Pros / Cons: Replacing Konqueror with Firefox

[Sindre Wetjen]

On Friday 07 August 2015 15:03:41 Mustafa Muhammad wrote:
> Pros
> 1) We will have the most popular open source browser, only chrome (not
> chromium) has more users than Firefox and it's not fully open source (it
> had flash built in)

There is another way to look at that. We will have the least popular rendering 
engine (except KHTML, but I don't consider it relevant since QtWebKit is the 
default in konq).

> 3) Familiar experience for first time users, Firefox tries to look similar
> on all platforms.

Why is this an issue? Browsers are a location bar and tabs. They all look the 
same.

> 
> 4) Better support for internet video

That is not true. Konq supports the same amount of video formats as Firefox 
fedora (VP8 only). If you want h264 you have to go through some configuration 
for both browsers. 

> 5) Much better support for the latest standard (HTML 5), if you compare
> Konq to Firefox in http://html5test.com you will be shocked.

Doesn't really help if they don't target your rendering engine.

> 6) Support for addons to extend the functionality.

I think this is the best argument for making Firefox default, as that is a 
thing that users actually miss. But with Firefox having made an 1) extremely 
insecure plugin structure and 2) creating an Apple like authentication scheme, 
it kinds of comes back in a negative way. And while users may accept this, IMO 
its not something Fedora should default on to people.

> 7) Higher number of users and developers mean bugs and security
> vulnerabilities gets found and fixed faster.

There are more users on WebKit (Safari is more popular than Firefox, atleast 
in my country), the devs do you have numbers that actually quantify that 
statement? 

> 8) Firefox is faster than Konq.

This is only relevant for people opening a lot of tabs. Which usually (in my 
experience) overlap with people being able to install their own browsers. 

> 
> Pros
> Less integration with Plasma desktop and KDE apps.

Here are some more cons:
- The kWallet plugin is BROKEN (which means that if you actually want password 
protection you have to enable it yourself and write in a separate password).
- Upstream is pushing for more and more sharing of personal data.
- Linux support for stuff has been dabbing off a lot lately compared to Blink 
based browsers.
- Extension system is not good.
- HW support is in a testing state, at best.
- Flash is a lost cause (it might not be a big deal in some time, but right 
now people actually use it)

I would like to express my support for Kevin Koflers suggestion of just keeping 
Konq until there actually is a good alternative as now it only seems we are 
changing to abide by some people that is fully capable of installing Firefox 
them self. Even if you install Firefox by default, the users that you would 
target with "Can't install a new browser" would be the ones you would be 
better off installing proprietary Chrome for anyways. 

- Sindre