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Comment by tmister | Hacker News Reader

But it is not default. Does a normal user have an urge to change the default browser even it performs worse than non-default browser http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/12o9oy/why_is_chrom... ?

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Was Firefox ever the default on anything?

Well, it's the default in a number of desktop GNU/Linux distributions, but that's not really the point he was making.

I assume most people install Firefox because it's better then the default browser experience. The argument in the parent comment is that this isn't the case so those that would normally go out of their way to install it have no reason to do so.

e: Or maybe I read it incorrectly? Firefox is a better mobile experience? If that's the case, I'm not really sure what the parent comment's argument is.

Well I was actually arguing that default browser performance have almost gotten to the point where there is no reason to switch browser for normal user even it performs worse than non-default browser. For Chrome in Nexus 10's case, no reviews have said that Chrome performs badly than other browser.

These arguments make no zense. IExplorer was once the best browser, until Microsoft stopped developing it. Healthy competition is good.

To nitpick: yes. It was and is the default on Ubuntu desktop and other Linux distributions. Admittedly by market share desktop Linux might as well be a rounding error.

In the rounding error of GNULinux desktop OSes defence, Windows is the default on 99% of the hardware consumers are buying too.

Defaults are a big deal.

Well, should a normal user have an urge to do so in that situation ? I mean, I understand why it is detrimental on the long term, but should people have had to use something else than ie6 back when it was superior to the competition ? I don't really think so.

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