Here is a dopey idea, What if Wikimedia Foundation were to acquire Mozilla ?
Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
291–300 of 349 posts
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#292Honest question: I use (and like) Firefox and rely on many of its features including password vault. However, should I be looking elsewhere? Any suggestions? (I avoid Google Chrome.)
>However, should I be looking elsewhere?
Why should you be looking else where if it is working well for you? Unless you feel so wrong about CEO's pay I dont see how it is relevant until the product quality declined.
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
The goal is obvious and not new. Firefox as a product is only useful to them as a handout from google to use as an antitrust defense. The problem is that Mozilla hasn’t been able to find any product that generates any meaningful revenue. It makes perfect sense for them to try to be an entity that can exist without their biggest competitor tossing them scraps. How they should achieve that is certainly up for debate bu…
Firefox makes half a billion a year in revenue. It's not a handout like you claim, but a revenue share deal negotiated between the two companies. If Google didn't pay for being the default search engine, or tried lowballing, someone else would make a deal instead. The idea that it's some kind of a proactive antitrust defense is one of the more bizarre ideas that gets repeated on HN.
More than one thing can be true at the same time. Deals are usually made because interests are aligned. There is a direct benefit to an overwhelmingly dominant player to be able to point to any competitor. There is also a direct benefit to having people use your product. There is even a tertiary benefit of the money theoretically going to development for Firefox that could feed back into their own product.
If you look at the situation in the reverse, what sense does it make? Why would you pay a direct competitor to exist when the amount of money you put in to them is an incredibly large majority of their revenue? Firefox continues to become more irrelevant, and the amount of their revenue they get from Google doesn't really reflect that trend.
I'm not saying the only reason Firefox exists is for Google to point at it. That doesn't mean it isn't a major one. It also is pretty clear to Mozilla because they sure keep trying (and failing) to find other revenue sources
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which specific websites?
I hit a few in the past. But, I'm failing to find any of them at the moment... Maybe I should give Firefox mobile another try. It could be that my baseline was the Chrome rendering, so any discrepancy was classified as "it's broken".
Honestly, in this day and age, any discrepancy from Chromium/WebKit is probably broken. But if we're talking about a few pixels' difference here and there, plenty of sites are more broken than that on every browser.
I have encountered a couple of (financial, natch) sites that insist on a Chromium-based browser in order to do vital operations like download statements. Switching browsers for those few exceptions is annoying, but not a deal-breaker (for me).
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, nearly all of Mozilla's revenue (I see numbers around 80-90%) comes from Google. And Google presumably doesn't mind if Firefox users switch to Chrome. I'm not sure if anyone involved actively considers this the goal, but it's possible that this creates some perverse incentives.
I just don't see how having their biggest revenue coming from their #1 competitor wrt browser adoption, can't create a plain and simple conflict of interests.
I'll bet $7 million of Google money could make any conflict look less interesting.
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#296Source: https://stateof.mozilla.org/
Is it normal for Non-Profits to not the include Income Statement in their financials? Because Mozilla doesn’t.
https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2022/mozilla-fdn-202...
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
The goal is obvious and not new. Firefox as a product is only useful to them as a handout from google to use as an antitrust defense. The problem is that Mozilla hasn’t been able to find any product that generates any meaningful revenue. It makes perfect sense for them to try to be an entity that can exist without their biggest competitor tossing them scraps. How they should achieve that is certainly up for debate bu…
Firefox makes half a billion a year in revenue. It's not a handout like you claim, but a revenue share deal negotiated between the two companies. If Google didn't pay for being the default search engine, or tried lowballing, someone else would make a deal instead. The idea that it's some kind of a proactive antitrust defense is one of the more bizarre ideas that gets repeated on HN.
> If Google didn't pay for being the default search engine, or tried lowballing, someone else would make a deal instead
This already happened with Yahoo. Mozilla got a ton more money, too.
It was utterly disastrous for them. It turned out that Firefox needs Google as the default more than Google needs them - well, for the stated purposes of the deal, of course.
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#298Google is just funding mozilla to avoid the legal headache (browser monopoly), right?
For all those being annoyed by the decreasing usage of FF in favor of Chrome: If Mozilla & FF died, couldn't this create better scenarios?
Idea: Google might get into legal trouble, maybe even having to lose chrome, opening the market or Chrome / Chromium base for a fresh start?
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#299I guess the question - why can't Mozilla (or at least Firefox) - be like the Linux kernel or the Debian group? They are healthy open source projects, some funding from industry, sure, but they're staying current in the latest tech/comp-sci tech while not beholden to anyone in particular (I hope) Organizational baggage?
I don't know about "Debian group", but absolute majority of kernel developers are full time employees of tech companies. Not sure what would be the incentive for those companies to pay bunch of people to develop privacy-focused browser full-time.
Re: Mozilla 2023 annual report: CEO pay skyrockets, Firefox market share nosedives
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to the article,"Transitioning Mozilla away from Firefox." is the current organisation goal. She have done her job great. why was it a goal, I have bo idea
Not affiliated with Mozilla in any way, but their mission isn't to create a browser. It's to "ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all." (1) Given that Firefox has kinda lost the browser war it seems obvious that they should be focusing efforts on other things that further that mission besides dumping money into a browser a tiny slice of people want to use. (1) https://www.mozilla.o…
> Given that Firefox has kinda lost the browser war it seems obvious that they should be focusing efforts on other things that further that mission besides dumping money into a browser a tiny slice of people want to use.
Like what? Selling you "premium" subscription to glorified bookmarks service? Or reselling Mullvad with Mozilla logo slapped on top of it?