The Firefox web browser brought home the fantastic advantages of open source software to the average end user.
The success of the Firefox web browsing software application has been considered as the turning point in the history of open source software applications. Before the Firefox web browsing software application exploded onto the scene, open source software applications used to be widely ridiculed and criticized.
When the Firefox web browser was released, people never expected the web browsing software application to become the second most popular web browsing software application in the market. People grudgingly conceded that the web browsing software application would impress a few technical end users and would survive by capturing about one nor one and a half percentage of the web browser market. Simply put, no person ever expected the Firefox web browsing software application to capture a decent percentage of the web browser market let alone end the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Now that the Firefox web browsing software application has succeeded, questions are being asked why the Firefox web browsing software application succeeded and how the success of the Firefox web browser can be replicated to other open source web browsing software applications.
The primary reason why the Firefox web browsing software application succeeded despite being an open source software application was that it was not ashamed of the fact that it was an open source software application. The Firefox web browser aggressively marketed the advantages that open source software applications had to offer. It refused to let people focus on the disadvantages of open source software applications. Time and again, it repeatedly stressed on the fantastic customizability offered by the Firefox web browser. The developers of the Firefox web browser pointed out that the open source nature of the Firefox web browser would end up as the best thing that has happened to the web browsing market.
They incorporated the Firefox extension feature that enabled each and every end user to take advantage of the open source nature of the web browser irrespective of whether he was an expert in computer programming language or not. In short, the developers of the Firefox web browser did all that was necessary to make the open source nature of the Firefox web browser advantageous to the average end user. They successfully broke the myth that only a person who knows how to alter the source code can enjoy the versatility of the open source feature. The Firefox community on the internet has admirably performed the task of bringing the efforts of a few experts in computer programming languages to each and every end user of the Firefox web browser. Today, any and every Firefox extension is nothing but a modification of the source code of the web browser. Through the Firefox community, end users of the web browsing software application could offer these extensions for free to all other end users. Pretty soon, the open source nature of the Firefox web browsing software application became its biggest advantage.
Once the end users realized the personalization and customization that the Firefox web browsing software application offered, they could not bring themselves to stop using it. Now, it can be safely said that no end user of the Firefox web browsing software application will be completely comfortable in using any other web browsing software application. While Firefox end users may still use other web browsers, it is impossible for any Firefox user to quit using the Firefox web browser. The reason why end users find it difficult to quit the Firefox web browser was that it pampers each and every end user to the maximum extent possible. Each and every component of the Firefox web browser exerts to make the web browsing experience of the end users more enjoyable.
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Tags: Firefox Browser, Mozilla
