Yes, and also continued to lose market share!* I wish they would stop changing the user interface so frequently.
Besides that, they don't separate between desktop and mobile. Marketshare on mobile hardly reflects user opinions, if this is what you were trying to imply.
Other sources, like NetMarketshare, show rising numbers on the desktop.
That said, keeping things the same would obviously only sustain that trend. Hopefully Firefox 57 and above will help them reverse it. I'm hopeful though, if it doesn't, I don't think there's much else they could've done.
This is one major gripe I have with mozilla and firefox: depriving the user of the freedom to choose and forcing change upon them.
This constant interface change is affecting many of the older people for whom I provide technical support. They all relied on classic theme restorer extension to be able to use their browser and dropping support for the "legacy" extension gave them a hard time and the solution has been to drop firefox for waterfox or to drop the computer to get one of those tablets.
You think in a major internal overhaul that the old interface is just a matter of building a quick "[ ] Old, [X] New" radio button dialog.
And then you make a major, disproportional stink like how you've written 20 comments in this submission. Zero awareness through and through, and it's just not worth engaging with you beyond saying "well, I don't think the product is for you." -- A conclusion you seem uninterested in figuring out yourself.
I don't think you have the slightest clue about how hard it is to just keep old crap around when you're trying to evolve software. Else you'd know that either (A) it's not worth it or (B) the ship is simply sailing in a direction that you don't care about, so there's no point whining on the internet.
At some point you need to leave the movie theater so that others can enjoy the show. Leaving 20 comments in this submission just shows that it's an emotional thing for you. Time to move on. It's just a web browser.
I suspect the answer may be a secondary, vastly simpler interface that can be maintained as a fallback for the elderly, without breaking the bank.
Looking at this page, you seem to have more than one ...
But man, how can be you this persistently salty about it? Even just writing all of these comments must have taken at least half an hour.
Though most of the other I have are mostly affecting only me and my personal life. This one is affecting my professional life in a significant way as I have spent years pushing firefox to my clients cross platforms as a champion and good example of floss, and each of these changes not only impact my credibility with my clients but significantly increase support requests in a limited time period. I'm also deeply unhappy about this particular one because I witness first hand how it impacts the daily life of people have a hard time dealing with computers (older people, handicapped kids or all kind of computer illiterate people) and robs the of their confidence and freedom to use their computer. I have a hard time dealing with these inconsiderate short sighted decisions as if everyone lived in California was breathing tech.
This mozillazine comment sums it up better that I could : "Mozilla devs are making far-reaching and very short-sighted decisions in a vacuum." and I cannot agree more with it.
I do have other major gripes but these are only towards mozilla not firefox. I actually thing that mozilla disappearing would be possible of the best thing to happen to firefox, without the arguably stupid decision making at the top firefox could be a top notch browser, or could have been sadly.
It's hard to argue that Mozilla has not mismanaged firefox when the former mozilla CTO says so in a blog post where he also mentions that mozilla head of marketing uses google chrome everyday.
That said, there are times when UIs must change to accommodate new interface devices like touch screens. And maintaining both old and new forever is impractical.