• modulus@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I kept giving Mozilla the benefit of the doubt and telling myself things weren’t so bad.

    I was wrong.

    I’ll continue using Firefox because it’s the least bad option, but I can’t advocate for it in good faith anymore, and I don’t expect it to last long with this orientation.

    So it goes.

    • Redex@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Ok sure, what do you want them to do instead then? 80% of their income is reliant on a tech giant’s grace and is seemingly more and more likely to be cutoff soon. They need to survive somehow, and every monetised service they tried flopped thusfar.

      • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 month ago

        Maybe im a dumbass, but im currently using an entire operating system that is community funded, and made. How is it that its possible to do it with linux, and all the things that go with linux, but a web browser can’t do it without getting into ads? Why are web browsers so special that they just need oogles and oogles of money to function?

        • beleza pura@lemmy.eco.br
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          1 month ago

          sadly, the web has become so complex and it changes so fast that it’s now almost impossible to keep up with the standard, so only google and mozilla are able to do it

          thanks google!

      • doleo@lemmy.one
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        1 month ago

        How about not have a multi-million-dollar-costing CEO? Seems a bit rich (pun intended) for a supposed non-profit org.

        • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yeah I’m not defending that but CEO pay only rounds to like 1% of their total expenditures. Developing a browser is expensive.

          • doleo@lemmy.one
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            1 month ago

            only 1%? That’s about on par with a fortune 500 company, which supposedly Mozilla is not.

      • rhabarba@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        What makes you think that developing a free web browser needs to grant anyone any income?

        • Metz@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Do you think developers don’t have to eat? or pay rent? And donations alone do not cut it.

          • rhabarba@feddit.org
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            1 month ago

            Being a developer myself (with no ads in his software), I don’t think you understand my point. The software I write in my free time does not pay my bills. That’s why I also have an actual job.

            • Metz@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              You are aware that there are full-time developers working at Mozilla, yes? Developing a browser is not a hobby-project that you can pull off with some volunteers in their free time. You need professionals that work on such a giant project with their full attention.

              Developing Firefox is their job. And of course they want to get paid for that (and deserve it). Just like you get paid for your actual job.

              • rhabarba@feddit.org
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                1 month ago

                (and deserve it)

                Please enlighten me: how do they deserve to be paid for a non-profit product?

                • Metz@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  How does someone deserve to be paid for work done? Is that your question?

                  Is this some kind of pathetic troll attempt?

                  I will not reward that with further attention.

                  • rhabarba@feddit.org
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                    1 month ago

                    There is exactly no single reason to make this personal. What I meant is that writing a free piece of software does not necessarily have to be paid work. A variety of popular software tools, including a few web browsers, by the way, is written and maintained in the developers’ free time.

                    “Doing stuff” is not the same thing as “doing paid work”.

    • GetOffMyLan@programming.dev
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      1 month ago

      I’m afraid it won’t last long without it. That’s the key problem.

      People hate ads, as do I, but what’s the alternative?

      • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Pay executives less. Focus on grants and PBS-style ‘underwriting’. Subscription services like email and VPN.

        Getting into advertising is just jumping into an intractable conflict of interest.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Ideas:

        • donations - these need to actually go toward Firefox development, they don’t, so I don’t donate
        • paid services (e.g. their white-labeled VPN, they could also white-label Tuta or Proton services)
        • and add-on that pays sites to not see ads (my preference)
        • funding of privacy-oriented startups - they have something like this, so do more of it