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Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

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Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#121

Post by duskdozer »

kuschku wrote: post #72
lxgr wrote: 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…

You wouldn't calculate the expected RoI of killing adblockers if killing adblockers was never considered.

I could see myself saying something like that despite having no intention to do it. But I'm also not a CEO.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#122

Post by some_furry »

eviks wrote: post #70
some_furry wrote: post #15

This Mozilla fiasco has convinced me that being a nonprofit isn't enough. We need a web browser that is actively hostile towards corporations and surveillance capitalism.

Why hasn't the anti-corporate fiasco (not a single successful example) convinced you that it's not enough?

Corporations, private equity, the ever encroaching monopolies and centralization of economic power, the steady march towards authoritarianism... all of these things are connected and are making our lives shittier. We should oppose them.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#123

Post by [deleted] »

earthnail wrote: post #21
boobsbr wrote: 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%).

For someone not in the loop, can you explain the difference between the two orgs and maybe even explain what each org uses the money for?

[deleted]

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#125

Post by swiftcoder »

some_furry wrote: post #15

This Mozilla fiasco has convinced me that being a nonprofit isn't enough. We need a web browser that is actively hostile towards corporations and surveillance capitalism.

> This Mozilla fiasco has convinced me that being a nonprofit isn't enough

I'm not sure to what extent Mozilla actually functions as a nonprofit. All the bits one cares about (i.e. FireFox) are developed by the for-profit subsidiary, which is at least somewhat beholden to Google/Microsoft for revenue...

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#126

Post by Joker_vD »

xenator wrote: post #74
lxgr wrote: 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…

Imagine you are in a marriage and your spouse say: "I can sleep with other people, doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission". I don't understand context, but my honest reaction will be: "WTF, you just said? What type of relationship you think we have if we discuss such things?" I definitely understand why people worry. This is just crazy to weight trust in money. If this is on the table and discussed internally,…

Yeah, I've once said in a relationship "Look, sure, she maybe pretty, but I want to be with you, so no, I am not going to reach out to her, don't worry". Apparently, it was a poor way to word this idea.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#128

Post by p-e-w »

nialv7 wrote: post #81
lxgr wrote: 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…

The interpretation is not the problem. Whether he will do it, is actually secondary to the fact that he thinks cutting adblock can bringing in money. No, it will just kill the browser. The fact he thinks otherwise tells me how out of touch he is.

Firefox has a market share around 3%. Even most technologists stopped using it long ago. Many banks and government websites don’t even support it anymore and loudly tell people to use Chrome instead, especially in developing countries.

Nothing can kill Firefox, because it’s already dead for all practical purposes.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#129

Post by autoexec »

roenxi wrote: post #65
lxgr wrote: 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…

Yeah, the article's quoting didn't help its case. It doesn't seem fair to quote someone saying [I don't think X is a good idea] as evidence they are about to do X. That being said, in the original context [0] it does sound a lot more like an option on the table. That original article presents it as the weakest of a list of things they're about to explore - but who knows, maybe the journalist has butchered what was sa…

The part about making money through advertising and selling data to 3rd parties (though "search and AI placement deals") is already not a good sign. Planning to make their money through ads and surveillance capitalism is already making it impossible to say "I always know my data is in my control. I can turn the thing off, and they’re not going to do anything sketchy"

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#130

Post by notenlish »

phito wrote: post #22
iLoveOncall wrote: post #11

Unfortunately Firefox is basically already dead, it has an incredibly small market share and it will never grow again because their leadership is affected by the corporate mind virus. I know most HN users are on Firefox, but they should get used to an alternative now, not when its inevitable death happens.

What's a good, non-chromium alternative?

Zen browser is quite nice. I've heard waterfox was good too.
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