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Hard to argue something isn't an objectively huge advantage to your business if you're spending $10b for it.
My only fear in all of this is we may get monkey pawed - if Google stops paying for placement, Firefox loses 90% of its revenue, and the anti-trust case may further cement Chrome/Chromium monopoly.
Google would likely still bid, but lower, so that Firefox may change over for bing, and still get ~80% of what they got from google. Google has an interest to not make it cheap for microsoft, even if they don't want to pay a dime themselves.
Or maybe Firefox should find a sustainable business model.
I love and use Firefox the software, but their nonprofit is questionable, their leadership is scummy, and their business plan is nonexistent. They could, for example, start by accepting donations towards the development of the actual browser, which is the core product of Mozilla.
Donations are a drop on a hot stone, browser development doesn't pay, and the only two other companies do it either because it supports their ad business, or because it's a selling point for their hardware and yet another way to lock their users in.
They could sell premium features. Seek funding from governments - they have a lobbying nonprofit and instead of lobbying for open and we'll funded web they (sometimes) lobby for questionable things.
And I mean yeah, donations are a pain but there's still plenty of healthy open source projects that run on donations (both monetary and of developer time). Or they could seek out corporate donations and develop features wanted by large companies (who would be probably interested in the privacy sell too), though it might be too late for that.
Basically do something - anything. But no, they take Google's money with no alternatives in case the faucet stops.
Meanwhile the leadership lays off engineers and takes huge bonuses for it.
Premium features? The internet will explode the moment Mozilla adds anything premium. People really hate paying for free stuff.
No alternative besides the Microsoft money they took a few years ago, or was it yahoo?
Scummy how? Also https://donate.mozilla.org/en-US/
Donations go to the non profit which owns but doesn't fund the for-profit developing FF
Do you have anything showing donations don't actually go to Firefox development?
Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation, which is owned by the Mozilla Foundation. The corporation can send money to the foundation but not the other way around.
Here’s a really nice thread on Hacker News where they dig into the financial statements from the Mozilla Foundation. Also, here's a link to Mozilla’s FAQ where it vaguely mentions how Firefox funding works.
I'll try to remember to look it up tomorrow back on my computer, but it's guess it's probably on Wikipedia
edit: @thorn_[email protected] already posted the relevant links.