[pasc1878]

True but Firefox is mainly written by people who want to earn a living.

Much FOSS is actually written by people who are being paid to do it,

How do you fund the producers of Firefox and the infrastructure needed to get it built and released. Currently the only way is that the sellers of the adverts you read give money to fund Firefox.

Now if you paid for Firefox then they don't need to get money from advertisers.

Similarly to get ad free webpages you need to pay the authors.

[mzajc]

> Currently the only way is that the sellers of the adverts you read give money to fund Firefox.

According to Wikipedia[1], most of Mozilla is funded by Google, for setting them as the default search engine, rather than by more conventional advertisers.

On a more personal note, I'd prefer if that money went towards improving their FOSS offering instead of giving the now-former CEO a $7M bonus[2], acquiring advertising businesses [3][4], and littering Firefox with these anti-features.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Google

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker

[3]: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-anonym-raising-t...

[4]: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/pocket/

[wkat4242]

Yeah I think the biggest problem is that Mozilla was made a corporation, and as such has corporative aspirations and mindset. It would have been much better if it had remained just a foundation.

[eesmith]

As I understand it, it is impossible for me to fund specifically Firefox development. I can donate to the Mozilla Foundation, which means a portion will go to, for example, "$30M to build Mozilla.ai", which I emphatically do not want to fund.

Given the firehose of money from Google, how much contributor money from people like me would be needed before Mozilla changes their mind? From my viewpoint, they've built their foundation to expect that firehose, and they don't think user funding is enough - they really want that juicy advertising money instead.

Of the $220M spent in software development in 2023, how much specifically went to Firefox development, vs. the other projects they have?

How much did they pay for Anonym, and how much to integrate Anonym into their systems?

If 5% of my funding goes to 'the producers of Firefox and the infrastructure needed to get it built and released' and 95% goes to crap that make things worse for me, then I'm better off funding something like the Tor browser or variants like the Mullvad browser, where my funding is more directed toward improving my personal privacy.

I'll let them figure out what things to disable so I don't have to watch the release notes with a keen eye every time I update.

[ndriscoll]

It's not just impossible for you to specifically fund Firefox. From what I understand, Mozilla Foundation money does not go to Mozilla Corporation/Firefox at all. You cannot donate to it at all, and your donations only go to those things you don't want to fund.

[freeAgent]

Your understanding is accurate. Donations to Mozilla cannot legally be used for Firefox development because your donations are tax-deductible due to Mozilla being a charity and Firefox development is done by a for-profit corporation.

[tgvaughan]

Of course Mozilla employees deserve to be paid. Are you really saying the only way to ensure this happens is for them to sell the software or sell ads? (I write GPL-licensed software for a living and manage somehow to get paid. I also write some for free because I find it fun.) Further, Mozilla positions itself as a member of the free software community and as acting in the interests of its users.

[ndriscoll]

Perhaps they should consider accepting money from their users then?

Wikipedia doesn't fund itself by spying on you and selling the data. They ask for money.

[pasc1878]

Yes although given current user behaviour and expectations I doubt they would make enough money to continue.

If even a Microsoft Executive is saying that anything on the web can be freely copied then what does a normal user think.

[ndriscoll]

They're a charitable nonprofit, and the Mozilla license is one of the more permissive ones; they're fine with you freely sharing their work.

They currently already get 7M/year in donations for no purpose. I imagine they'd get a lot more if that money would fund Firefox, and how many core/paid developers do they really need if they have people that know that they're doing?

[account42]

Mozilla also doesn't have to operate out of one of the most expensive cities in the world. And no, they don't have to be there to attract competent developers either.

[prepend]

> True but Firefox is mainly written by people who want to earn a living.

Not, originally. Wasn’t Brandon Eich like 17 or something when he rewrote Firefox?

And lots of people put out ad-free web content for free. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, just check out all the blogs and whatnot from HN profiles. Very few people with ads or even making money off their pages.

Ads are one way to get content. Not the only way.