this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2022
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Privacy
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At this point we need a serious effort to fork Firefox and maintain it as a sustainable open source project. I know there are a few forks floating around, but they're small projects with only a handful of contributors. These kinds of efforts will never be a serious alternative.
A web browser is one of the most important piece of software nowadays, and currently neither Chromium nor Firefox are true community efforts. We need something on the level of the Linux Kernel Foundation in my opinion.
If the Freedom Convoy truckers could raise $10 million to keep their rights, seems like a browser could. The things a browser and search engine know about you is ...well, almost everything. I think many of us would lay down and die if all of our history was made public. I would. Some people would be willing to pay large sums in blackmail money to keep it private.
If you want something like the linux kernel, then those forks also have to be profitable enough to support firefox.
Or to get enough community funding as non-profit. The whole problem with Mozilla is precisely that it depends on profit and it's driven by accountants.
Just to add and remind, the amount of LOC and work in a web browser and its engine is more than Linux kernel itself at this point. This goes for both Gecko and Blink/WebKit browsers.
People underestimate the amount of work put in modern web browsers. They are ecosystems at this point.
Yeah, a browser is effectively an operating system at this point.
Thats because todays browsers are way too bloated. A fork that trims unnecessary features could be very effective.
Its not only about the protocols, Firefox also has other useless features, like the integrated Pocket addon and probably more.
There are browsers that try that only to have broken websites left and right. cough*(GNOME Web)
There exist things like NetSurf. Or, remove JS execution from web browsers, and now you have un-bloated web browser that cannot access... 80% of clearnet, and cannot comment on Lemmy.
There have been ideas explored in this direction, like Gemini and Gopher protocols. Some people use them.