5 ms·

Will Google's anti-monopoly lawsuit be the death knell for Mozilla and Firefox?

20 points by leros 2y ago

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
I hope so. Fuck 'em. Bunch of no-good feature-removing copycats.
- chung8123 2y ago
  Didn't Firefox come before Chrome?
  - throw-the-towel 2y ago
    It did. Doesn't make Mozilla less of a Chrome copycat.
  - Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
    Firefox, as a name, does have a history before chrome, as a name (I won't comment on their past lives) but since since version 4 firefox has done little but copy chrome. From the ui to extensions to drm.
leros 2y ago
According to this article, Mozilla gets 86% of its revenue from Google Search payments so this ruling could be a huge issue for them.
- evanjrowley 2y ago
  Suddenly it seems like all of that non-browser stuff Mozilla tried could have helped to offset the risk of Google dependence, despite the fact that many people rejected those ancillary initiatives. In this situation Google seems like the Unjust Steward in Luke 16:1-13. Subsidizing Mozilla's business model debt was only going to last as long as regulators hadn't cracked down on Google's anti-trust behavior.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > all of that non-browser stuff Mozilla tried could have helped to offset the risk of Google dependence None of it is revenue generating! I stopped donating to Mozilla because of all the nonsense side projects.
jqpabc123 2y ago
Mozilla could be a big loser. Firefox doesn't have much left to lose (<3%).
- ls612 2y ago
  More like 6-8% of non-mobile. And the only one left to support good adblockers.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- leros 2y ago
  I feel like lots of people are currently talking about switching from Chrome to Firefox with the uBlock origin thing.
  - zanfr 2y ago
    I experience great amusement watching uBlock work its way around youtube ads. it does cause buffering issues but it works and its better than watching ads for junk I don't care about. Although since yesterday there seems to have been an escalation in anti ad blocker weaponry, not a big deal just reload the video.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    While at the same time keep shipping Electron apps....
- zanfr 2y ago
  I am baffled by the success of Chrome vs others. It is a proprietary (absolute red flag) web browser with fairly poor support for extensions (mild red flag), on Windows it insists on storing cached data where I don't want it to go (relative red flag) I'll give them it is fast vs say firefox... but it is really what I would call a "normie's web browser" I really hope Firefox survives, well actually it will because it is not a black box.
0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
Preparing for the inevitable… How is Chromium/whatever-leading-less-Google-in-the—loop browser? Will it run ublock or is that on borrowed time with the manifest initiative they are pushing? Are they actually free of Google telemetry or is it all too deeply embedded to escape?
- Vecr 2y ago
  I'm not sure how long ungoogled-chromium could keep something like that, possibly not long. How Google changes code has to be at least partially intentional.

20 points by leros 2y ago

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago

I hope so. Fuck 'em. Bunch of no-good feature-removing copycats.

chung8123 2y ago
Didn't Firefox come before Chrome?
- throw-the-towel 2y ago
  It did. Doesn't make Mozilla less of a Chrome copycat.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
  Firefox, as a name, does have a history before chrome, as a name (I won't comment on their past lives) but since since version 4 firefox has done little but copy chrome. From the ui to extensions to drm.

leros 2y ago

According to this article, Mozilla gets 86% of its revenue from Google Search payments so this ruling could be a huge issue for them.

evanjrowley 2y ago
Suddenly it seems like all of that non-browser stuff Mozilla tried could have helped to offset the risk of Google dependence, despite the fact that many people rejected those ancillary initiatives. In this situation Google seems like the Unjust Steward in Luke 16:1-13. Subsidizing Mozilla's business model debt was only going to last as long as regulators hadn't cracked down on Google's anti-trust behavior.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > all of that non-browser stuff Mozilla tried could have helped to offset the risk of Google dependence None of it is revenue generating! I stopped donating to Mozilla because of all the nonsense side projects.

jqpabc123 2y ago

Mozilla could be a big loser. Firefox doesn't have much left to lose (<3%).

ls612 2y ago
More like 6-8% of non-mobile. And the only one left to support good adblockers.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
leros 2y ago
I feel like lots of people are currently talking about switching from Chrome to Firefox with the uBlock origin thing.
- zanfr 2y ago
  I experience great amusement watching uBlock work its way around youtube ads. it does cause buffering issues but it works and its better than watching ads for junk I don't care about. Although since yesterday there seems to have been an escalation in anti ad blocker weaponry, not a big deal just reload the video.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  While at the same time keep shipping Electron apps....
zanfr 2y ago
I am baffled by the success of Chrome vs others. It is a proprietary (absolute red flag) web browser with fairly poor support for extensions (mild red flag), on Windows it insists on storing cached data where I don't want it to go (relative red flag) I'll give them it is fast vs say firefox... but it is really what I would call a "normie's web browser" I really hope Firefox survives, well actually it will because it is not a black box.

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago

Preparing for the inevitable… How is Chromium/whatever-leading-less-Google-in-the—loop browser? Will it run ublock or is that on borrowed time with the manifest initiative they are pushing? Are they actually free of Google telemetry or is it all too deeply embedded to escape?

Vecr 2y ago
I'm not sure how long ungoogled-chromium could keep something like that, possibly not long. How Google changes code has to be at least partially intentional.