Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#391

Post by klabb3 » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

herobird wrote: post #17

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.

> Quite the opposite is true (I believe) since a ton of users would leave Firefox for alternatives.

Yes but keep in mind that’s not an individual problem that is solved by switching browsers. If a browser engine dies, the walls get closer and the room smaller. With only Chromium and WebKit left, we may soon have a corporate owned browsers pulling in whatever direction Google and Apple wants. I can think of many things that are good for them but bad for us. For instance, ”Web Integrity” and other DRM.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#392

Post by lurk2 » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

g947o wrote: post #330

PurpleRamen wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazing how they continue not to cater to their core audience. Who is Mozilla's core audience? From what I remember, it's not addon-users, as most users never have used even just a single addon. > They literally have lost 90% of their market share from their peak, To be fair, it's not entirely their own fault. Competition is strong, especially from Google and Apple. Even with perfect decisions, they likely would st…

> From what I remember, it's not addon-users, as most users never have used even just a single addon. Source?

> About one-third of Firefox users have installed an add-on before

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/extensions-addons/heres-...

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#393

Post by LtdJorge » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

throwaway613745 wrote: post #300

JoeJonathan wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like many others, the ability to run uBO is the main reason I use Firefox. Otherwise I'd use Chrome or Safari.

I have used Firefox as my default browser through thick and thin for damn near two decades. If Mozilla killed andblocking extensions I’d switch to Helium Browser in a heartbeat since they’re maintaining manifest v2 support for uBO and even ship it OOTB. The web is unusable without a proper Adblock.

Exactly. And I’m one of those that uses Firefox sync, and prefers all the things Firefox comes with, including the developer tools. The only thing it lacks is the integrated Google Lighthouse reporting.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#394

Post by lurk2 » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

Yossarrian22 wrote: post #390

clippyplz wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked up "firefox addon usage" and this was the second result https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/usage-behavior > over 40% of Firefox users have at least 1 installed add-on

Before they changed their ToS to allow selling my data I had spent the last 2 decades with telemetry disabled and adblocker installed

What’s the story on the TOS change? This is the first I’m hearing about it.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#395

Post by mrtksn » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:11 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #356

mrtksn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole web ecosystem was first run by VC money and everything was great until every corner was taken, the land grab was complete and the time to recoup the investment has come. Once the users were trapped for exploitation, it doesn’t make sense to have a browser that blocks ads. How are they supposed to pay software salaries and keep the lights on? People don’t like paying for software, demand constant updates and…

If a time comes when there are zero free browser with effective ad-blocking, it will create space for a non-free browser that does it. It would create a whole ecosystem. I currently pay zero for ad-blocking (FF + uBlock Origin) and it works perfectly; but I would pay if I had to.

I think they are trying to balance it between making as much as money possible, risking being sued for monopolistic practices and risking exodus. Microsoft once overplayed their hand and the anger and consumer dissatisfaction was so strong that people left Internet Explorer en masse.

So the best situation for google would be to have borderline monopoly where they pay for the existence of their competition and the competition(Firefox) blocks adblockers too by default but leaving Chrome and Firefox is harder than forcing installin adblockers through the unofficial way.

So basically, all the people who swear they never clicked ads manage to block ads, Firefox and Chrome print money by making sure that ads are shown and clocked by the masses.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#396

Post by codedokode » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC

silon42 wrote: post #321

sysguest wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well I use it because it can handle 2000 tabs on my m1 macbook air (16gb ram) ... damn do I have adhd?????

Amateur numbers... I've tested over 10000 (not right now)... It used to get really slow after 9000, but things seem to have improved.

Were all tabs loaded though? If one tab takes 10 Mb of RAM (very low estimate; many take 50-100 Mb, especially Youtube), then 10K tabs require 100Gb.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#397

Post by ivanjermakov » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC

dom96 wrote: post #6

Genuinely can someone with knowledge of the business explain why they aren't simply doubling down on making Firefox better? Is there an existential problem facing them that they are trying to solve by adding AI into the browser?

Making a better product does not make a fortune in a short run. Banning ad blockers and integrating adware/spyware does.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#398

Post by PurpleRamen » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC

esperent wrote: post #364

PurpleRamen wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazing how they continue not to cater to their core audience. Who is Mozilla's core audience? From what I remember, it's not addon-users, as most users never have used even just a single addon. > They literally have lost 90% of their market share from their peak, To be fair, it's not entirely their own fault. Competition is strong, especially from Google and Apple. Even with perfect decisions, they likely would st…

40% of Firefox users use addons. https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/usage-behavior

Thanks, I think this was what I was searching. Strange that it's not appearing in my search-results.

Relevant part from the site: [..]Add-on usage measured here reflects multiple facets of browser customization, including web extensions, language packs, and themes.[..]

40% is a big minority, but not really what I would call core audience, especially when language packs and themes are also counted here. And 5 of the top 10-addons in that statistic are language packs.

Though, UBlock Origin is #1 with 9.6% user-share, and it's shown to have 10.5 million users on the store-page, which means there are at best only around 100 Million users left with Firefox on desktop? Seems worse than I thought.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#399

Post by rjdj377dhabsn » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:13 PM UTC

ajdude wrote: post #255

I'm going to repost/merge a few comments I made about this a while ago: I dropped firefox 9 months so after they updated their privacy policy and removed "we don't sell your data" from their FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43213612 Mozilla has hired a lot of execs from Meta and bought an ad company, looking through a lot of their privacy policy at the time, a lot of it involves rewriting it to say that they…

I'm deeply disappointed in Mozilla's management as well, but as long as LibreWolf and IronFox exist, I still see it as the lesser evil.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#400

Post by rat9988 » Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 1:13 PM UTC

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #257

rat9988 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't think HN comments have an irrational burning pit of hate for Mozilla. If Mozilla was shaped more like the Tor foundation in their words and actions I think a lot more people would be supportive.

There is no "HN comments". Each commenter has its own sensibilities. Some of them just saw the word Adblock from new ceo and went full defense mode without trying to understand that the guy was just talking about what he feels is good, and there is no need to come with the worst possible interpretation of each sentence.