Semi-TLDR: Improvements under Mozilla? None.

They do not even want to develop a better (than Chrome) browser… they wanna “build a better Internet”.

Mozilla Foundation is making US$ 300-400 millions for many, many years (US$ 593 in 2021-22). If they could not develop a better Firefox all these years, it’s not happening __ with or without Google money __ ever.

When Mozilla /Firefox developers don’t even care/do not listen to feedback for simple things like ability to differentiate between active and inactive tab colors (why everyone that uses Firefox must play around with css to make Firefox usable?), expect them to develop something better or comparable to Chromium based browser is out of question.

Longer, rant version:

According to the Mozilla Foundation’s 2021–2022 financial statement, which is the most recent one published, $510 million out of its $593 million in revenue came courtesy of Google’s search payments.

Source: https://fortune.com/2024/08/05/mozilla-firefox-biggest-potential-loser-google-antitrust-search-ruling/

The fundamental issues as I see are:

Complete lack of vision. Utterly worthless CEOs. Spending money on everything else but development of Firefox.

Especially when Firefox made them US$ 510 million in 2021-22.

Instead of spending millions on worthless CEOs, why not spend millions on developers so people would use Firefox on their own, instead IT guys like me forcing friends & family to use it.

I try to find annual cost of developing & maintaining Linux kernel but could only find articles and PDFs from 2008/2017 mentioning total worth etc but not actual annual cost.

Just as a thought experiment, imagine every Firefox (desktop, mobile etc) stops working all of a sudden… IMO, the world and internet will not come to a full stop.

Now imagine what would happen if every computer, server, router, switch, phone, tablet, stops working completely at once, that runs on Linux kernel.

So if Linux kernel can be developed for $510 million (assuming its below this mark), why can’t Firefox be?

I’m trying to figure out why US$ 510 million is not able to develop something better or comparable to Chromium based browsers.

Then there are issues related to lack of vision and no importance/urgency towards finishing a product.

Why only few extensions were allowed on Firefox mobile for many years without any explanations. Even developers of major extensions were not able to figure out the criteria to make their addon available on Firefox mobile.

What was the rationale behind it… Driving people away who were using Firefox mobile? If the product was not ready, do not fucking release it.

You need highly talented and additional developers to release product sooner… hire more, pay more. You got $510 mil just from Firefox.

I do not see any future for Firefox under Mozilla.

Only if some real big names (like Linux foundation etc) from FOSS world hard fork the Firefox, it might have a future.

I think, with real big name sponsors (pro-open source companies), search revenue will not be an issue.

IMO, the new organization (of course with big sponsors) of new fork must have one, single mission/goal… develop a great browser. New org must not have a mission statement written by MBAs:

“We’re building a better Internet”

Source: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/

Something people will use it on their own for its merit.

I have written this elsewhere many times and I know it’s extremely unpopular with FOSS crowd but truth needs to be told in here once again:

Everyday I use Debian, Ubuntu and Windows 10/11/Servers.

I’m an “IT guy” and have installed Firefox on literally hundreds of computers over a decade. I also install and setup extensions like uBlock Origin (with few comprehensive ad & malware blocking lists) , Dark Reader, Auto Delete Cookies, Crypto blocking and many more… but I have given up on Firefox 2016 onwards.

You could give Mozilla 10 billion per year just to develop Firefox but Mozilla can and will decide that they wanna spend only 1 or 10 percent of that money on actual Firefox development.

They will spend most of their money on anything but Firefox.

I mean I love world-peace, and cancer and aids free world too but with the money Mozilla get in a year, none of that gonna happen.

Mozilla couldn’t stop Russia attack on Ukraine; neither were able to solve Israel Palestinian conflict nor hunger and migration from African countries to Europe…

Then what are they spending money on?

What they could have done successfully is to spend all the money they made from Firefox towards Firefox development alone. But this is the thing Mozilla do not want to do and are open about it.

Now I don’t want Mozilla to stop developing Firefox either but because Firefox needs money from Google, Google must be allowed their monopoly on search… is utterly insane thinking.

If Mozilla cannot survive without Google monopoly, so be it.

I would say some open source/ Linux foundations/ Linux distros needs to fork Firefox and let Mozilla die peacefully.

Well, Transcendence from 2014 got this right.

There Are Thousands of Alien Empires in The Milky Way

Any contact info?

What the actual fuck… and that too from apnews?

Now only if those “researchers” looked even further back, they would have found that ultimate building blocks of any coffee, like electrons and up & down quarks came into existence around 13.8 billion year ago (or may be ~28 billion year ago as claimed by some new research), and our universe may be a part of infinite multiverse that may have existed forever.

So wouldn’t it be even bigger headline that coffee has existed forever :)

As others have mentioned, it’s simple things takes alot time finding/figuring out.

I use GIMP within Ubuntu MATE few times a week to edit pictures. Simple edits nothing major.

One of the thing I need regularly is to highlight certain part of the picture.

Now in Microsoft Paint I can draw a rectangle, choose its border thickness, and color in 2 seconds.

I have learned how to do the same in GIMP few times but it took alot of time and I still forgets after few weeks.

So now I just reboot the PC and log into Windows or use Windows virtual machine and draw rectangle in 2 seconds in Microsoft Paint.

Mine is extremely simple use case, so I can only guess how difficult or how time consuming it would be for actual professional to create artistic work in GIMP vs Photoshop (or in similar commercial software).

Just my 2 cents.

Now obviously, mere mention of word AI sparks outrage online.

But I have a different take, and not for this particular instance but AI and military in general.

Even if the US shuts down any and all AI research and AI applications, do you think China, Russia, Iran, and others gonna do the same?

I don’t think so. Nvidia is super happy to supply expensive AI processors to China… officially or not.

It’s better to prepare preemptively than fall behind all eternity.

Look at North Korea, once they got the nukes, they became untouchable with unhinged loonies at the helm. And now South Korea and may be the US must keep throwing millions to them. They keep hacking anything and everything (except in China & Russia) they can get their hands on… without any consequences at all.

I have not seen any hacker being successfully prosecuted anywhere in the world from the “state sponsored hacking teams” of China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.

IMO all of these nations are never gonna be at peace with rest of the world, so why don’t stay (or at least try to be) in the lead while you can?

Important part from the article:

Windows users can still change their default browser through the Windows settings.

Important part from the article:

Windows users can still change their default browser through the Windows settings.