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Is Flock switching to Chrome, or not?

Andrew Lyle   on 04 March 2009 - 17:14, updated 04 March 2009 - 19:04 · 44 comments & 8784 views

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Flock is a social-focused browser that is built around the Mozilla Firefox browser. As of lately, Flock has been talking about switching from running on Mozilla's Firefox browser to Google's Chrome browser because Mozilla is not listening to the needs of Flock to help improve itself.

With a new upcoming release of Flock 2.1 is still apparently built on Mozilla's Firefox browser and not that of Google's Chrome. The web site of Flock's browser still says powered by Mozilla, leaving to believe the upcoming 2.1 release of Flock will not be run off of Google's Chrome browser.

The switch from Mozilla's Firefox browser to Google's Chrome leaves behind a lot of security patches, cross-platform support as well as a very large open source community, something Flock.com praises in its browser. As Flock still pushes for popularity, pushing to switch browser platforms now could set Flock back even further while Google still improves Chrome.

Flock's browser still maintains a less than a fraction of all web users, even less than Netscape, which discontinued its browser almost over a year ago. Flock has 6 million or so downloads so far, making it still an underdog in a race for the best browser with recent surprising releases from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Flock may find it hard to fit in, even running on Google's still new Chrome browser.

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(6 replies) #1 vetbangbang023 on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:06
Why would Mozilla need to listen to them? They're using Mozilla's code for free in an attempt to make money for themselves. What does Mozilla owe them?
#1.1 Sam Symons Live on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:12
bangbang023 said,
Why would Mozilla need to listen to them? They're using Mozilla's code for free in an attempt to make money for themselves. What does Mozilla owe them?

I agree, Mozilla has no obligation to help them, they chose to develop Flock using Mozilla's technology.
#1.2 lylesback2 on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:25
Especially with such a small side project like Flock, that no one hardly uses anyways. Flock shouldn't be demanding anything.
#1.3 RealFduch on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:26
*Grins looking how the kitchy open-source kingdom rots more and more*
#1.4 Jugalator on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:44
Why would Mozilla need to listen to them?

Better yet -- why would GOOGLE listen to them!?

Google has recently said that they developed Google Chrome to encourage innovation and put pressure on the competition to develop improved Javascript engines. I can't fathom supporting a third party like Flock, or ANY third party, would be part of their plans. Heck it's barely even a plan to do a strong feature rich web browser, but rather a fast browser that thereby support complex web services well. This seems like a major conflict of interests, with more chances to success if relying on the huge OSS community behind Firefox.

This all sounds very odd to me. Actually, it sounds more like a poorly thought out "threat" to Mozilla. It doesn't make sense.
#1.5 PatrynXX on 04 Mar 2009 - 22:06
Sam Symons Live said,
I agree, Mozilla has no obligation to help them, they chose to develop Flock using Mozilla's technology.


Flock is so much faster than Firefox though. Flock is my main browser. If they do switch to chrome though, it's unlikely I'll follow. Then all my bars would disappear. And Roboform isn't compatible with Opera let alone Chrome
#1.6 Pallab on 07 Mar 2009 - 19:09
Use Lastpass. It works with Fx, Opera, Ie and many other browsers.
(2 replies) #2 thealexweb on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:07
Big mistake stay with Firefox, if it does I'll be uninstalling.
#2.1 Mokusei on 04 Mar 2009 - 21:04
who cares what youll do? ;p
#2.2 thealexweb on 04 Mar 2009 - 21:59
Mokusei said,
who cares what youll do? ;p


Who cares about what you care about what I care ;-)
(1 reply) #3 TheNay on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:16
Flock is what? Exactly... I don't know a single person who uses it. Just another wannabe FF.
#3.1 TRC on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:20
I wasn't sure either so I went to their site. It says it's "The social web browser" and on the main page it says "Just like you, we love to hang out on the social web!" After that I left, I don't even want to know what that means. It sounds really stupid.
(4 replies) #4 Digix on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:26
If mozilla wont help them i'm quite sure google won't.

Not to mention chrome doesn't have add-ons so who knows how they'd be able to get all their features jammed into it. Maybe would be more ideal just building their own based on webkit if they're so keen on it.
#4.1 m.keeley on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:33
Chrome will shortly support add-ons.
#4.2 Digix on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:40
m.keeley said,
Chrome will shortly support add-ons.


One day. Until then.
#4.3 Jugalator on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:48
Not "shortly", sometime this year, they think. And it's on the drawing board and surely uncertain if it'll fulfill Flock's needs. On the other hand, Firefox is known to have deep support for customization from extensions to the browser chrome itself in XUL.
#4.4 m.keeley on 04 Mar 2009 - 21:14
From what I remember Google were talking about April time, whether they meant for nightly builds or for release I'm not sure. Not saying that Chrome will be right for Flock just that extensions don't sound as though they are far off.
#5 Intelman on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:26
Well, go webkit!
(5 replies) #6 th3rEsa on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:32
Chrome... Google crap... a very good reason not to use it anyway.
#6.1 thealexweb on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:46
th3rEsa said,
Chrome... Google crap... a very good reason not to use it anyway.


At the moment it does lack a lot of crucial things, e.g. Add-ons, Mac OS X Support, Linux Support, etc.
#6.2 Faisal Islam on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:52
no...Chrome Rocks
#6.3 th3rEsa on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:02
It rocks compared to the IE, that's all.
#6.4 +dead.cell on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:18
Chrome is built on Webkit... I suppose you could say Apple crap?

(Yes, I'm aware of the whole KHTML and such; it's not a literal question, calm down)
#6.5 mmck on 04 Mar 2009 - 22:08
thealexweb said,
At the moment it does lack a lot of crucial things, e.g. Add-ons, Mac OS X Support, Linux Support, etc.


Mac OSX and Linux support arent really things it is "lacking" nor are they crucial.
(5 replies) #7 Victor V. on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:43
Oh my God, a website of geeks doesn't understand a social browser's point! That is so weird!
#7.1 Rockett15 on 04 Mar 2009 - 19:59
Priceless
#7.2 Tekkerson on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:00
I usually lurk through the site and I bothered to recover the password I no longer remembered to this account just to say...

+1
#7.3 +dead.cell on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:19
Well played, sir, well played.
#7.4 Samn9 on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:37
Hahahha
#7.5 Jugalator on 04 Mar 2009 - 20:51
Oh my God, a website of geeks doesn't understand a social browser's point! That is so weird!

Or it's that Firefox users interested in e.g. better Facebook integration simply install the extension for that and are done with it... No need to switch and learn an entirely new browser, lose Mozilla's update schedule for Firefox and having to rely on a far smaller development team for slower security and feature updates, etc, etc.
#8 Mokusei on 04 Mar 2009 - 21:13
instead of switching to chrome, they should merge with mozilla firefox and share all goods that they made... anyway, its a bad move - chrome doesnt have any infrastructure like extensions or themes.

afair there was also idea for adding support firefox addons in chrome, but thats extremly strange (and dangerous too imo, its like adding support for activex in firefox ) .
(2 replies) #9 Bri- on 04 Mar 2009 - 21:31
I don't have any sort of business degree, but from my point of view (as a "customer", I think it's a really lame idea to switch to Chrome (at the moment).

First, Chrome hasn't been around long enough for people to know what's going to happen with it. Google has a notorious track record of keeping things in "BETA" status indefinitely. The 'BETA' tag alone doesn't mean much to the average e-tard, but developers, I assume, would be a little reluctant to spend a lot of time on it. Especially on such an experimental project backed with financial investments.

Furthermore, I think this social networking nonsense is just a fad and will fizzle out sooner than later. MySpace admins and big-wigs are jumping ship, Facebook has come under scrutiny and backlash, and so on. These e-trends are just like trends in the real world - they'll come and go. Again, with so much money and time invested in such a fickle society, it's risky. But even if they stick to Firefox, there's no telling how much life is left in the project.

I say they just "wing it" by sticking to Firefox. Maybe introduce some new features here and there, but stop trying to be the next "big thing". It's just a damn browser.
#9.1 undu on 04 Mar 2009 - 23:06
Chrome is no longer beta. :/

But yeah, I don't know what "needs" they require, but it doesn't really make sense to say they'll be switching because firefox code doesn't suit them, when the code is open-source and they can fork it, pft.
#9.2 BigCheese on 05 Mar 2009 - 19:50
Chrome is no longer beta? Must have missed that. I thought it was going to be beta forever like gmail.
(2 replies) #10 Raa on 04 Mar 2009 - 22:24
Just switch to Chrome and be done with it. Better browser, better choice?
#10.1 C_Guy on 04 Mar 2009 - 22:59
Heh, you're getting Chrome mixed up with Internet Explorer.

I suppose we can forgive you. This time.
#10.2 +dead.cell on 05 Mar 2009 - 20:42
He said better browser, not disgusting junk.
#11 Shiranui on 05 Mar 2009 - 00:34
As if Mozzy would care if they jumped ship. They can Flock off!

Are the silly Flockers who use Flock, referred to as 'sheep'?
#12 +Techno_Funky on 05 Mar 2009 - 04:36
OMG!! I had completely forgotten about this browser :|
#13 rakeshishere on 05 Mar 2009 - 09:02
You mean Flock is switching from Gecko to Webkit ? Not something like Firefox to Chrome B/w webkit > Gecko engine in my opinion
#14 jamesyfx on 05 Mar 2009 - 16:36
Who here needs the additional features in Flock?

I don't. But maybe thats just me.
#15 soldier1st on 05 Mar 2009 - 23:06
Flock is just a firefox clone with social networking garbage built in, if mozilla does not want to help then that is there choice.
#16 XeonBuilder on 06 Mar 2009 - 03:29
Im sure the 6 people that use it care.
#17 Introspektive on 21 Mar 2009 - 18:08
Flock always ran slow for me compared to Firefox. I'm a big fan of Chrome so if they did make the switch, I'd give it a try.

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