5 ms·

Firefox is losing market share due to shortsighted/poor decisions from leadership, and a harsh anti-competitive landscape from Microsoft/Google/Apple. Firefox

by chomp 5y ago

Firefox is losing market share due to shortsighted/poor decisions from leadership, and a harsh anti-competitive landscape from Microsoft/Google/Apple. Firefox is difficult to save because it's been on constant life support from Google to misdirect antitrust investigators. Saving Firefox would involve not only raising its market share (which would probably have to involve a deal from Google/Microsoft/Apple or legislation because they currently preconfigure their systems/devices to use their proprietary browsers, which are mostly "good enough") but also find a way to wean Mozilla Corp off of the Google payments, which would mean investments in tangentially related services (like VPN, etc.)

account42 5y ago
> find a way to wean Mozilla Corp off of the Google payments, which would mean investments in tangentially related services (like VPN, etc.) I disagree - the way forward should be for Mozilla to stop acting like a corporation and start acting like a non-profit. They will never be able to compete with tech giants when it comes to selling things and services in order to throw the profits at the browser - and trying will only incentivize them to make the browser worse to help sell things. Instead they should emprace that having an open browser that is not controlled by a for-profit corporation is a common good and seek people, organizations and governments that agree and are willing to fund it for that reason alone.
sorry_outta_gas 5y ago
I don't think most users care about that, the Google tie seems like a weak point considering most users choose chrome
- chomp 5y ago
  Users absolutely don't care where their browser gets paid, but financially, Mozilla Corp is dependent on an external entity's good graces to pay them. Mozilla Corp makes 400 million per year from Google money. If this money dries up in 2023, then the browser has to find a new deal, or close shop (figuratively speaking; I'm sure it'd lumber on since it's an open source browser). This is a fair amount of business risk, so "saving" the browser probably would involve figuring out how to keep the lights on without a search engine deal.
  - staticassertion 5y ago
    Or they could cut costs now and start saving. 400m a year is such a fucking massive amount of money. You can hire thousands of engineers with that. But like 10% of that goes to execs every year or something insane like that.
  - yoavm 5y ago
    Yes, it's dangerous to depend in income from Google. No, it does not at all explain why Firefox is losing marketshare.

by chomp 5y ago

account42 5y ago

> find a way to wean Mozilla Corp off of the Google payments, which would mean investments in tangentially related services (like VPN, etc.) I disagree - the way forward should be for Mozilla to stop acting like a corporation and start acting like a non-profit. They will never be able to compete with tech giants when it comes to selling things and services in order to throw the profits at the browser - and trying will only incentivize them to make the browser worse to help sell things. Instead they should emprace that having an open browser that is not controlled by a for-profit corporation is a common good and seek people, organizations and governments that agree and are willing to fund it for that reason alone.

sorry_outta_gas 5y ago

I don't think most users care about that, the Google tie seems like a weak point considering most users choose chrome

chomp 5y ago
Users absolutely don't care where their browser gets paid, but financially, Mozilla Corp is dependent on an external entity's good graces to pay them. Mozilla Corp makes 400 million per year from Google money. If this money dries up in 2023, then the browser has to find a new deal, or close shop (figuratively speaking; I'm sure it'd lumber on since it's an open source browser). This is a fair amount of business risk, so "saving" the browser probably would involve figuring out how to keep the lights on without a search engine deal.
- staticassertion 5y ago
  Or they could cut costs now and start saving. 400m a year is such a fucking massive amount of money. You can hire thousands of engineers with that. But like 10% of that goes to execs every year or something insane like that.
- yoavm 5y ago
  Yes, it's dangerous to depend in income from Google. No, it does not at all explain why Firefox is losing marketshare.