Mozilla pulls the plug on Win8 version of Firefox, citing lack of demand

by
in mobile on (#3G6)
story imageWindows 8's unique "metro" interface has required developers to spend a lot of time updating their software to fit into the new environment. And the folks at Mozilla have decided it's not worth their time. They've dropped support for the project that aimed to bang Firefox into shape for Windows 8, citing lack of demand for the product as the reason. That frees up developers to spend time doing other things, but leaves users with good old Internet Explorer as their primary browser option on the tiled interface.

Mozilla says millions of users have downloaded pre-release builds of the desktop version of Firefox, while fewer than 1000 seem to be actively using the pre-release of Firefox for Windows 8 Metro. If you were holding out for the release version, time to look for other options!
Reply 7 comments

Chrome (Score: 3, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 09:25 (#N0)

I think Chrome has a metro interface. I've never seen it though.

fragmentation at its finest (Score: 3, Interesting)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 11:12 (#N2)

Is between the different corporations who want to control the computing platform whether Microsoft, apple, Google, or any other player.

Application developers have to choose sometimes. Amazing to think that windows is what gets dropped in this choice. Changing times.

Re: fragmentation at its finest (Score: 5, Informative)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 11:47 (#N3)

It is not the Windows version that is getting dropped. It is a specialised version that plays better with Metro.

Re: fragmentation at its finest (Score: 2)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 12:11 (#N4)

Thank you for the clarification.

Good for them (Score: 4, Funny)

by nightsky30@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 12:31 (#N7)

I think Mozilla made they right decision here. I have heard very few people happy with or actually using the Metro interface.

My favorite comment from the linked article:
Dear Microsoft,

Metro is bad and you should feel bad.

Sincerely,
Damn Near Everyone

Though that makes me wonder why they continue trying to push the Firefox OS. How many people are actually using that? I'm not saying it's bad or I dislike it, but I've never actually seen a device running Firefox OS in person.

Anyone here at |. running Firefox OS? What device do you have?

Re: Good for them (Score: 4, Informative)

by joshuajon@pipedot.org on 2014-03-18 13:01 (#NA)

I haven't used Firefox OS, but my understanding is it's aimed at lower end smart phones (modest hardware specifications) in emerging markets where there isn't already necessarily a heavily entrenched Apple/Google bias in phone sales. This page lists the devices with specifications and availability.