The Shape of Days

Among all my Web stuff lately, I’ve been forced through cruel circumstance to download and occasionally use a Web browser called Firefox.

Let me say this loudly and with perfect clarity: Firefox sucks ass. Seriously. It is a terrible computer program. It’s a nightmare on wheels with extra dipping sauce on the side. It’s shit on a cracker and we all have to take a bite. It’s bad bad. Like morally wrong. Like it makes you feel like you need to see a priest. It’s bad.

But I’m not going to bother trying to tell you why. Because this guy has already done so, saying precisely the things I would have said, only using more details because he’s apparently spent some time with Firefox. Like bad time.

The interesting thing about Firefox, to me, is that so many people think it’s good. There’s only one explanation for something like that, you know? I mean, we’re not talking about personal taste here. We’re not talking about Coke versus Pepsi or blondes versus brunettes. We’re talking about something that’s objectively, demonstrably bad that lots of people think is good. There’s only one explanation for that: context. People think Firefox is good because it’s better than anything they’ve ever seen. Which is, you know, really very sad if you think about it.

I will give credit where it’s due, though: Firefox offers very helpful error messages when you screw something up in your JavaScript. They’re detailed and specific. Which I guess makes sense, considering Firefox was designed entirely by computer programmers. The error messages are a dream, but the preferences dialog box is a baffling ordeal.

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