4 ms·

Servo Web Engine Continues Advancing but Seeing Just $1.6k in Monthly Donations

70 points by luu 2y ago

hu3 2y ago
This is really sad. Meanwhile Mozilla busy spending half a billion USD/year on "better projects". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Finances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Finances
- impulser_ 2y ago
  I believe the Servo project is not apart of Mozilla anymore. It's apart of the Linux Foundation.
  - hu3 2y ago
    That's my point and also the first paragraph of the article: > The Rust-written Servo web engine as a reminder was started as a Mozilla project but then abandoned and now developed by multiple organizations as part of Linux Foundation Europe. Couldn't Mozilla spend 0.1% of their budget in Servo Research & Development? That would be close to 500k/year. Browser engine is such a crucial part of our world.
    - ipaddr 2y ago
      They stopped working on it and another foundation took over. Why would they start funding it again and if they decided to why wouldn't they fork it back?
      - hu3 2y ago
        > They stopped working on it... This was the mistake in my opinion. Abandoning a project that could make the web safer.
  - krageon 2y ago
    The point is that they're not better projects and they receive a ton more funding. A lot of really bad stuff gets a lot of money for reasons that won't improve humanity or most peoples' lives, which a browser that runs well on more limited hardware would absolutely do.
- atonse 2y ago
  It is so crazy that nearly 90% (most recently 80%) of Mozilla's revenue comes from a direct competitor. That is positively insane, and should be total fodder for an anti-trust case against Google, shouldn't it? "One of your biggest competitors in the browser space gets almost all their revenue from you, how exactly can they effectively compete in that scenario?" It calls into question what the actual reasons are why they aren't funding a rendering project like Servo that is a direct competitor to Chrome.
  - altairprime 2y ago
    How many internet users would pay anything at all for a web browser (or its engine)? Can browsers only be produced as a loss leader? What alternate revenue source besides browsers (and advertising) should Mozilla be funding Servo (and Firefox) with? No one seems to have that answer, and without that, it’s unclear how Mozilla’s slow collapse is newly interesting and relevant to this Servo thread.
    - atonse 2y ago
      You’re 100% correct that browsers aren’t a viable business model. But neither is getting 80% of your revenue from a company that probably only keeps you alive so they can show you off as healthy competition. Both things can be true. Is there any other reason why Google would do this?
      - jitl 2y ago
        So, you want it to be illegal for Google to pay Mozilla? That would end Firefox development outright.
        atonse 2y ago
        No, I am merely pointing out that they are already in a very precarious position that Google (who is notorious for "ending" projects) could decide to cancel that funding source overnight. I don't know what the solution is. Maybe they are moving towards alternate sources of revenue, since google makes up "only" 80% now, whereas it used to be over 90%.
theusus 2y ago
Didn't done foundation donated them their software engineers?
shmerl 2y ago
I'm still waiting for Vulkan rendering path in Firefox.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
anotherhue 2y ago
This is the time to give them $10/m, not ten years from now when we're all complaining about a chromium monoculture.

70 points by luu 2y ago

hu3 2y ago

This is really sad. Meanwhile Mozilla busy spending half a billion USD/year on "better projects". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Finances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Finances

impulser_ 2y ago
I believe the Servo project is not apart of Mozilla anymore. It's apart of the Linux Foundation.
- hu3 2y ago
  That's my point and also the first paragraph of the article: > The Rust-written Servo web engine as a reminder was started as a Mozilla project but then abandoned and now developed by multiple organizations as part of Linux Foundation Europe. Couldn't Mozilla spend 0.1% of their budget in Servo Research & Development? That would be close to 500k/year. Browser engine is such a crucial part of our world.
  - ipaddr 2y ago
    They stopped working on it and another foundation took over. Why would they start funding it again and if they decided to why wouldn't they fork it back?
    - hu3 2y ago
      > They stopped working on it... This was the mistake in my opinion. Abandoning a project that could make the web safer.
- krageon 2y ago
  The point is that they're not better projects and they receive a ton more funding. A lot of really bad stuff gets a lot of money for reasons that won't improve humanity or most peoples' lives, which a browser that runs well on more limited hardware would absolutely do.
atonse 2y ago
It is so crazy that nearly 90% (most recently 80%) of Mozilla's revenue comes from a direct competitor. That is positively insane, and should be total fodder for an anti-trust case against Google, shouldn't it? "One of your biggest competitors in the browser space gets almost all their revenue from you, how exactly can they effectively compete in that scenario?" It calls into question what the actual reasons are why they aren't funding a rendering project like Servo that is a direct competitor to Chrome.
- altairprime 2y ago
  How many internet users would pay anything at all for a web browser (or its engine)? Can browsers only be produced as a loss leader? What alternate revenue source besides browsers (and advertising) should Mozilla be funding Servo (and Firefox) with? No one seems to have that answer, and without that, it’s unclear how Mozilla’s slow collapse is newly interesting and relevant to this Servo thread.
  - atonse 2y ago
    You’re 100% correct that browsers aren’t a viable business model. But neither is getting 80% of your revenue from a company that probably only keeps you alive so they can show you off as healthy competition. Both things can be true. Is there any other reason why Google would do this?
    - jitl 2y ago
      So, you want it to be illegal for Google to pay Mozilla? That would end Firefox development outright.
      - atonse 2y ago
        No, I am merely pointing out that they are already in a very precarious position that Google (who is notorious for "ending" projects) could decide to cancel that funding source overnight. I don't know what the solution is. Maybe they are moving towards alternate sources of revenue, since google makes up "only" 80% now, whereas it used to be over 90%.

theusus 2y ago

Didn't done foundation donated them their software engineers?

shmerl 2y ago

I'm still waiting for Vulkan rendering path in Firefox.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

anotherhue 2y ago

This is the time to give them $10/m, not ten years from now when we're all complaining about a chromium monoculture.