[ravenstine]

Let's pretend for a moment that it's a certainty that The Google sabotaged Firefox.

Practically speaking, would things have turned out appreciably different from the way things are now?

People today but especially back during the time that Chrome was released had an disproportionately positive view of The Google in terms of trust and delight from "innovation." If you asked any of them what they think of Mozilla, chances are they'd reply asking "Is that like Godzilla?"

[Zak]

From Chrome's launch in 2008-2009 (depending on your OS) until Firefox's multi-process release in 2016, Chrome had a huge advantage: a bad page didn't crash or slow down your whole browser.

I switched during that time period and took my time switching back. Someone less interested in tech or less concerned with privacy issues probably wouldn't have been motivated to switch back at all. I can't comment on whether Google did use sabotage to win, but they didn't need to.