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> or turn to alternatives like Firefox as a new foundation. With the way Firefox is heading, that might not be the best idea. Nowadays Mozilla seem more focuse
by cecexacjrgec 14d ago
> or turn to alternatives like Firefox as a new foundation.
With the way Firefox is heading, that might not be the best idea. Nowadays Mozilla seem more focused on riding the AI-hype wave than actually making an excellent browser people want to actually use.
- stuaxo 14d agoIt's not really a "both sides" thing given the scale difference between what Google is up to and that.
- cecexacjrgec 14d agoNo one is forcing Mozilla’s hand (afaik) and no one is actually thinking “if Firefox had a chatbot that might convince me to move over”. Youre right that it is not a “both sides” thing, its a “Mozilla thing”. Through and through.
- mitxela 14d agoSome people are thinking "Firefox doesn't have a chatbot so I'll use chrome" though
- wolrah 14d agoReally? How many people can that possibly be, and how many of those would a reasonably sane developer actually want? If your competition is attracting the worst kind of users, do you really want to get in their way?
- mitxela 14d agoYes you want more users not less. This is business 101. Even business 000. Customers good.
- fragmede 14d agoBusiness 101 is to make sales! Users sometimes represent sales, but not always. That may be business 201 though.
- mitxela 14d agoThis is about market share of a nonprofit - it's users.
- exjejfjeifj 13d agoPrecisely their point: users don’t necessarily mean sales, but they MIGHT bring in donors.
- wolrah 12d agoBusiness 102, something that's obvious to anyone who's ever worked a customer facing job but incredibly elusive to a lot of people who went straight to management, is that some customers are net negatives and you should not cater to them. They have some combination of ignorance, stupidity, and/or malice which results in them costing more employee time and/or "goodwill" than you'll ever make from selling things. Your business is better off not having them, and even better if they go off to inflict themselves on your competition.
- rockskon 14d agoAre any of those people not investors?
- II2II 14d agoIt is sad to see Firefox riding various hype trains over the years, but I can't really blame them. Miss the wrong train, and you fall behind and may not be able to catch up. Miss the train to nowhere, and you are only wasting resources. As for the excellent browser that people want, that raises the question of what people want. There are likely as many answers as people.
- cecexacjrgec 14d agoYeah. It’s a tough balance to achieve but that’s the situation we’re in right now so Mozilla really ought to step up (and I totally wish they would). My biggest pain point at the moment (entirely subjective mind you) is not even the AI nonsense, but how disjointed and alien the Firefox UX and general feel is to Apple platforms (what I use, at the moment). I don’t want Firefox to mirror Safari 1:1 but I do want the Firefox UI and UX to feel polished, well thought out and thoroughly in line with system HIG specs—given that I spend a lot of time in a browser, it shouldn’t feel like a stranger in a strange land amidst my other desktop applications. Aggressive UI improvements would go a long way to restore some faith in the incandescent fox‘ mission—at least for me.
- josephg 14d agoMozilla definitely wastes a bunch of money building features I don’t want. But underneath it all, Firefox is still an excellent web browser. You just occasionally have to disable “pocket” or “gadgets” or something.
- AstralSerenity 13d agoIt's also easy to understand why. Google is not the same company Mozilla partnered with decades ago. You can listen to retrospectives from Mozilla engineers, and you sense a desire to bite the corrupted hand that feeds. However, for Mozilla to be the bold, it needs funding diversity, and that isn't going to come from a browser alone. I have not agreed with everything Mozilla has thrown against the wall, but I sincerely hope something sticks. We need it to.
- bryanlarsen 14d agoIs Firefox or Mozilla perfect? Heck no. But we're not comparing Mozilla against pre-IBM Red Hat or Ben & Jerry's or whatever your concept of the ideal corporate citizen is. We're comparing Mozilla against Google. That's a very low bar that Mozilla clears with ease, especially if you're criteria includes shoving AI down your throat.
- mitxela 14d agoI'm not sure Mozilla clears it. Zen or Librewolf or PaleMoon clears it.
- AstralSerenity 13d agoGosh, Pale Moon? That browser is a security nightmare IIRC.
- pjmlp 14d agoFirefox is no longer part of most browser compatibility matrices, what ease?
- throwaway27448 14d ago> Firefox is no longer part of most browser compatibility matrices, what ease? What would be the point of a browser compatibility matrix then?
- pjmlp 14d agoCompatibility between market relevant browsers. Which for the large majority of companies means Chrome and Safari nowadays. Thanks to Apple's stance on iOS, otherwise it would be only Chrome, as younger generations apparently never got the IE history lesson.
- throwaway27448 14d agoEither way we're still stuck with it.
- jdjfnfjdjjeh 14d agoMozilla gets 100M a year from Google ??? No fucking way they are biting the hand that feeds.
- EbNar 14d agoCloser to 500M, actually.
- hurfdurf 14d ago~$585 million in 2024 (86% of total revenue) https://stateof.mozilla.org/pdf/Mozilla%20Fdn%202024%20-%20AuditedFinancials.pdf https://stateof.mozilla.org/pdf/Mozilla%20Fdn%202024%20-%20A... Mentioned as "one customer" in the PDF.
- jdjfnfjdjjeh 14d agoLol yeah off by a factor of 6 but yeah no fucking way still stands Edit: spelling
- wwiinn 14d agoThey still produced Firefox OS for mobile phones.
- ricardobayes 14d agoAn interesting read. If I'm reading page 20 right, they hold over 1 billion worth of investments? I've seen smaller hedge funds.
- seb1204 14d agoWhere is the form, forum or spot in general where one can tell Mozilla?
- suprjami 14d agoThe next board meeting, after buying at least 51% of the shares.