As written, the proposed remedies will force smaller and independent browsers like Firefox to fundamentally reexamine their entire operating model.
“Independent” browsers. Yeah right.
“…threaten the CEO bonus” would be a more exact description .
The remedies are damaging when you build your business on mafia money from Google to enforce their search monopoly.
They didn’t “build” their business model on it so much as “clung desperately onto the only lifeline in existence to avoid drowning in debt”.
There really isn’t a plan b, it’s not like they’re refusing to switch to the obviously better business models out there that could replace their search money. There just aren’t many business models that can maintain the development costs of a web browser and engine.
Mozilla could solicit donations for the development of Firefox while also still being able to rely on commercial funding sources if they restructured the Firefox project so that the core technologies underlying it (stuff like Gecko and SpiderMonkey) were actually developed by the Foundation instead of the Corporation, while the Corporation could package all of those pieces together into a complete software product with branding. The way things are now, though the entire browser is developed by the Mozilla Corporation and so its development can only be financially supported by Mozilla Corporation selling products or engaging in business deals.
But the article says they used Yahoo once! (When, I assume, Yahoo outbid Google.)
I agree we need an independent browser, but right now Firefox is about as independent as my cat, and they’re both a bit deluded into thinking that’s not the case.
The first thing that I have to ask: do we need Firefox-the-business providing Firefox-the-browser, or are they just dragging around a lot of Google-induced baggage that’s otherwise worthless.
I have a strong feeling on that one, but hey.
Speaking as an engineer doing a lot of web dev, I think people underestimate how much work Mozilla does in standards and low-level shared API’s via w3c and others, and how important it is that google isn’t the only one in there making decisions. Most w3c standards decisions are made with google, Mozilla, Microsoft, and apple representatives in committees, and as we know, two of those are much more aligned in their own best interests these days, while one kinda wishes mobile web browsing didn’t exist.
Would we have a better browser with less Mozilla baggage? Possibly.
Would the web standards that make everything work be better off without Mozilla? No, absolutely not.
Safari’s team does what they can within Apple’s bullshit intentional deprioritization of anything that could compete with the App Store, Edge’s team has brought some sanity to the chromium side and toned back some of Google’s wilder standards proposals and intentions. The fact that there are now 0 legitimate reasons for a website to “only work in chrome” (aside from some mobile safari things still) nowadays is all the stuff behind the scenes that matters. Even google is doing less FAFO shipping features and not caring about what other browsers need.
That said, maybe a disruptions is needed to a new paradigm could step in. Maybe a Mozilla Foundation placed under other ownership with a narrowed focus.
In the Linux space, the massive investments that GNOME, KDE, and others have been able to garner the last few years from governments and interested organizations is promising. There could be a similar interest in a web-focused org that could champion things without the Mozilla baggage and intent to avoid the same fate.
underestimate how much work Mozilla does in standards and low-level shared API’s via w3c
Oh, I didn’t mean to disparage the work they do: I know it’s important and extensive. I’ve been a Firefox user since, well, it was called Netscape. It’s a critical piece of software.
I was mostly just rolling my eyes at the sheer panic they’re having with the only funding source they’ve bothered to cultivate going away, along with the fact that a good portion of that money is spent on things that aren’t the browser, and frankly, don’t bring a lot of value to the table or matter in the slightest.
Dumping the Corporation baggage and making the Foundation strongly independent makes a lot more sense than begging to let Google keep paying them, which seems to be their approach, at least based on that open letter.
Regulators: “There’s this thing called the web…”
Google: “Yeah, we own it”
Apple: “We kind of hate it”
Firefox: “Can I just have some money?”
Microsoft: “We already know what you’re gonna say”
Regulators: “See, that’s the whole problem…”
I’m going to take a risk and state a move of the foundation headquarters to EU soil would make things easier and create new opportunities. Things won’t get easier with dealing with any level of american government from this point forward.
