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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

> They're unlikely to survive for a year

Well, they might, unless the other browser vendors do the same. Firefox is only like 10% of the total browser market (mobile included).

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AFAIK, moz's CA isn't just for FF. On linux, the default "root CA" used by google chrome is mozilla's NSS as shown here[0].

Also, other root certificate programs may follow suit.

[0]: https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/root-ca-poli...

Even if other browsers don't follow suit, 10% is enough for effectively no one to choose their certificates. When there are other, even free, alternatives, why would anyone voluntarily give up 10% of their potential users?

Browser shares vary wildly by country. For example in germany FF is still the widest used desktop browser. Including mobile probably tips it in favor of safari or chrome, but losing a substantial portion of the desktop market in Europe's largest economy will hurt you.

>> For example in germany FF is still the widest used desktop browser.

Do you have any references to back that up? I'm asking because I suspect your assumption is completely wrong.

(Based on a bunch of analytics data that I have access to, which might not be representative but still contains some very large german web properties, chrome has more than twice the market share compared to FF in germany).

Not sure how accurate it is but this shows that FF is still the first desktop browser (but not for long it seems) in Germany:

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-DE-monthly-201508-201608

On the other hand if you only look at mobile, Chrome is well ahead of everything else:

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-DE-monthly-201508-...

We just moved our stuff from Comodo to Let's Encrypt for an ancient Android version that's a few percent of a few percent. It'll happen.

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