5 ms·

This polls suggests that there's some decision holding back Mozilla from ditching Google, and that with enough pressure, they'll finally do it. They're long aw

This polls suggests that there's some decision holding back Mozilla from ditching Google, and that with enough pressure, they'll finally do it. They're long aware that they should. They made the strategic announcement some 7-8 years back if I remember correctly. Since then they tried to diversify and failed miserably. Sure enough incompetence is involved but we should also consider how very hard it is. Making hundreds of millions from a new tech product in the consumer space is impossibly difficult. You're up against Big Tech and a generally very competitive and saturated space where any idea can be easily replicated. And you're up against consumers that really don't want to pay, hence ads. That said, I do feel Mozilla barely tried and wasted a lot of money on distractions. They're way too comfortable raking half a billion for effectively doing nothing at all: keep the search box pointing at Google.

pseudalopex 2y ago
> Since then they tried to diversify and failed miserably. I wish my miserable failures brought in $65 million annually.
- tlb 2y ago
  Yes, $65M revenue is a decent success. The miserable failure is bloating their expenses to 5x that.
- dralley 2y ago
  >I wish my miserable failures brought in $65 million annually. HN users complain about that $65 million constantly. Mozilla is stuck in a spot where the same angry nerds that want them to diversify away from Google won't actually let them spin up diverse sources of revenue.
  - zamalek 2y ago
    I wonder how many of this angry crowd donate. Mozilla do accept donations. Or maybe the idea is that employees/developers don't need to eat, which is incredibly ironic given who HN users typically are. There isn't a single line in this petition dedicated to how Mozilla should raise funds instead. Maybe signing the petition should be behind a paywall, I would be very interested to see how many votes that would gather.
    - bruce511 2y ago
      You're getting downvotes, but I'm not sure why. It's trivial to say something like "wean off Google" and it's another thing to suggest an alternative source. The truth is, there are no actual ideas on how to replace it. Donations is not the answer. You can't replace hundreds of millions of $ simply with donations. Equally you can't just reduce spending by firing swathes of people Twitter style. And even if you could FF would still not have enough to "just pay programmers" (like they work in some kind of vacuum.) It's really easy to run a business from outside - you can make a lot of obvious points, and ignore realities or accountability. There's lots of "you should do xxx" in the petition with 0 suggestions on how to fund it.
      - subsistence234 2y ago
        >you can't just reduce spending by firing swathes of people Twitter style. mozilla probably could.
    - theamk 2y ago
      I am sure lots more people would donate if the money would go towards Firefox specifically, and not general "mozilla foundation activities"
      - ilvez 2y ago
        I at least stopped donations years and years ago to them, because I wanted my money go to browser only. In the light of ToS changes, I'm sad and feel let down without an option.
    - h4ny 2y ago
      I don't agree that you are downvoted without being offered an explanation, that's just a gross misuse of the privilege to downvote that seems to be more and more frequent on here. :shrug: I also don't agree that donations are the only way to support Mozilla. As others have mentioned they have spent time and effort contributing to Firefox/Mozilla's projects, and many probably have advocated for the use of Firefox — all of that is value to Mozilla and the community. I don't have any experience starting an organization, let alone one that has that kind of revenue, but as a user, whether you donate or not, if Mozilla is getting that kind of money and their track record and reputation just seems to go downhill, I'd be surprised that people who are invested in it are not upset.
- mvdtnz 2y ago
  Start selling $100 notes for $50. I am confident you can get your company to $65M revenue.

pseudalopex 2y ago

> Since then they tried to diversify and failed miserably. I wish my miserable failures brought in $65 million annually.

tlb 2y ago
Yes, $65M revenue is a decent success. The miserable failure is bloating their expenses to 5x that.
dralley 2y ago
>I wish my miserable failures brought in $65 million annually. HN users complain about that $65 million constantly. Mozilla is stuck in a spot where the same angry nerds that want them to diversify away from Google won't actually let them spin up diverse sources of revenue.
- zamalek 2y ago
  I wonder how many of this angry crowd donate. Mozilla do accept donations. Or maybe the idea is that employees/developers don't need to eat, which is incredibly ironic given who HN users typically are. There isn't a single line in this petition dedicated to how Mozilla should raise funds instead. Maybe signing the petition should be behind a paywall, I would be very interested to see how many votes that would gather.
  - bruce511 2y ago
    You're getting downvotes, but I'm not sure why. It's trivial to say something like "wean off Google" and it's another thing to suggest an alternative source. The truth is, there are no actual ideas on how to replace it. Donations is not the answer. You can't replace hundreds of millions of $ simply with donations. Equally you can't just reduce spending by firing swathes of people Twitter style. And even if you could FF would still not have enough to "just pay programmers" (like they work in some kind of vacuum.) It's really easy to run a business from outside - you can make a lot of obvious points, and ignore realities or accountability. There's lots of "you should do xxx" in the petition with 0 suggestions on how to fund it.
    - subsistence234 2y ago
      >you can't just reduce spending by firing swathes of people Twitter style. mozilla probably could.
  - theamk 2y ago
    I am sure lots more people would donate if the money would go towards Firefox specifically, and not general "mozilla foundation activities"
    - ilvez 2y ago
      I at least stopped donations years and years ago to them, because I wanted my money go to browser only. In the light of ToS changes, I'm sad and feel let down without an option.
  - h4ny 2y ago
    I don't agree that you are downvoted without being offered an explanation, that's just a gross misuse of the privilege to downvote that seems to be more and more frequent on here. :shrug: I also don't agree that donations are the only way to support Mozilla. As others have mentioned they have spent time and effort contributing to Firefox/Mozilla's projects, and many probably have advocated for the use of Firefox — all of that is value to Mozilla and the community. I don't have any experience starting an organization, let alone one that has that kind of revenue, but as a user, whether you donate or not, if Mozilla is getting that kind of money and their track record and reputation just seems to go downhill, I'd be surprised that people who are invested in it are not upset.
mvdtnz 2y ago
Start selling $100 notes for $50. I am confident you can get your company to $65M revenue.