this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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124
Mozilla 2023 Annual Report: CEO pay skyrockets, while Firefox Marketshare nosedives (lunduke.locals.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology
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[–] TheGrandNagus 233 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

A significant portion of this blog post is complaining about Mozilla's repeated attempts to find new revenue streams that aren't Firefox (i.e Google or Microsoft paying them to be the default search provider). It's a sentiment I see a lot and I just don't get it.

They say Google paying to be the default search provider being a bad thing and it makes Mozilla too reliant on an evil company, and yet when Mozilla says "yeah, we hear ya, that's why we're trying to find stuff to diversify into so we can become less reliant on Google" people cry and shout "you should be sticking to Firefox, why aren't you focussing on Firefox??"

Like, which is it? Do you want Mozilla to diversify and have a more sustainable revenue stream, or do you want them to focus on Firefox and commit to reliance on Google? Because maintaining a project as big as Firefox without any funding simply isn't possible, and people aren't going back to paying for web browsers.

What these people want is not at all realistic. Devs want to be paid for their work. They can't have that if Mozilla follows idiots like Lunduke's "don't take money from Google, but also don't do anything that will make money. Only do Firefox."

I've yet to see a single one of these people offer any alternative that comes even remotely close to being feasible.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'm okay with Mozilla trying to diversify their source of incomes, as long as it's focused on privacy. Firefox Relay is a great example of a paid service that helps preserving some privacy and I gladly pay for it.

I hope they'll make more privacy-focused optional services like that. If it helps paying for Firefox continued development while detaching from Google then it's a good idea.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

They've got some pretty interesting stuff in the pipeline, like container tabs optionally being hooked up to their own independent Mozilla VPN connection.

IMO I think they're going to go all in eventually offering a kind of "privacy ecosystem" similar to Proton

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

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[–] sailingbythelee 33 points 10 months ago

Good comment. I like the fact that Mozilla is branching out into Relay and VPN as subscription services. I've got to pay someone for VPN, after all, and email masking looks interesting. If the revenue from those kinds of useful subscriptions helps to sustain Firefox and it's derivatives, so much the better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They get roughly as much in donations as they spend on ff dev. They get a LOT more from google, that they spend on... bs.

https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4387539/firefox-money-investigating-the-bizarre-finances-of-mozilla

[–] TheGrandNagus 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Of course they spend it on more than just Firefox. What part of "we're trying to diversify" don't you understand?

And I'm sorry, Lunduke is not a trustable source. He went seriously off the deep end years ago.

From a great Linux content creator to a crazed Qanon, COVID conspiracy anti-vaxx nut trying to pedal all kinds of nonsense, who loves to shit on LGBT Linux devs. I really don't know what the hell happened to him.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It is hard to draw conclusions without knowing much facts. How much is needed and how much is got.

[–] [email protected] 109 points 10 months ago (2 children)

How do rambling blog articles full of terrible assumptions and analysis like this get posted? Is there an alternative technology community I could sub to that cares about quality content?

[–] EatYouWell 34 points 10 months ago

Amen. It would be nice to have posts on actual technology instead of business/financial news about technology companies, or what shitty CEOs are doing in their personal lives.

[–] LifeInOregon 27 points 10 months ago

This is why I block users who share garbage after the first few times I notice it. For example, this will be the last post I see from OP.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Firefox Marketshare nosedives

That can’t be true, literally everyone on the Fediverse uses Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is for the year 2022. The reddit migration was 2023.

Also the fediverse is less than 0.1% of social media market share.

[–] EatYouWell 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The fediverse is not anywhere near large enough to stabilize those numbers.

[–] Gigan 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think they were being sarcastic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

No no, the internet is serious business, so I’m always 100% sincere at all times.

[–] EatYouWell 1 points 10 months ago

Fair enough. I wasn't sure since people had the mindset that the number of users moving to Lemmy were enough to take down reddit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

I think the joke is that not many people use the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

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[–] psychothumbs 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

This is the real problem with these Silicon Valley fads like crypto and AI - they cause idiot tech executives to disinvest in their worthwhile products in an attempt to get on the bandwagon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

You mean you don't see the synergy between Firefox and an AI landing page generator? /s

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to have the same kind of bonuses when I don't meet my KPIs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's KPIs?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Key Performance Indexes, used mainly in performance reviews.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’ll never understand how someone can get paid like that. If Mozilla was destroying the opposition, I’d get it though.

[–] monkeyslikebananas2 13 points 10 months ago

They have to pay that much to attract talent! The same talent that destroyed the other companies they worked for.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Okay, so, good news for the CEO, but terrible news for the Internet as a whole. Awesome.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

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