Last week the Department of Justice and some state attorneys general filed revised proposed remedies in the U.S. v. Google LLC search case. If the proposed
Does anybody expect them to say anything else? Web engine development is more costly than even OS development, we’re talking costs that often run into the hundreds of millions per year – it’s virtually impossible to fund unless you’re a giant like Google or being funded by someone with very deep pockets, like… er… Google.
Even MS bailed and ceded power to Google, because it simply didn’t make financial sense. Apple does it but they’re pretty meh in terms of implementing standards and such… there’s a reason 3rd party WebKit browsers are rare. They comparatively run it on a shoestring budget, and they’re Apple FFS - their wealth is practically limitless!
People aren’t going to start paying to use Firefox, and that money needs to come from somewhere. The community rejects giants paying Mozilla (understable sentiment), rejects paying for Firefox (also understandable), and rejects Mozilla selling data (definitely understandable). Some say donations, but be real, that won’t make hundreds of millions per year.
What is the solution here? I’m not trying to be contrarian I just don’t know what they can actually do. You’d hope that the Linux Foundation or something would chip in, but nope, they help Chromium instead. I worry for the future of web browsers.
That said, I’m also deeply uncomfortable with Google being able to pay to be default search on so many products. It gives them a huge advantage. I don’t want them to have that advantage. It’s anticompetitive and scummy as fuck.
Mozilla are definitely between a rock and a hard place here. I don’t like some of the decisions they make, but damn, I’m not sure I have the smarts to come up with better ones, given the position and market they’re in.
I know I’m in the minority but I would pay yearly to use Firefox. Not sure how much I’d pay, but I am getting into the habit of purchasing software instead of allowing it to purchase me
If I’m correct, the linux foundation took up development of the Servo engine when Mozilla dropped it. So they don’t focus entirely on Chromium, and may be the ones to take back after Mozilla for Firefox/Gecko engine if needed (you did not said that ofc, but i think it’s important to mention). There’s still a long way to go with new engines such as Servo and Ladybird, but that may be good alternatives in the future.
They started the whole thing. They invented and implemented a whole programming language to implement the thing. Then they integrated Stylo (Servo’s CSS engine) and a couple smaller bits into Firefox which made it a hell a lot faster. Then they set Rust free and shelved Servo because from the perspective of Firefox going forwards with rewriting more in Rust would’ve been a lot of investment for diminishing returns. Stylo was the big one, enabling before unseen parallelism in rendering.
Servo, even with FSFE funding, still has ways to go. Ladybird, I wonder why they even bother. If they want a C++ browser engine that hasn’t been touched by big money then there’s KHTML, Webkit/Chromium’s direct ancestor. There’s a reason KDE dropped development: It wasn’t worth the effort. Qt wasn’t willing to pick it up either.
The correct solution would have been for Mozilla to pursue alternative income a long time ago. Owning a browser gives you a lot of leverage. Instead they made a half-hearted attempt a few years back and half the products failed. I don’t know why FF fans were so comfortable holding them as the savior of the web when they were entirely funded by Google.
And now… well I don’t see a way forward either. Maybe it should just die then.
I would legit pay $40+ for Firefox… it’s gotta make and keep some promises around security, compliance, configurablity and compatibility, etc. though. It also needs to be a decently long term purchase. I’m not doing it for every version they release, maybe a lifetime license or at least a 4-6 year cadence if it’s a bit cheaper.
Why doesn’t Mozilla just fork Chromium? Anything bad sneaks in, they rip it out. New feature? Develop it specifically without paying for the whole browser. From the user’s perspective, very little changes, but cost savings would be massive.
It would also be a good high profile tab of “bad things Chrome/Chromium is doing”
EDIT: It would also justify regulating Chromium like a monopoly, though I think that government ship has sailed.
Does anybody expect them to say anything else? Web engine development is more costly than even OS development, we’re talking costs that often run into the hundreds of millions per year – it’s virtually impossible to fund unless you’re a giant like Google or being funded by someone with very deep pockets, like… er… Google.
Even MS bailed and ceded power to Google, because it simply didn’t make financial sense. Apple does it but they’re pretty meh in terms of implementing standards and such… there’s a reason 3rd party WebKit browsers are rare. They comparatively run it on a shoestring budget, and they’re Apple FFS - their wealth is practically limitless!
People aren’t going to start paying to use Firefox, and that money needs to come from somewhere. The community rejects giants paying Mozilla (understable sentiment), rejects paying for Firefox (also understandable), and rejects Mozilla selling data (definitely understandable). Some say donations, but be real, that won’t make hundreds of millions per year.
What is the solution here? I’m not trying to be contrarian I just don’t know what they can actually do. You’d hope that the Linux Foundation or something would chip in, but nope, they help Chromium instead. I worry for the future of web browsers.
That said, I’m also deeply uncomfortable with Google being able to pay to be default search on so many products. It gives them a huge advantage. I don’t want them to have that advantage. It’s anticompetitive and scummy as fuck.
Mozilla are definitely between a rock and a hard place here. I don’t like some of the decisions they make, but damn, I’m not sure I have the smarts to come up with better ones, given the position and market they’re in.
I know I’m in the minority but I would pay yearly to use Firefox. Not sure how much I’d pay, but I am getting into the habit of purchasing software instead of allowing it to purchase me
Subscribe to their VPN. I don’t use it, but do it to support Firefox
If I’m correct, the linux foundation took up development of the Servo engine when Mozilla dropped it. So they don’t focus entirely on Chromium, and may be the ones to take back after Mozilla for Firefox/Gecko engine if needed (you did not said that ofc, but i think it’s important to mention). There’s still a long way to go with new engines such as Servo and Ladybird, but that may be good alternatives in the future.
I don’t think Mozilla had any involvement in Servo.
They started the whole thing. They invented and implemented a whole programming language to implement the thing. Then they integrated Stylo (Servo’s CSS engine) and a couple smaller bits into Firefox which made it a hell a lot faster. Then they set Rust free and shelved Servo because from the perspective of Firefox going forwards with rewriting more in Rust would’ve been a lot of investment for diminishing returns. Stylo was the big one, enabling before unseen parallelism in rendering.
Servo, even with FSFE funding, still has ways to go. Ladybird, I wonder why they even bother. If they want a C++ browser engine that hasn’t been touched by big money then there’s KHTML, Webkit/Chromium’s direct ancestor. There’s a reason KDE dropped development: It wasn’t worth the effort. Qt wasn’t willing to pick it up either.
The correct solution would have been for Mozilla to pursue alternative income a long time ago. Owning a browser gives you a lot of leverage. Instead they made a half-hearted attempt a few years back and half the products failed. I don’t know why FF fans were so comfortable holding them as the savior of the web when they were entirely funded by Google.
And now… well I don’t see a way forward either. Maybe it should just die then.
And then there are heroes we don’t deserve, but sorely need: git.sr.ht/~bptato/chawan.
I would legit pay $40+ for Firefox… it’s gotta make and keep some promises around security, compliance, configurablity and compatibility, etc. though. It also needs to be a decently long term purchase. I’m not doing it for every version they release, maybe a lifetime license or at least a 4-6 year cadence if it’s a bit cheaper.
I don’t think $40 would support much use time. Maybe yearly would be fair. Idk what kind of money they need but it’s clearly a lot.
I’m paying for vpn 60 bucks per year, for storage 70, I’d give the same for a decent trustworthy browser.
Why doesn’t Mozilla just fork Chromium? Anything bad sneaks in, they rip it out. New feature? Develop it specifically without paying for the whole browser. From the user’s perspective, very little changes, but cost savings would be massive.
It would also be a good high profile tab of “bad things Chrome/Chromium is doing”
EDIT: It would also justify regulating Chromium like a monopoly, though I think that government ship has sailed.
The solution is for Firefox to die and for all the payments to be paid to Servo instead.
Servo survived all the problems that got thrown at them without excuses.
Meanwhile Firefox seem to shot themselves every week by their own choice.
I mean who the hell thought that integrating AI into Firefox for example is a good idea.
Servo is just a motor not a web browser
Removed by mod