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Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

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Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#51
post #41

>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…

It wouldn't bring in their estimate, it'd kill the browser.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#52
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No knowledge of the business. But I think it's because of the underlying question that plagues Mozilla: How will that make money?

They don't really need money. Look at Mozilla's CEO compensation for example. It was 7 million USD in 2022. Seven. Million. For ruining a bastion of the open internet. The problem is the MBAs.

It still seems obscene to me that anyone at a non-profit, that begs for donations and volunteers, makes 7 figures.

(Yes it's technically a company, but it's a company owned by a non profit.)

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#53
post #7

The Mozilla Corporation has earned around USD ~500 million in 2023. The Mozilla Foundation has received around USD ~26 million in 2023 in donation from the Mozilla Corporation (~70%) and other sources (~30%).

The Mozilla Foundation does lots of "spreading awareness" but does not contribute to Firefox development.

That is the most vexing part. I want to donate for Firefox development. Not marketing, not side projects, let me just fund the devs. But no, that is not possible.

Blender is a huge success story relying on sponsors and donations, Wikipedia is swimming in money but no we can't just have a free browser.

No we need to have a Mozilla Corporation that lives on Google money for being the controlled opposition i.e. technically avoiding monopoly situation thing. After all CEOs can't get rich on donations, can they?

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#54

They have been since a decade. After tripping down on unrelated political activism they do the same with AI. Firefox is only good for getting forked into better browser like Mullvad Browser, LibreWolf and Tor Browser.

I think AI in the browser could be useful. It just isn't that useful now.

So far, the most useful "AI feature" Firefox has ever shipped is the page translation system, which uses a local AI to work. I wouldn't mind seeing more of things like that.

Eventually, "browser use" skill in AIs is going to get better too. And I'd trust Firefox with an official vendor agnostic "AI integration" interface, one that allows an AI of user's choice to drive it, over something like OpenAI's browser - made solely by one AI company for its own product.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#55
Literally only reason to use Firefox is that it still blocks ads properly.

If Mozzilla brings AI or removes ad blocks then they are every way just worse Chrome and there is zero reason to use them over Chrome.

I guess I should already start porting my Firefox extensions over to Chrome since this ship is sinking stupid fast.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#56
post #41

>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…

[deleted]

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#57
post #41

>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…

It wouldn't bring in their estimate, it'd kill the browser.

Maybe they'd still get paid $150M for that, while only having to barely keep the browser alive, with no user request, for illusion of non-monopoly.

Fewer devs, more bucks, big win for the execs on the short term.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#58

It's kinda frustrating that Mozilla's CEO thinks that axing ad-blockers would be financially beneficial for them. Quite the opposite is true (I believe) since a ton of users would leave Firefox for alternatives.

Ditto. A fully functional uBlock Origin is the only remaining reason why I'm still sticking with Firefox despite everything

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#59
post #41

>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…

It wouldn't bring in their estimate, it'd kill the browser.

The estimate does sound reasonable if it's an one-off payment. I agree that no one would pay that amount of money each year to keep adblocking from Firefox.
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