There's always Palemoon [0] (for anyone who likes the classic firefox interface). I've been using it for years (and have donated), plus I like the fact it can be installed just by unpacking a tarball/zip file (as well as the more usual methods).
Thanks, I didn't know that was an even older version version of the same claim. I imagine that's one of the reasons for the developers being tired of the same (incorrect in their view) claims.
The only remaining issue with Palemoon for me is webrtc (which is selectively disabled). For those that value stability (especially on Windows) that's no bad thing (personally, I'm not a fan of being forced to use a specific browser to access some sites). It's like the IE6 days.
I expect if Mozilla made opt-out a paid feature, then all that would happen is that Firefox would be forked without ads, and the general public use Chrome or Edge anyway.
Nobody asked for or wants that. Just let people donate directly to Firefox development, instead of towards a bloated foundation funding millions in exec salaries and project nobody wants.
1 user at $4.16 per month is not going to help, support and develop a competitive browser or search engine.
1mn users paying $4/m is going to be just over $40mn per year. There's no way any company can compete with MS or Google on that revenue stream. Get investors and they will enforce whatever it takes to build revenue = ads.
Get your facts right, FF has 870 million YAUs. You're off by several orders of magnitude.
This whole argument that only ads can save FF is weak and unfounded.
Also I don't want a "competitive browser", I want a simple browser that is customizable and that if needed, developers can run more complex addons on top of it. That is it. I am sure I am not alone in this.
And I most certainly don't want FF to spend money/time on "search engine" features. Let the search engines companies do that.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that FF users are all going to pay? How many free Versus paid users are on Youtube Premium? There are billions of Youtube users I would imagine, certain they are not paying.
>> Also I don't want a "competitive browser", I want a simple browser that is customizable and that if needed, developers can run more complex addons on top of it. That is it. I am sure I am not alone in this.
Get your wallet out, hire some developers, build it, share it. You want a lot and make demands but I don't see how what you said is economically viable.
> You want a lot and make demands but I don't see how what you said is economically viable.
FF _is_ already what I "demand" they just need to stop copying every UX feature of chromium under the ilusion that it will make them "competitive" with Chrome. And they need to stop spending money on all these side projects and focus on the core products FF and TB.
These corporate people need to step aside and stop chasing an impossible goal of FF market share growth. They can never compete with behemoths like Google or Microsoft or Apple. The funding disparity and they way the competition setup mottes and baileys is just not realistic.
Google paying Mozilla for default search engine privilege is just a way for google to go CYA, in case they get into anti-trust litigation ("we even fund the small players"). The moment FF actually make a dent in market share is the moment that Google closes the tap on funding.
The main software design problem Mozilla is facing is their urge to add user hostile anti-feutures. MS and especially Google are way better at those, so why compete on that? It is a losing game ...
[0] http://www.palemoon.org/