My memory is also that FF was originally a decoupled version of Netscape and I think they also simplified the code base a lot back then to remove bloat. I remem

My memory is also that FF was originally a decoupled version of Netscape and I think they also simplified the code base a lot back then to remove bloat. I remember a motivation being that Netscape was just too slow and big and couldn't compete with Internet Explorer very well. I am not sure it's fair to say that Mozilla "supports ads" by making Google the default search engine in exchange for a bunch of funding. It's a default, you can change it, they need money, I'm glad they took it. I'm sure that even if it didn't enable Firefox's existence I am sure it made the developer's lives a lot better and increased the number of research projects they could afford to do. Edit: But the point that Google makes money from ads and so Mozilla would have less funding without Google making money from ads is I guess true. I think Google just wanted to push an alternative to IE. I don't mind ads existing (well, I get that they're a necessary evil) but tracking is something I very much mind.