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.
It's actually pretty simple for this to work out for Mozilla. Remove the ad system.
I think many people overestimate how many people would pay for Firefox.
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.
I certainly would never pay them if they keep doing that kind of shit
Now to find another browser... Maybe some Firefox fork or something? Like WTF every other browser is Chromium... Man this sucks, I'm about ready to quit the internet.
Because Mozilla and its execs were asleep at the wheel while Google started to eat its share. This is what you get when you stop competing.
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.
It's fine for them to create Mozilla VPN. It's never, ever fine to use the same old dark bullshit patterns, and interrupt me on all my computers, same as all these other dirtbag tech companies. They are supposed to be different, and give a shit about the user. Sorry if this is their only way to advertise, but it's not okay.
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.
... what kind of logic is this?
>There's no way for this to work out for Mozilla.
Sure there is - give people an option to pay for Firefox itself.
Unfortunately they hired a bunch of incompetent executives who would much rather starve Firefox development while spending all of the money on realizing their big business vision where they acquire useless startups then ruin the browser by turning it into a marketing platform for the aforementioned. Besides bonuses and big salary bumps, of course.
Instead the current pitch is "buy this $5/m VPN, of which we'll get a small cut of from reselling Mullvad, and still get all of the ads you were complaining about in the browser anyways".
The execs are still competing, they're winning, and getting exactly what they aim for, personal wealth.
Thunderbird, for example, gained a new life because of donations: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving...
Correct, but there’s a better way to reduce that dependence:
- Stop bleeding money on bullshit unrelated to the core mission.
- Build up an endowment with that sponsorship money to the point that the income it generates is sufficient for their needs.
I mean... it was probably that too, but Google abusing its search monopoly to market Chrome probably played a major role as well. Or if you like - Mozilla's mistakes are such that Google probably could have won fair, but that's not what actually happened.
They literally do not allow donations to Firefox. It is not, and never has been, possible.
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/paid-firefox-to-get-rid...
we need to make those the most popular ideas on mozilla connect
Google won indeed. They won by making Mozilla into their little bitch insted of real competition.