Chrome v/s Firefox - Are we witnessing a declining reign of Firefox?

Many of us started our IT life through Windows and Cyber life through IE and so we are probably the only one who can understand what it felt when we shifted and explored this web using Firefox - Freedom . This Browser is one of the most popular open source products of all time. It has a vast fan following but now its not the only option available to users. The biggest competitor doesn't seem to be Microsoft's Internet Explorer anymore but Google's Chrome Browser.

Back in the days when it was new, things weren't easier either. IE was used by almost everybody who was online. And the biggest reason of that was Microsoft's dictatorship. People didn't ( don't would be better ) know that they had options. But once they started using Firefox they realized what all they were missing. As Adrian puts it,

"Firefox owes its current market share to being innovative and responsive to user needs at a time when Microsoft was still trying to dictate to users how they should use the web."

But things are not the same now, the competittion is more tense. With IE trying to capture its lost Market share with IE9 and yet another heavily backed up browser Chrome, Firefox needs to take some drastic measures to compete.

Chrome is a product of Google and we all know what Chrome means to them. They are real serious about it and finance is ofcourse not a point for the search Giant. Chrome is steadily growing its user base and why not? We all well aware of its speed shows.

As a matter of Fact, I like Chrome, it is fast, but the main reason I stick to Firefox is because of its unbeatable addon family. But in fact, writing addons for Chrome is easier than Firefox. To add more, addons in Firefox has a major effect on its performance, transforming it into a CPU hogging app. where as Chrome is not much affected by its addons. So, may be Addons are not the only thing Firefox can/should rely for a long time.

Linux is one of the main reasons behind Firefox's success. Firefox is the default browser in almost all Linux Distros. That's when many started knowing it, actually thats how I first came across Firefox. But even this trend has started to break with Ubuntu planning to replace Firefox with Google's Chrome in Ubuntu 10.10, Maverick Meerkat, Netbook edition.

May be Firefox needs a new strategy, a makeover or something. As Matt Asay says:

For starters, it must see itself as a competitor, not as some altruistic provider of Web browsers to benefit humanity. It needs teeth, even as it maintains the ideals of the open Web. (Guess what? Google has those same ideals.)

They are offering a lot new features for both users and developers in Firefox 4 but will that be enough? I am just hoping to see a faster and far better user experience in the upcoming Firefox 4. Although Firefox has a large user community, but they won't care much once they find something better.