Mozilla Firefox is to be credited for shifting the spotlight on the ‘means’ instead of the ‘end’
A recent interview of the Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation gives an insight into the drastic change in philosophy that the Firefox web browser caused when it was first introduced. It also helps us understand the approach of the developers towards the web browsing software application. The interview clearly indicates that the developers of other web browsing software applications used to focus on selling the product to other web developers rather than the end users of the web browsing software application. Before the Firefox web browsing software application came along, the developers of the other web browsing software applications were interested in the requirements and expectations of the web developers. The end users of the web browsing software applications always came second. Their requirements and their expectations were not given top priority.
When this point is taken into consideration, the various decisions of the developers of the various web browsing software applications make a lot of sense. The Firefox web browsing software application offered the Firefox extension feature, the Firefox themes feature and various other features that enabled the end users to modify the functioning of the web browsing software application. The Firefox web browsing software application treats the web browser as an end in itself. They have taken this approach because this is how the end users view the web browser. On the other hand, the web developers treat the web browsing software application as the means to achieve an end.
When was the last time you paid a lot of attention to a tool or implement that were using?? The chances are that you would not have bothered about a tool or the implement. Rather, your focus would be on the job at hand. That is how the web developers work. As far as the web developers are concerned, a web browsing software application is nothing but an instrument which is used to create web pages and to set up the web site. The focus of the Web developers is always on the web site only. The web developers are least concerned about the color scheme of the web browsing software application. For them, such details are irrelevant. However, an end user of the web browsing software application who makes use of the web browser to surf the World Wide Web would definitely want a web browsing software application that is good looking and pleasing to the eye. The developers of the other web browsing software applications never bothered to cater to the requirements of the latter category.
It took a lot of efforts on the part of the developers of the Firefox web browsing software application to change the mindset. Once the Firefox web browsing software application succeeded in driving home the message that the web browsing software application is not just the means to end but also an end in itself, the requirements and expectations of the end users began to be considered and catered to. That is the reason why the developers of web browsers other than the Firefox web browsing software application began focusing on user friendliness. Any web developer would have absolutely no reason to complain about the lack of user friendliness of any web browsing software application. For a person who makes web sites, making use of any stable and functional web browsing software application would not to be very difficult. However, for an average end user of the computer, other web browsing software applications would seem as complex devices that are very difficult to operate. It was the Firefox web browsing software application which changed that and got rid of the problem forever.
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Tags: Firefox Browser, Mozilla
