev. speed of Firebug, the lead dev on Firebug went to lead up work on Chrome's Dev tools[0]<p>I still find Chrome's dev tools lacking and the interface hard to navigate. I also miss the plugin ecosystem that Firebug had (I could send xdebug messages straight into Firebug, which was amazing!)<p>[0]<a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20080338-264/firefox-world-loses-web-dev-guru-to-chrome/" rel="nofollow">http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20080338-264/firefox-world...</a>
Firefox lost it due to bad memory and plugin management (what I remember reading), and Chrome came in the right time when people were looking for something faster and snappier. After that, Chrome's developer tools outstripped firebug too. And they were faster in implementing a lot of HTML5 features.
But I think firefox is making a big comeback now. They have made their browser much faster and there is a lot of exciting work happening on their developer tools. I'm slowly getting frustrated with Chrome on my android, and firefox seems far better on it. I was stuck to Chrome due to the sync, but I am considering moving to firefox for desktop and mobile.<p>I'd also like to say that Chrome is in no way a standard and shouldn't be considered as one by any developer worth his salt. If you make a website that doesn't work as well in firefox, you have lost my respect. (unless you are doing a Chrome experiment or something).
Yes - there has been a shift from Firefox/Firebug over the last couple of years. Google has put a lot of effort into improving the developer experience, both UI and features, while F/F has improved at a somewhat slower pace. Google has also put a lot of effort into courting developers at conferences and with blog posts and video tutorials with people like Paul Irish and Addy Osmani. It has been very effective - just look how often Chrome DevTools is now mentioned on HN vs Firebug. Lastly the growth of Chrome's browser marketshare means it make more and more sense to develop on Chrome. One key to all of this was the earlier switch to more frequent and automatic browser updates.<p>Editorial: I'm not sure this is a good thing. Chrome DevTools can be used to influence the web dev ecosystem and Google has very different interests than most developers. But so far they seem to be playing fair as best I can tell.
Back in 2008, FF was on a downward spiral. It was getting bloated, slow, annoying... And then Google came out with Chrome.<p>It took FF less than a year to get their s<i></i>t together and fix their browser. Today it's great, but the harm was done. Most of the people who moved to Chrome never looked back, and still remember FF as a slow, annoying browser.
Also I think in the next few releases FF is going to improve their tools a lot!
Now, chrome seems to be pushing development of very marketable features (For the better or worst) like speed while leaving aside privacy or other focus...
I hope FF can regain traction in the long run or any similar projects...
I still use Firebug, mainly because I'm more familiar with it than I am with the Chrome developer tools, I like the UI a lot more, but that's probably my own personal taste rather than it being a better UI. I rate it as being on-par with the Chrome developer tools, and quite frankly I don't consider either to be better than the other for general front-end dev.<p>That being said, I am really not a fan of the in-built Firefox dev tools. For the life of me I don't understand why Mozilla are dedicating their time to building up their own dev tools when Firebug is the preferred environment for front-end devs that use Firefox. Again, this could just be down to personal taste, but it feels like it's a wasted effort. I'd prefer to see those developers spending time on improving Firebug.
We're developers, we are both tool makers and tool users. Limiting ourselves to either Chrome or Firefox (or IE or Opera or...) is - well - stupid.<p>Use the tools we have. Use all of them. Make sure your code works everywhere (reasonable - I.E. 6 is as far back as I go currently) Anything else is a disservice to your self, your craft, and your users.
I think Firefox has stumbled in the past few years but will experience a resurgence for two reasons: 1) privacy issues and a growing, healthy distrust for the behemoth that is Google and 2) the Chrome browser is slow, less responsive and more resource hungry on the popular Windows 8 OS.<p>Also, Firefox is a great browser!