[shipscode]

Ok cool but this is the real world and companies need money to stay in business. This open source free internet principle works great, until nobody wants to do the work for free, which is accelerating due to global recession.

Mark my words, by the end of this economic downturn you’ll just be happy that you’re not getting charged for a web browser… if you’re lucky.

[ndriscoll]

In a more reasonable world, web browsers would've been more-or-less done once we had xhtml/xslt and flexbox, and they wouldn't cost $500M/year to maintain. The insanity we have today is largely thanks to the influence of... the ad companies.

[amrocha]

Well no, web technologies have evolved for the better, and browsers enabled that. Security patches have to be shipped. That takes resources to build.

[vor_]

Google makes money, but shareholders believe in a fantasy of infinitely increasing revenue.

[scbzzzzz]

oftopic but. yes, I agree. Software development costs a lot.

but I think you missed something important. The thing is, we are collectively paying for internet-infra through broadband charges/taxes.(we collectively own it). we don't have to subsidize greedy companies making bad decisions with our time/money/privacy.

the business models/decision of the companies is at fault, they made it monetarily free, and when they find they can't make money, rather than fixing the problem with their model, they try to own/charge internet which is not theirs. (drm etc)

I argue otherwise regd economic downturn, if it is not for selfless opensource developers the internet/business we see , will not exist. even many of these so called businesses use their work and make unimaginable pool of profits of their work, with zero concern for society.

[skydhash]

I would be perfectly happy paying for a browser (60% or more of my computing) if it was aligned to my incentive (better extension than safari’s and no third party like pocket)