Firefox

I'm not convinced it requires 1/2 a billion dollars to keep Mozilla running. I think Mozilla is mismanaged, wasteful, easily distracted by unrelated projects, & bogged down with 'bullshit jobs.'

I've yet to see convincing evidence to the contrary short of folks simply telling me 'developing browsers is insanely expensive!'

I think the bigger question is, how did shaving off 1% of Google's market share guarantee the absolute destruction of its single competitor? It's a devilishly sneaky position Google got itself into, creating mutually assured destruction between one of its many tendrils and one of its competitors.

Not like Mozilla did much better, systematically painting itself into a corner while it promised tens of millions of dollars towards AI projects over the past few years...

I believe the bandaid needs ripping off.

Just like how community effort into making windows more tolerable never solves the fundamental problem of it being closed-source and out of your control, Firefox being largely dependant on Google, while fighting against privacy invasion and ads creates a conflict of interests.

This is solved by removing the influence

Mozilla long ago made a deal with the devil, and there was never really a good long-term outcome. They have consistently failed to develop alternate revenue streams, even ones that they were well-positioned to capitalize on. Their VPN could have been built into the browser and powered by their own network. Instead it was (is?) a repackaged Mullvad. Which begs the question, why not just get mullvad directly at a lower price? Or choose a more capable option for a similar cost?

Among the numerous remedies that the DOJ is asking for, is an effective total ban on revenue sharing deals between Google and browser vendors.

This is dumb. Google might have leveraged this initially, but right now this is immaterial. The monopoly is maintained by its monopoly in the browser market. Divest chrome.

That said, I think drying up this well would be the best thing to happen to Mozilla in the past 20 years. All that money did was attract corrupt bloodsuckers that were happy to kill the project in exchange for an undeserved year end bonus.

I love Firefox (its my browser) but It's insane to say it requires 400 millions per year.

That's 4000 people at 100k salary. Browsers are complicated, but you do not need an actual town of developers to maintain one.

If  chrome variants were my only method of navigating the web, I'd cut ties with the internet out of spite.

What a shitty headline. That's the entirely wrong question to be asking and the real question is at the bottom of the article "Do you truly believe the web would be better off in a world where Mozilla no longer exists?". My answer is a full-throated "YES!!!". Fuck Mozilla.

You don't need 500 million dollars a year to develop browser. Seriously, what the fuck are you doing with all that money? Ukraine is building thousands of drones with that money, maybe even spinning up a new nuclear program. You mean to tell me that developing a browser costs more than the nuclear program of one of the biggest arms producers in the world? You have got to be shitting me.

Firefox not being able to compete with that amount of money for a decade or more is just proof of gross incompetence on the part of Mozilla's leadership. It's not 500 million dollars as a one time donation, it's 500 million dollars every single year for what, 10 years? Let's say they started at 200 and only recently got to 500 million. That's maybe 300 million per year for 10 years, making it 3 cool billion dollars. How many developers does that pay? Even if every single employee cost 1 million, that would be 200 and now 500 employees.

The more you break it down, the worse it looks for Mozilla. They are disorganised, have too many goals, make phenomenal waste of resources, and are doing the least amount possible to keep getting Google's money. It's made them languid and dependent. They should stop hogging the spotlight and let a better, more driven, less money-hungry suitor take their place.

Interesting read. I didn't know Firefox was so completely dependent on search revenue, though it makes sense. Hope the courts and FTC work out something that preserves it.