Former Mozilla engineer blames Microsoft for cancelled Firefox app

A former Mozilla engineer who worked on the “Metro” version of Firefox argued yesterday that poor adoption of Windows 8’s radical user interface was not the real cause of the decision to shelve the browser. “Is Windows 8.1 ‘Modern’ UI in trouble? No,” said Brian Bondy, who led the Metro-ized Firefox development, in a post on his personal blog.

A former engineer for Mozilla points the blame for the company’s recent decision to shelve the Metro version of the Firefox browser squarely at Microsoft rather than on poor adoption numbers as laid out by the company. Rather the true issue lies with Microsoft’s browser rules says Brian Bondy. On Bondy’s personal blog, he outlines the two reasons why he thinks that the usage of Firefox Metro was actually low. Both issues revolve around being able to set browsers as the default one to use within Windows 8. The idea that Microsoft doesn’t allow a browser to use the touch based UI unless it is set as the default presents a problem for adopters according to Bondy. He says that “several people could have had a modern UI capable Firefox pre-release installed, but just never knew it.”