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

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#751

Post by pier25 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:21 AM UTC

csin wrote: post #220

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?

Please enlighten me. How does one make a browser "better" these days? - They were ahead of the game with extensions. Then everyone copied them. - They were ahead of the game with tabs. Then everyone copied them. - They were ahead of the game with containers. Then everyone copied them. - They are still the best browser to use for an ad free internet experience. - The only flaw I can think of, is they are not leaders i…

> They were ahead of the game with extensions. Then everyone copied them.

Anyone remembers when Firebug was released?

Today we have amazing dev tools in all browsers but back in the day Firebug was such a game changer.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#752

Post by nerdponx » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:33 AM UTC

CamouflagedKiwi wrote: post #42

Amazing how they continue not to cater to their core audience. They literally have lost 90% of their market share from their peak, I guess I can see the temptation to try to regain it by reaching out to others, but doing that at the expense of your core is a terrible business strategy. It's not like those users are all that sticky, they're leaving as Mozilla pisses them off, and likely Mozilla are going to be left wi…

Conspiracy theory: Mozilla leadership is bad on purpose as a form of sabotage. Erode the fan base until it just wears away and dies on its own. Then there will be no one to challenge the Microsoft Google Apple hegemony.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#753

Post by nerdponx » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:42 AM UTC

PurpleRamen wrote: post #308

CamouflagedKiwi wrote: post #42

Amazing how they continue not to cater to their core audience. They literally have lost 90% of their market share from their peak, I guess I can see the temptation to try to regain it by reaching out to others, but doing that at the expense of your core is a terrible business strategy. It's not like those users are all that sticky, they're leaving as Mozilla pisses them off, and likely Mozilla are going to be left wi…

> 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…

Remember when the whole reason people liked Firefox is that it was super customizable? There was a time when it was THE power user browser. Things only went sideways after Chrome came out.

Firefox literally was a mainstream browser at one point. Internet Explorer sucked. Safari didn't suck but it was nobody's favorite either except some really hard-core Apple fans.

Yes, Chrome was revolutionary when it came out. And yes, Firefox seemed to struggle with legacy architectural decisions that limited their ability to catch up. But Firefox was still differentiated and had a loyal fan base. Loyal fan base is exactly what can keep a project or product alive through a downturn. All they had to do was focus on the browser. They did some great things along the way like popularizing DoH. But it's 2025 and there's still no UI for switching profiles that any normal person might be able or want to use. Can you really blame people for giving up?

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#754

Post by nerdponx » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:43 AM UTC

Foriney wrote: post #413

chmod775 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From what I remember, it's not addon-users, as most users never have used even just a single addon. If most users who install Firefox do so for superior adblocking and those same users are also very likely to turn off telemetry (which I think some privacy/adblock extensions probably do by default?), then at Mozilla's end one might get the impression that "most users don't use extensions" - even though the vast majo…

> It's probably the kind of user that has telemetry off. If less than 4% of users use uBO, which the kind of users you're referencing claim is the primary reason they use Firefox, I doubt many users disable telemetry either.

I believe some Linux distributions patch Firefox to change default settings including disabling telemetry. Probably not a big factor, but still something to think about.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#755

Post by est » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:54 AM UTC

I might get heavily downvoted, but since official "extension stores" are handicapped, people should re-invent dll inject ad blockers.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#756

Post by cdaringe » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:57 AM UTC

deepspace wrote: post #677

throwaway613745 wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The one and only time I ever got a machine infected with malware in my 30+ years of using the internet was when I fell for Forbes.com's request to please disable my adblocker. I promptly got hit by a trojan carried in one of their unvetted ads. Browsing without an adblocker is a critical security issue, and I will drop Firefox without a second thought if they ever cripple blockers like Google did.

Tell us more about the web ad based trojan!

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#757

Post by petrie-594753 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:58 AM UTC

You can also block ads on the network level at the gateway on your router. If you run Linux you can run libre wolf instead of Firefox both still use gecko for rendering.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#758

Post by petrie-594753 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 2:02 AM UTC

You can block adverts on the network level at the gateway in your routers web app. You can also use libre wolf which also uses the gecko rendering engine if you run Linux.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#759

Post by throw5t432r5t » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 2:20 AM UTC

sltkr wrote: post #619

arjie wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the correct formulation is: "There are political views that the CEO of Mozilla could hold which would be sufficient for me to abandon the use of products that Mozilla makes". And I think that would be non-controversial for most people.

The problem with that formulation is that it denies the importance of the quantative aspect of the difference of opinion. Of course there are views so extreme almost nobody would put up with them. But at the same time, being tolerant of differences of opinion is an important aspect of a free society and a functioning democracy. There is a word for people who cannot tolerate even the smallest difference of opinion: bi…

No, fighting for equality does not make you a bigot. Being a bigot makes you a bigot.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#760

Post by gitaarik » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 2:24 AM UTC

ionwake wrote: post #39

I dont know how anyone could take mozilla seriously after they integrated google analytics into it about 10 years ago for no reason I can fathom. It immediately made me think somethings off, and I never used it again. Instead I thought screw it and just went nuts deep into chrome, atleast it was more functional. ps - ( apparently mozilla took it out sometime later , but to me the damage to its reputation was done)

And so switching to a browser created by the world's biggest advertising company is your solution? Interesting