zlacker

This topic keeps coming up. Mozilla is viewed as a bloated entity whose only legitimate activity is maintaining Firefox. No-one cares about the other initiatives they spend money and resources on, and they especially don't want their donations going toward Mozilla's overpaid leadership.

People would like to donate directly to Firefox, but as things stand, this isn't an option. This isn't because Firefox falls under the Mozilla brand, it's because Mozilla choose not to accept Firefox-specific donations.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24141852

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24129794

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24129926

>>MaxBar+(OP)
Mozilla Foundation can't accept Firefox specific donations because the Mozilla Foundation does not develop Firefox. The Mozilla Corporation does and the foundation cannot give money to the corporation (only the other way around). So you'd need to redo a whole lot of things for this to be possible.

>>marcin+U8
Why the need for the corporation? The foundation could hire employees, coordinate development, etc. right?

>>wirrbe+Bp
They'd need to probably do it all independently of the corporation's development efforts which would be rather inefficient. Might still make some IRS agents twitch since it could look like trying to get around tax laws by the corporation.

Realistically, the corporation makes so much more money from Firefox search deals versus foundation donations that this shouldn't be necessary. But as long as the Mozilla leadership wants to screw Firefox they will find a way. For example, by removing an equal number of engineers from Firefox development on the corporation side as the foundation hires.

>>marcin+6s
They are going to do that anyway as Firefox keeps loosing market share the search revenues is going to diminish .

They have been unable to find alternative revenue streams.

TBH it is hard to make a recurring revenue of $ 400M even from scratch , Mozilla has an existing culture that is not simply geared towards this kind of product building . I would be skeptical of even competent board and management doing this .