> the only difference between non-profit and for-profit is that the owners of a non-profit don't get to keep them money for themselves per se, although they're

> the only difference between non-profit and for-profit is that the owners of a non-profit don't get to keep them money for themselves per se, although they're just like for-profits in all other ways, including the ability to name their own salaries and waste money frivolously and use their resources inefficiently ... That overlooks the most important difference, the reason non-profits exist: For-profit companies exist to make money for their owners; non-profits exist to serve a public mission, such as protecting and furthering the free and open web (or feeding the starving or promoting peace or etc.). Also, the salaries are not at all comparable. If the founders of Mozilla had made it a for-profit company, they'd be among the Silicon Valley billionaires (and the founders of Mozilla's predecessor, Netscape, are indeed among them or at least extremely wealthy). There are many very talented people who gave their careers to the free and open web, when I expect they could have been making a lot more money elsewhere. I doubt Mozilla competes with Google on salary.