While I do agree that their focus should absolutely be on the browser, I do actually really like that they offer a paid Wireguard-based VPN with endpoints in dozens of countries. I think that makes sense for them, given their mission and everything, and actually gives them a revenue source.

If Mozilla loses the Google revenue, it'll have to do more other stuff if it's to have any hope of being able to subsidise Firefox development though.

This you?

Personally I hope firefox dies as fast as possible so we see some focus on good alternatives.

Gecko is not a good platform, there is a reason why people who use geckoview eventually all migrate away from it, the most recent example I can think of is wolvic, which hasn't replaced geckoview yet, but does have the version 1.0 of a chromium release now.

The sooner we get real alternatives to chromium and stop pretending that gecko is one the better. Currently servo is progressing really fast, has good APIs and usability for both a full desktop browser and embedded usecases (but still very immature).

I see this sentiment sometimes, but just like with the US Federal government, everyone thinks that what everyone else is working on is superfluous.

It's easy to say generally "there's all this wasted money".

Yeah? Where?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/foundation/annualreport/2024/

I really am curious. I'm not a fan of AI, so I would agree that those seem superfluous -- but at the same time, the AI based image summarizer actually sounds cool - and good for accessibility. The translation service is VERY useful, and it is amazing that it runs locally.

So yeah, I'm curious. What is junk?

What would "selling Chrome" even entail? The vast majority of Chrome's source code is free and open source software, i.e. it has no owners. Does the US government want Google's developers of the Chromium codebase to work on another company's payroll instead? Do they want Google to be prohibited from distributing a browser based on the Chromium codebase? Have they given any of this any thought at all?

Yes, but we're yelling years and years into the future, if ever, so let's keep our eyes on the ball in the meantime.

Especially since it's built using Rust (which Mozilla created, and laid off all of the developers).

Would be sort of poetic

servo is an absolute gem, easy to contribute to, easy to work on, devs are super helpful, compiling doesn't take ages nor does it kill my SSD. an absolute gem.

Tbf, Mozilla donations don't go to Firefox.

Firefox is maintained by the Mozilla Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. While Firefox does produce revenue — chiefly through search partnerships — this earned income is largely reinvested back into the Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation’s education and advocacy efforts, which span several continents and reach millions of people, are supported by philanthropic donations. - Source