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I donated a lot of time, code, and at least a little money to early Mozilla and Firefox. They were a lot more dynamic and engaging when they were a small nonpro

I donated a lot of time, code, and at least a little money to early Mozilla and Firefox. They were a lot more dynamic and engaging when they were a small nonprofit. Now it feels like thanks to Google money they have become fat and lazy. Unable to take risks because it might threaten their income stream or their relationship with Google. It makes me sad and angry to see what they have become. Maybe a diet will help, but I fear the patient is beyond help at this point.

stogot 2y ago
I still won’t donate unless the money goes to Firefox and not their parties, activism, or side projects (that they inevitably shut down)
- icelancer 2y ago
  I'm good with side projects. The activism stuff has to stop.
- Seb-C 2y ago
  Even if they did allow that, a big part of the budget would probably go into another useless UI revamp.
thfuran 2y ago
>Now it feels like thanks to Google money they have become fat and lazy. Unable to take risks I think Google has that problem too.
nextos 2y ago
I guess it's the usual lifecycle most organizations go through, and generous funding has accelerated the process. The only upside is that, in theory, anyone could fork Firefox and continue development within a healthier structure. It's a critical project for the Internet. Hopefully, Ladybird will be viable soon, adding a bit of redundancy. Else, we risk becoming a Chrome monoculture.
mmooss 2y ago
One one hand, they are criticized for taking risks - being risks, inevitably many don't work out - including their AI project. On the other, now they don't take enough risks.
culi 2y ago
They've been pretty hard at work to offer services that will let them wean themselves off of Google money. This is how much of their income came from search royalties yearly according to their independent auditor reports 2023: 75.8 2022: 86.0 2021: 87.8 2020: 88.8 2019: [^a] 2018: 95.3 2017: 95.9 [^a]: this was a weird year where their "other" income got a massive one-time boost. I'm not sure what happened. Did they get a $338m grant? If you take that number out (which is normally at or near zero) the percentage is around 91%
- kbrosnan 2y ago
  That is the Oath Verizon/Yahoo search contract settlement.

stogot 2y ago

I still won’t donate unless the money goes to Firefox and not their parties, activism, or side projects (that they inevitably shut down)

icelancer 2y ago
I'm good with side projects. The activism stuff has to stop.
Seb-C 2y ago
Even if they did allow that, a big part of the budget would probably go into another useless UI revamp.

thfuran 2y ago

>Now it feels like thanks to Google money they have become fat and lazy. Unable to take risks I think Google has that problem too.

nextos 2y ago

I guess it's the usual lifecycle most organizations go through, and generous funding has accelerated the process. The only upside is that, in theory, anyone could fork Firefox and continue development within a healthier structure. It's a critical project for the Internet. Hopefully, Ladybird will be viable soon, adding a bit of redundancy. Else, we risk becoming a Chrome monoculture.

mmooss 2y ago

One one hand, they are criticized for taking risks - being risks, inevitably many don't work out - including their AI project. On the other, now they don't take enough risks.

culi 2y ago

They've been pretty hard at work to offer services that will let them wean themselves off of Google money. This is how much of their income came from search royalties yearly according to their independent auditor reports 2023: 75.8 2022: 86.0 2021: 87.8 2020: 88.8 2019: [^a] 2018: 95.3 2017: 95.9 [^a]: this was a weird year where their "other" income got a massive one-time boost. I'm not sure what happened. Did they get a $338m grant? If you take that number out (which is normally at or near zero) the percentage is around 91%

kbrosnan 2y ago
That is the Oath Verizon/Yahoo search contract settlement.