Most of Mozilla’s money of course comes from Google to make them the default search engine on Firefox. And of course its a way for Google to ensure there’s at least one alternative browser engine. Reading about how Texeira was recently fired and how executives have been pushing for AI features for a long time, Mozilla certainly loves chasing trends and then forgetting them, like how Google kills lots of products. It seems like the company can’t stand on its own two feet without Google’s funding and is poorly run.
What happened to Mozilla over the years? How much effort did they put in to trying to be a successful tech company? because it hasn’t been until the past few that I really started following Firefox and Mozilla news.
I wonder if Mozilla could’ve been Proton, years before Proton AG existed, making their own comprehensive suite of privacy-friendly tools, since Mozilla makes privacy their brand. And they were late to the smartphone game with Firefox OS. If they were smart, they would’ve ensured their long term survival with an actual business, to continue funding development of their privacy and FOSS software like Firefox, without large funding sources like Google.
The only reason Mozilla still exists is because Google needs them to so Chrome can’t be a complete monopoly.
Their priorities have always been… questionnable. Like, we got FirefoxOS all while Firefox was basically unusable on Android and Chrome rapidly eating their lunch, PWA support was abandonned then removed, which was the whole idea behind FirefoxOS… Then they started Servo, the rewrite of the rendering in Rust only to cancel it midway.
But hey they acquired an ad company, as if people don’t use Firefox so uBlock keeps working. And Pocket, and VPNs and a whole bunch of other crapware nobody wants from Mozilla. It’s like they go out of their way to be the second option.
Mozilla doesn’t operate a VPN, they are just a reseller for a branded Mullvad version. For them it’s merely an extra income stream with next to no maintenance, so that is something I can approve of. Mullvad is pretty amazing (though cheaper than through Mozilla).
Well, there’s a custom app, and their own login and automatic monthly billing. It’ll depend on the person on whether that’s useful, but it’s not next-to-no maintenance. Though for sure way less than maintaining custom VPN infra.
Servo is an active project still just not owned by Mozilla.
Also, Servo was originally more or less a testbed for new rendering pathway (webrender) which, when ready, was then integrated into Firefox.
The only reason Mozilla still exists is because Google needs them to so Chrome can’t be a complete monopoly.
Yep this is exactly what I meant. Maybe I should’ve made that clear.
Well… I’d rather say It’s the only reason why we still care about Mozilla and put up with their crap :)
Gecko is the main reason Mozilla is important.
I’d say Proton has become Mozilla more than the other way around, now that they’re also a non-profit. Mozilla does have its own set of privacy-related tools (Firefox Relay, Mozilla Monitor, Mozilla VPN, …), but not all of them have been successful, and some have been discontinued (e.g. the password manager). All of those were/are certainly attempts to reduce the dependence on Google money.
Wasnt there an announcement a few weeks ago that they are deprioritising relay and the VPN in favour of AI?
I’m not sure if those specifically were in favour of AI, but yes, they did get less investment. Another sign that they’re struggling to bring in enough money with other projects.
(I do wonder, given how many of Proton’s projects have launched relatively recently, how many of those projects bring in enough money to offset their own costs. Possibly we’re in for a couple of similar announcements from Proton at some point? Let’s hope not.)
like how Google kills lots of products
Mozilla also loves killing things. https://killedbymozilla.com/
Wow its that bad?
Like with Google: Most of it for me personally no, some things, yes.
It’s also worth noting that almost all of this stuff was open-source. If you wanted to, you could still use most of it, continue development on it (and in some cases, such as FirefoxOS, its development is continuing without Mozilla’s involvement). Not so with stuff killed by Google.
It’s pretty much the only reason I use it. If Gecko disappeared, I’d probably go to Brave, because they’re the next most interesting privacy-oriented browser. But I doubt that’ll happen because Tor Browser still uses it, so there’s a very good chance someone else would take over Gecko development if Mozilla stopped.
