Is Google paying Mozilla to sabotage themselves?
Stay in business, so monopoly arguments can be brushed aside.
But slowly erode privacy on the internet. And slowly lose user base.
Stay in business, so monopoly arguments can be brushed aside.
But slowly erode privacy on the internet. And slowly lose user base.
They’ve taken billions of dollars from Google since 2005, and now they’re turning their back on user privacy.
Building a browser is expensive, that's why there's only two of them. Even Microsoft considered it too expensive to continue.
However, Microsoft’s mission is profits for shareholders so their calculus ought to be different than Mozilla’s.
It makes sense for a profit-seeking entity to surrender if they don’t see a path for a return on the investment, not so for Mozilla.
Then why post strong comments about how much funding Mozilla needs?
The calculus is very different. IE could be developed at a 100% loss for the company if it still otherwise helped Microsoft, which is what happened. Chrome operates similarly.
Firefox needs to generate enough money to sustain itself indefinitely. So when there are signs their main source of funding may vanish, they need to keep a war chest together and have investments to weather any oncoming storm. Otherwise they just collapse.
They _should_ collapse if the only way for them to continue is to abandon their mission.
That much revenue from a single source was always a significant vulnerability, a vulnerability that leadership failed to address. Poor leadership and wasteful spending is the problem, not revenue.
My recollection is of leadership repeatedly trying to address it, generally for the community to get furious at them and say they shouldn't remotely think of anything except Firefox.
If you're full of methods for Firefox to magically generate several hundred million dollars a year, I believe they're still looking for a new CEO. Be warned though, if you take any of that money for yourself the community will eternally scorn you.