The Takeaway: With Firefox for Windows 10, Mozilla hopes to keep its users
The open-source developer revealed earlier this month that it had reversed course and would produce a browser for Microsoft's new operating system, which arrives on July 29. Mozilla had abandoned that idea early last year.
Prompting the change of heart: Windows 10's express setup changes previous browser defaults to Microsoft's own Edge during an upgrade, according to published documents. That, according to Mozilla officials, could pose problems for Firefox, which has seen its market share cut in half over the last couple of years. It now accounts for about 12% of browsers in use.
"More than 70% of our user base will be eligible for the free Windows 10 upgrade on desktop," Mozilla said. "After the upgrade occurs, users will be exposed to messaging encouraging them to switch to the Edge browser. This poses a retention threat for Firefox. ...Upgrading to Windows 10 will create change/friction. We should leverage that moment to put Firefox top of mind."
Here's what Mozilla envisions:
"We don't know exactly what the [Windows 10] update trajectory will look like," Mozilla said in a document. "Our goal is that when Windows 10 releases start to go out, Firefox will work well on Windows 10."
With reports by Gregg Keizer at Computerworld.