If you want to advertise, have a newsletter that people can opt into.
If you need money, allow people to pay for just Firefox.
Everyone gets angry and has an opinion of how this sucks. There's no way for this to work out for Mozilla. Nothing they do will work or make everyone happy.
Google won.
The VPN pop-up isn't an effort to provide funding for a dying browser. This is greed, pure and simple.
A single revenue source is incredibly risky and they're foolish if they aim to rely on search sponsorship revenue alone.
Since when is it greedy to want to raise capital for the expensive thing you're building? I think it's lazy to waste momentum and let it peter out into nothingness. At least this is an attempt to stand on their own legs.
Why does Mozilla draw this ire when literally every entity out there is hustling against the gradient of entropy? We single out Mozilla to lambaste.
The thing I'm angry about is that Mozilla isn't trying hard enough, and that when they do try, they're not playing smart. They're making bets that I perceive to be foolish - "ethical AI", "VR/metaverse", etc. These are not good synergies or paths to profitability. They're wasting their limited resources on things outside of their scope, that do not matter to their core mission, and that won't turn a profit.
As I see it, the web may not even have another 15 years left if AI takes over question answering, content generation, etc. Maybe it's foolish to even try to prop up Mozilla at this point. The world has moved on and left them in the dust.
Mozilla is simply an antitrust defense strategy for tech giants. Not a good place to be in as the gravity starts to move away from websites.
As I pointed out, they have other avenues for revenue. If Google decided to not renew their contract there's other search engines they can turn to.
Additionally, there's nothing wrong with Mozilla securing other revenue sources. There is something wrong with how they're advertising it to their users.
> Why does Mozilla draw this ire when literally every entity out there is hustling against the gradient of entropy
This ire does exist for every company that pulls this nonsense. What are you on about? Why should Mozilla be exempt?
> As I see it, the web may not even have another 15 years left if AI takes over...
This is a Nostradamus level of nonsense. It doesn't belong in this conversation. Regardless of what AI does or doesn't do, trying to project 15 years out into the future to dismiss today's bad behaviours is ridiculous.
What are you on about? We've all got to eat. Making money is good and essential for survival.
> This is a Nostradamus level of nonsense. [...] trying to project 15 years out into the future [...]
This is what every investor, innovator, or leader does. If you're not thinking about the future, you're flying without guidance.
> It doesn't belong in this conversation.
Absolutely it does. Mozilla painted themselves into a dark corner and the walls are closing in.
I'm not the only one predicting that the web may dry up. It was already happening with increased centralization and platforms before AI even entered into the conversation.
If, hypothetically, AI can answer all of your questions, why do you need to search for websites? Why do you even need websites?
ChatGPT is already trying to get companies to build themselves as plugins within their walled fiefdom. Don't you see that as a distinct possibility? A terrifying one? It's already happened on our phones and app stores, and it can happen again.
Yeah. The Mozilla foundation is struggling to keep food on the table with the hundreds of millions paid to them from Google. Totally.
> This is what every investor, innovator, or leader does. If you're not thinking about the future, what are you doing?
Again, you're attempting to justify current bad behaviour by what might happen the future. That's what ridiculous. I never said no one should plan for the future.
If Mozilla is going to pull moves like this then they deserve to get called out for it. Defending bad behaviour like this only helps things become worse.