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Say Hi to Kit

firefox.com

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Re: Say Hi to Kit

#51

Post by miroljub »

mythz wrote: post #40

Their latest 2023 results, shows Mozilla still has enough revenue to do something [1]: - Total revenue: $653 million - Revenue from Google 85% ($555 million) - Total expenses $496 million (Software Development Expenses $260 million) But even after spending 1/2 Billion annually I'm not expecting them to regain relevance. They'll likely keep the existing board until the money runs dry, axe more technical talent and pro…

TIL that only half of the Firefox expenses are used on software development in a broader sense.

And even that is optimistic, since it probably includes all the side quests not related to the browser core engine that has bugs and performance issues that are not fixed for years.

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#52

Post by miroljub »

bananapub wrote: post #37
jm4 wrote: post #22

Even with $400M in "revenue" gifted to them by Google, Mozilla can't muster even 4% market share. This project is dead. There is no path to increased market share. They have no viable plan to generate revenue beyond what they get from Google. Outside of features like container tabs, which only appeal to a small niche, they don't have much going on. The browser has dramatically higher power consumption in an age where…

this is a very dumb take; having an independent browser be at even 4% is great, since it has almost fully stopped the web collapsing down to Webkit/Blink-compatibility fully replacing any actual standards. Mozilla does seem poorly run overall but this work is very important.

It's not that great considering there were times when it was closer to 30% than to 20%

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#53

Post by slig »

bananapub wrote: post #37
jm4 wrote: post #22

Even with $400M in "revenue" gifted to them by Google, Mozilla can't muster even 4% market share. This project is dead. There is no path to increased market share. They have no viable plan to generate revenue beyond what they get from Google. Outside of features like container tabs, which only appeal to a small niche, they don't have much going on. The browser has dramatically higher power consumption in an age where…

this is a very dumb take; having an independent browser be at even 4% is great, since it has almost fully stopped the web collapsing down to Webkit/Blink-compatibility fully replacing any actual standards. Mozilla does seem poorly run overall but this work is very important.

>having an independent browser be at even 4% is great

Four percent is a rounding error, and I'm seeing a lot of technical people who no longer prioritize testing on Firefox. I doubt many younger devs have even tried it, and its mobile presence is almost zero.

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#54

Post by noir_lord »

nefarious_ends wrote: post #11
msdrigg wrote: post #9

I know I'm going to get downvoted into oblivion here but I do think it looks kinda nice -- like I might would buy one of the sweatshirts

the sweatshirts are 50% cotton, 50% polyester which is a bit unfortunate.

Not everywhere apparently.

T-Shirts and Sweatshirts are 100% organic cotton (in the UK store at least).

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#55

Post by zetanor »

lapcat wrote: post #20

The criticism of this in the other comments is so strange. If Mozilla can raise some money independently of Google by selling merchandise, all the better! And it's not like software engineers are spending time on this instead of working on Firefox. That's not a real tradeoff. It's an effort that pays for itself and doesn't take away from Firefox development.

The problem is that every single public money drive using the "Firefox" brand since at least 2018 has been for the exclusive benefit of the Mozilla Foundation NGO, not the Mozilla Corporation entity which develops Firefox. Donations in the About screen of Firefox go to the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation does not appear to fund or even support anything related to Firefox:

> How will my donation be used?

> At Mozilla, our mission is to keep the Internet healthy, open, and accessible for all. The Mozilla Foundation programs are supported by grassroots donations and grants. Our grassroots donations, from supporters like you, are our most flexible source of funding. These funds directly support advocacy campaigns (i.e. asking big tech companies to protect your privacy), research and publications like the Privacy Not Included buyer's guide and Internet Health Report, and covers a portion of our annual MozFest gathering.

(from https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/donate/help/#frequently...)

Do Spreadshirt sales benefit the Foundation (not Firefox), or are they revenue for the Corporation (Firefox)? I've looked around for a minute and can't tell.

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#56

Post by latexr »

lapcat wrote: post #44
latexr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Mozilla can raise some money independently of Google by selling merchandise, all the better! Agreed, but did they need a new mascot to sell merchandise? It’s not like the old logo wasn’t already cool. > And it's not like software engineers are spending time on this instead of working on Firefox. But Mozilla is still spending money and resources on it. The issue isn’t this rebranding specifically, but that this i…

> Is it? That’s not a given, and we definitely can’t say either way yet. Considering all of Mozilla’s past efforts, pretty much all of which they abandoned, I’d be very wary of calling this one a success so early on. The economics of selling branded clothing has been very well understood for 50 years. The markup for slapping a logo on a T-shirt is massive. Plus, it's a form of crowdsourced, word-of-chest advertising.…

> The economics of selling branded clothing has been very well understood for 50 years. The markup for slapping a logo on a T-shirt is massive. Plus, it's a form of crowdsourced, word-of-chest advertising.

None of that addresses the point that the old logo was already very merchandisable.

Furthermore, whatever markup they’re making is not something you can just generalise. It is very possible, likely even, that the bulk of the cost goes to whatever company is making the t-shirts (I haven’t looked but I doubt Mozilla is doing it in-house).

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#57

Post by jm4 »

bananapub wrote: post #37
jm4 wrote: post #22

Even with $400M in "revenue" gifted to them by Google, Mozilla can't muster even 4% market share. This project is dead. There is no path to increased market share. They have no viable plan to generate revenue beyond what they get from Google. Outside of features like container tabs, which only appeal to a small niche, they don't have much going on. The browser has dramatically higher power consumption in an age where…

this is a very dumb take; having an independent browser be at even 4% is great, since it has almost fully stopped the web collapsing down to Webkit/Blink-compatibility fully replacing any actual standards. Mozilla does seem poorly run overall but this work is very important.

Perhaps an independent browser is important. Mozilla and Firefox are not.

I would argue that a truly open source, easily embedded browser engine that everyone can use is more important than an independent browser. The only problem with Blink is that it's controlled almost entirely by Google. Otherwise, it's an outstanding piece of tech. It would be just about perfect if the project operated more like Linux. We wouldn't need competing engines if development was democratized. The project itself becomes the source of truth as far as standards are concerned. Each browser distro enables what they need and if something becomes popular it's just a matter of other distros enabling a build flag.

Re: Say Hi to Kit

#60

Post by [deleted] »

lapcat wrote: post #20

The criticism of this in the other comments is so strange. If Mozilla can raise some money independently of Google by selling merchandise, all the better! And it's not like software engineers are spending time on this instead of working on Firefox. That's not a real tradeoff. It's an effort that pays for itself and doesn't take away from Firefox development.

[deleted]
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