Firefox: Jack of all trades, master of none, or small and focused?

Wired magazine wrote an article pointing out that Firefox is becoming increasingly bloated. Is this excellent open-source browser following in the footsteps of Internet Explorer? The following is an excerpt from the original article:

When Firefox first appeared five years ago, it was like a young "King" Elvis Presley—slim, sexy, and irresistibly attractive. It quickly became famous in the open-source browser industry. After attracting millions of users, Firefox gradually set the standard for browser development and began to threaten Microsoft's Internet Explorer's monopoly in the browser market. However, the upcoming release of Firefox 3.0 later this year, once known as the "IE killer," may be transforming into another bloated version of Elvis, with increasing criticism from core enthusiasts perhaps signaling this danger.

Online forums have started seeing user complaints about Firefox's slow page loading speed and frequent crashes, with growing calls for Firefox to return to its simpler origins. People believe that Firefox is becoming more bloated, which was also the problem faced by Mozilla's former competitor, another open-source browser Netscape, at the time.

A reader commented in a poll on the Netscape website asking what improvements Firefox most needs: "Do you remember when (Firefox) was a 'lightweight' browser? Let's go back to those days."

As Firefox's user base continues to grow, the browser has integrated more and more features. Slower performance and bloated functions have led some users to demand that Firefox return to its former "slim and sexy" state. For example, the page caching mechanism introduced in Firefox 1.5 stores the last eight pages browsed in memory, making it faster for users to browse backward. However, this feature also reduces available computer memory. Reduced memory means slower computer response times. Firefox seems to have realized this issue and has reduced the default cache to less than 1GB. Clearly, the optimal balance point for how many features is still debated, but one thing is certain: the new Web is pushing our browsers to their limits.

Ajax, Flash, and other rich application technologies clearly increase the burden on browsers, but such developments are irreversible. As the Web evolves, users also look forward to such technological advancements.

Open-source advocate Bruce Perens said, "The real reason for Web bloat and functional redundancy is the rich content now provided on the Web, and these contents require much higher performance compared to traditional HTML."

Another factor is mercilessly pushing Firefox towards increased complexity.

Currently, Internet Explorer is slowly catching up with Firefox, adding features like tab browsing and RSS integration in IE7. If Firefox wants to continue competing, it needs to keep up with trends without requiring users to install more extensions, one reason being potential compatibility issues.

Blogger Chris Pirillo said, "I think Firefox itself must integrate more excellent features; otherwise, you will need to install a bunch of extensions, and they don't know what other extensions are running."

Big and comprehensive or small and precise? Integrate more functions internally or achieve them through third-party plugins? This might be a question for all browsers, dear readers, what do you think?