Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#151

Post by jandrese » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:42 PM UTC

dralley wrote: post #120

DiseasedBadger wrote: post #76

I would do that in an instant if it: Dropped WideVine Dropped WebRtc Brought back XUL Extensions Otherwise, I'll keep using a pre-australis fork, until I probably eventually just decide to use Chrome. Firefox different distinguish itself from Chrome.

Wow, that's the most unreasonable take I think I've ever seen. Also, Firefox doesn't come with Widevine. You have to click yes to download the module the first time you visit a page that uses it.

Dropping WebRTC doesn't seem all that unreasonable. It's not used that often and is a major source of information leaks.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#152

Post by PhasmaFelis » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:43 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #25

I'd be happy to pay for Firefox, but I have a few points that are important to me. They are probably not very realistic but here they are anyway: 1. I would like my money to go into Firefox development and nowhere else. I certainly don't want my money spent on their content business, even if it is used as a leverage to generate more money for Firefox development. I'm torn about Rust development because I certainly wo…

> - Safe search off by default

> - No predefined search engines

> - No predefined start page

These in particular are bad ideas. Default settings should always target the average user, not the power user.

Having Google as the default search/start option doesn't harm you or me at all and takes only a few seconds to change, but not having it adds significant friction and frustration for the average user.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#153

Post by Endy » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:50 PM UTC

There is no way Mozilla can remain a corporate entity and simultaneously make me feel like they deserve my money. It would require a complete clean break with Google, with the understanding that if they can't make it on their own, with their users, then it needs to be just a community project. If it makes money for Google, I don't trust it. If it supports Google, I don't trust it. And right now, Firefox does both.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#154

Post by newscracker » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

farisjarrah wrote: post #137

acjohnson55 wrote: post #131

Take my money! I've received incalculable value from using Mozilla products and I'll gladly pay to support them, especially when it comes to increased privacy.

I really hope there is a Paid Mozilla email service in there somewhere. That's what will get me to instantly sign up.

I've been donating to Thunderbird the past few years when it started accepting donations just for it (instead of being a donation to Mozilla though Thunderbird was spun off as a community driven project with some support from Mozilla).

If Mozilla comes with a paid email service focusing on privacy that's not just a white label rebranding of ProtonMail (which I won't use) or another existing provider, I'd surely be one of the first to try it out. Something that's preferably cheaper for multiple mailboxes with own domain support would be awesome.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#155

Post by lmorchard » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

Yeah, this is a kind of misleading headline. I can't predict the future, but AFAIK there are no plans to launch a paid version of Firefox.

There are plans to launch paid subscription services & products in a Firefox brand family. Some of services may even be independent from the browser and be separate standalone apps & products. Some of the services may even - gasp - work in a non-Firefox browser.

Think of things like Firefox Send, Firefox Monitor, Firefox Lockbox, a system-wide VPN, an in-browser secure proxy. Specific plans are still in progress, but I don't think any of them are literally "you pay for browser now"

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#156

Post by sidlls » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #139

sidlls wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers bear the brunt of the blame for this. I worked at a few AAA game shops when DLC was just starting to be a thing. Consumers drove that by their habits: they demanded add-ons and extras that took enormous effort to develop but didn't want to pay as much as a third or half the original purchase price, so we tinkered with smaller releases at much lower price points and consumers ate it up. Then as mass developm…

This is absolutely correct. If this stuff didn't work, then consumers wouldn't buy it, and the game companies would go out of business or change their practices. Game companies are highly profitable, therefore this strategy, as horribly as it sounds, is apparently a successful one which consumers are happy to fund with their disposable income. Games are a luxury; this isn't something like ISP access or cellular servi…

I don't think it's that simple: there was a feedback loop involved in which game (and app) developers share some of the "blame" for what has happened. A few could have differentiated themselves by continuing to offer high-end gaming and app experiences at a premium, but chose short-term, easy money. I don't blame them entirely, but someone in a position of power with even reasonable patience and foresight back then could have kept enough competitive share of the market to profit well without going into the race to the bottom we've seen.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#157

Post by newscracker » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

I see more than a few comments with some form of "I would pay if X/if not X/does X/does not X". The article, which has limited details, says that it would b some bundled services, such as a VPN service (like what Mozilla partnered with ProtonVPN for as a limited trial before) and online cloud storage.

At this time, it doesn't seem like this would be a paid version of the Firefox browser with a different feature set. Any decision of that kind could confuse people and hurt the Firefox brand, IMO.

Can we instead put out our wishlist of services that we'd want Mozilla to handle because we trust it?

1. I'm stealing at least one idea from elsewhere in this discussion, which is a private paid email service with standard protocol support (like IMAP) with cheaper pricing for multiple mailboxes.

2. Another would be a revival of the Persona (authentication) project and service. In light of Apple's announcement of "Sign in with Apple" in WWDC, this would make a lot more sense for people who trust Apple now, but don't really like the idea of trusting a for-profit corporation forever or have some other reservations with "Sign in with Apple". Persona can actually work with "Sign in with Apple" and many other providers.

3. A hosted Bitwarden or Bitwarden-like service that can work on multiple platforms and browsers could be interesting.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#158

Post by richliss » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

I'd happily pay as long as:

1. It also funds Thunderbird.

2. Their focus is on privacy/no telemetry, security and overall experience. NOT more rebrands!

3. It helps pay for continuously updated blocklists, miner blocking lists, anti-content farm lists etc. that get built into the browser rather than through add-ons.

4. Curated add-ons that are funded especially around security - too many add-ons don't get updated.

5. Real profile management and switching.

6. An expert mode with a proper download manager (pausing, reordering etc.)

7. Self-maintaining, self-repairing and self-updating options so it ALWAYS just works.

8. An outreach program to get websites/apps/etc. that are broken to fix them so we don't have to open up an instance of Chrome.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#159

Post by dontbenebby » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

Looking at their previous partnership with ProtonVPN, ten dollars a month for a VPN seems a bit high. My self hosted Algo instance only run ~6 a month with tax.

Maybe if they also gave some cloud storage it would be worth it. Being able to store a veracrypt volume with my important data in the cloud securely would be nice.

Current options seem to be Amazon, Google, or Dropbox. Spideroak has the "hive" but there's not really an option to just upload stuff, it needs to reside locally and be mirrored.

Re: Mozilla will reportedly launch a paid version of Firefox this fall

#160

Post by pbhjpbhj » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

diegoperini wrote: post #61

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me what you're saying is Mozilla is no longer about FLOSS, they're now just a company whose only purpose is to make money selling their users downstream for as much as they can get? That may be true but it's extremely sad.

Where is the proof that it is true?

I'm reacting the the GP, they said (paraphrasing) that Mozilla won't create an advertising and tracking free paid version because if you'll pay to buy such a version then Mozilla will be to eager to exploit your worth as an advertising target.