8 ms·

It is in their business interest to ignore Firefox.

by fg137 20d ago

fl4regun 20d ago
Then they aren't doing a very good job of it. >Firefox makes up about 90 percent of Mozilla’s revenue, according to Muhlheim, the finance chief for the organization’s for-profit arm — which in turn helps fund the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. About 85 percent of that revenue comes from its deal with Google, he added. https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-revenue-share-doj-antitrust-remedies https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-r...
- jorl17 20d ago
  What people usually say is that Google merely wants Firefox to survive for anti-competitive reasons. Presumably that does not necessitate it actually being used (or be usable).
sva_ 20d ago
Hot take: Google keeps Mozilla/Firefox alive through the default search engine placement (which makes Mozilla millions each year) so they don't get designated as a monopoly with their browser.
- BbzzbB 20d ago
  That's lukewarm at most, doubt you'll find many people disagreeing here!
- Vinnl 20d ago
  And of course they're doing the same for Apple/Safari, which wouldn't survive without the $20 million default search engine placement deal.
  - oblio 20d ago
    > And of course they're doing the same for Apple/Safari, which wouldn't survive without the $20 million default search engine placement deal. Billion with a B, as in 10 zeroes, not 7.
    - Vinnl 17d ago
      Oops sorry, too late to edit, but you're correct!
  - sva_ 20d ago
    Apple forcing users to use their own browser/browsing engine doesn't disprove my argument IMO, virtually nobody outside the apple ecosystem uses Safari, and outside the apple ecosystem is something between 80-90% of internet users.
    - Vinnl 17d ago
      I wasn't saying that Apple is just as monopolistic as Google; I was saying that Google is paying Apple orders of magnitude more than it is paying Mozilla. According to your argument, that would mean that Google is trying to keep Apple/Safari alive (which of course is absurd - Apple doesn't need that money to stay alive).
- static_motion 20d ago
  That's not a hot take, that's just factual.
WarmWash 20d ago
Google is so internally fractured, and the factions individually are so powerful, that it's really only the chrome people who care about chrome. If anything FF gets left out because usage is so low.
- oblio 20d ago
  > If anything FF gets left out because usage is so low. I've been following this for a long time. They were leaving Firefox out when its usage wasn't low. Probably the typical backdoor executive mandate that led to death by "sprint prioritization": Yes, we will for sure work on the Firefox compatibility bug, Dave-Open-Source-Enthusiast-Google-Dev. But we can only pick up 10 bugfixing tickets this sprint and the ticket you highlighted, as the entire team agrees, is priority #12. <repeat every sprint, where during the sprint 9-10 new higher priority items magically appear just in time for the next sprint> Death by slow asphyxiation.
  - mattlondon 20d ago
    I heard that Firefox is banned internally at Google (something-something-security) so Devs can't even test against firefox
    - tvst 20d ago
      Not true -- at least up to 2018 when I worked there.
      - mattlondon 20d ago
        What I heard was more recent than 8 years ago, more like 6-12 months ago
      - deleted 20d ago
        [deleted]

It is in their business interest to ignore Firefox.

by fg137 20d ago

It is in their business interest to ignore Firefox.

Then they aren't doing a very good job of it. >Firefox makes up about 90 percent of Mozilla’s revenue, according to Muhlheim, the finance chief for the organization’s for-profit arm — which in turn helps fund the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. About 85 percent of that revenue comes from its deal with Google, he added. https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-revenue-share-doj-antitrust-remedies https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-r...

jorl17 20d ago
What people usually say is that Google merely wants Firefox to survive for anti-competitive reasons. Presumably that does not necessitate it actually being used (or be usable).

sva_ 20d ago

Hot take: Google keeps Mozilla/Firefox alive through the default search engine placement (which makes Mozilla millions each year) so they don't get designated as a monopoly with their browser.

BbzzbB 20d ago
That's lukewarm at most, doubt you'll find many people disagreeing here!
Vinnl 20d ago
And of course they're doing the same for Apple/Safari, which wouldn't survive without the $20 million default search engine placement deal.
- oblio 20d ago
  > And of course they're doing the same for Apple/Safari, which wouldn't survive without the $20 million default search engine placement deal. Billion with a B, as in 10 zeroes, not 7.
  - Vinnl 17d ago
    Oops sorry, too late to edit, but you're correct!
- sva_ 20d ago
  Apple forcing users to use their own browser/browsing engine doesn't disprove my argument IMO, virtually nobody outside the apple ecosystem uses Safari, and outside the apple ecosystem is something between 80-90% of internet users.
  - Vinnl 17d ago
    I wasn't saying that Apple is just as monopolistic as Google; I was saying that Google is paying Apple orders of magnitude more than it is paying Mozilla. According to your argument, that would mean that Google is trying to keep Apple/Safari alive (which of course is absurd - Apple doesn't need that money to stay alive).
static_motion 20d ago
That's not a hot take, that's just factual.

WarmWash 20d ago

Google is so internally fractured, and the factions individually are so powerful, that it's really only the chrome people who care about chrome. If anything FF gets left out because usage is so low.

oblio 20d ago
> If anything FF gets left out because usage is so low. I've been following this for a long time. They were leaving Firefox out when its usage wasn't low. Probably the typical backdoor executive mandate that led to death by "sprint prioritization": Yes, we will for sure work on the Firefox compatibility bug, Dave-Open-Source-Enthusiast-Google-Dev. But we can only pick up 10 bugfixing tickets this sprint and the ticket you highlighted, as the entire team agrees, is priority #12. <repeat every sprint, where during the sprint 9-10 new higher priority items magically appear just in time for the next sprint> Death by slow asphyxiation.
- mattlondon 20d ago
  I heard that Firefox is banned internally at Google (something-something-security) so Devs can't even test against firefox
  - tvst 20d ago
    Not true -- at least up to 2018 when I worked there.
    - mattlondon 20d ago
      What I heard was more recent than 8 years ago, more like 6-12 months ago
    - deleted 20d ago
      [deleted]