5 ms·

Firefox and co are open source projects. Couldn't you just create a new company, "Next-Mozilla" or so, and fork off the projects, install a new CEO, take over t

Firefox and co are open source projects. Couldn't you just create a new company, "Next-Mozilla" or so, and fork off the projects, install a new CEO, take over the developers? You would have to use a new branding, i.e. they cannot reuse the trademark, and they have to make sure that enough people (developers and users) will switch over. But with such bad press, this might not be too hard, if there is one focused attempt for this. Financing is another issue initially, but at some point they would get a similar Google deal. And otherwise, financing like Wikimedia or Internet Archive (mostly donations, right?).

jacquesm 6y ago
How will you pay for this? Without critical mass you are not going anywhere. FireFox had critical mass, and lost. You won't be able to recover that position without some extremely deep pockets even if you start off from what is there today. I am not convinced that even if Mozilla/FF got a competent CEO tomorrow and started executing 'just so' that they would be able to recover from their slide, a newcomer would have it harder.
- trasz 6y ago
  They could try to convince Google to sponsor them instead.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    Chicken, egg.
- Tom4hawk 6y ago
  Steve Jobs was able to do that with Apple. There is no reason to believe that is not possible with Mozilla. Especially taking into consideration that Mozilla doesn't have to be profitable as a company. Being sustainable would be enough.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24565032 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24565032
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    All it takes is what, a $400M investment, but this time as a charitable gift instead of a profit-seeking venture? Shuttleworth did that with Ubuntu and it's barely surviving.
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    Except that Mitchell Baker != Steve Jobs ... even remotely
    - _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
      That's true - and we should be thankful for small mercies.
  - petra 6y ago
    Steve Jobs didn't do it alone, there was huge trend transforming all of the music industry, with piarted MP3's over P2P networks, and he rode it, and did so exceptionally well. What trend should Firefox ride ? And how will it keep that project a secret for long enough, Given that it's all open-sourced ?
- richardwhiuk 6y ago
  This is basically how Mozilla began, as Netscape died, right?
  - bwat49 6y ago
    The browser market is so much different now though. Firefox was originally competing against the pile of steaming garbage that was IE6. Now they are competing against Chrome which is actually a good browser, and Chrome also has the advantage of having google behind it which can leverage their search/ad monopoly to push Chrome.
    - jacquesm 6y ago
      > which can leverage their search/ad monopoly to push Chrome. And which they have shamelessly done.
    - runarberg 6y ago
      Wasn’t IE6 a great browser? The best even? The way I’ve heard the story is that by the time of firefox, IE6 was still a really good browser, it had just stayed stagnant for a little too long, and bundled got with Microsoft’s monopolistic behavior. I think there are more parallels between late IE6 and present day Chrome then you give credit for.
      - bwat49 6y ago
        maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I don't have a single fond memory of IE6. I remember it being a revelation how much better firefox was when I first switched back in the day.
    - pera 6y ago
      Nobody but techies thought back then that IE6 was a "pile of steaming garbage". We are mostly in the same situation today in this regard.
      - bwat49 6y ago
- staticassertion 6y ago
  Google has done an incredible job of monetizing Chrome, I think it's a mistake to think that Firefox is somehow incapable of this.
  - madmax96 6y ago
    How has Google monetized Chrome?
    - username90 6y ago
      It is monetized the same way as Firefox, the address bar by default goes to Google search which is really well monetized.
    - staticassertion 6y ago
      Oh tons of ways. The fact that the default search engine is Google is the obvious one, but GSuite is huge for Google - they're competing directly with Dropbox, O365, etc. and GSuite heavily integrates with Chrome. ChromeOS of course puts them in the OS market, and it's doing very well for a niche operating system - my entire company runs on ChromeOS in fact.
zobzu 6y ago
It's what Brave is, but it didn't use Firefox source code.

jacquesm 6y ago

How will you pay for this? Without critical mass you are not going anywhere. FireFox had critical mass, and lost. You won't be able to recover that position without some extremely deep pockets even if you start off from what is there today. I am not convinced that even if Mozilla/FF got a competent CEO tomorrow and started executing 'just so' that they would be able to recover from their slide, a newcomer would have it harder.

trasz 6y ago
They could try to convince Google to sponsor them instead.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  Chicken, egg.
Tom4hawk 6y ago
Steve Jobs was able to do that with Apple. There is no reason to believe that is not possible with Mozilla. Especially taking into consideration that Mozilla doesn't have to be profitable as a company. Being sustainable would be enough.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24565032 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24565032
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  All it takes is what, a $400M investment, but this time as a charitable gift instead of a profit-seeking venture? Shuttleworth did that with Ubuntu and it's barely surviving.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Except that Mitchell Baker != Steve Jobs ... even remotely
  - _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
    That's true - and we should be thankful for small mercies.
- petra 6y ago
  Steve Jobs didn't do it alone, there was huge trend transforming all of the music industry, with piarted MP3's over P2P networks, and he rode it, and did so exceptionally well. What trend should Firefox ride ? And how will it keep that project a secret for long enough, Given that it's all open-sourced ?
richardwhiuk 6y ago
This is basically how Mozilla began, as Netscape died, right?
- bwat49 6y ago
  The browser market is so much different now though. Firefox was originally competing against the pile of steaming garbage that was IE6. Now they are competing against Chrome which is actually a good browser, and Chrome also has the advantage of having google behind it which can leverage their search/ad monopoly to push Chrome.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    > which can leverage their search/ad monopoly to push Chrome. And which they have shamelessly done.
  - runarberg 6y ago
    Wasn’t IE6 a great browser? The best even? The way I’ve heard the story is that by the time of firefox, IE6 was still a really good browser, it had just stayed stagnant for a little too long, and bundled got with Microsoft’s monopolistic behavior. I think there are more parallels between late IE6 and present day Chrome then you give credit for.
    - bwat49 6y ago
      maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I don't have a single fond memory of IE6. I remember it being a revelation how much better firefox was when I first switched back in the day.
  - pera 6y ago
    Nobody but techies thought back then that IE6 was a "pile of steaming garbage". We are mostly in the same situation today in this regard.
    - bwat49 6y ago
staticassertion 6y ago
Google has done an incredible job of monetizing Chrome, I think it's a mistake to think that Firefox is somehow incapable of this.
- madmax96 6y ago
  How has Google monetized Chrome?
  - username90 6y ago
    It is monetized the same way as Firefox, the address bar by default goes to Google search which is really well monetized.
  - staticassertion 6y ago
    Oh tons of ways. The fact that the default search engine is Google is the obvious one, but GSuite is huge for Google - they're competing directly with Dropbox, O365, etc. and GSuite heavily integrates with Chrome. ChromeOS of course puts them in the OS market, and it's doing very well for a niche operating system - my entire company runs on ChromeOS in fact.

zobzu 6y ago

It's what Brave is, but it didn't use Firefox source code.