Comment on Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, their read-it-later and content discovery app, and Fakespot, their browser extension that analyzes the authenticity of online product reviews.

2910000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Nobody is paying a subscription to use a browser they can get for free.

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  • 2910000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Enough internet users are familiar with the adage “if a product is free, you are the product”, through personal experience

    I’d be OK with paying for Firefox if it meant that it was stripped of all association with advertisers. And presumably, if Mozilla were freed from that association, they’d be able to make a stronger case for how they’re protecting a free internet

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    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Maybe you would. The vast vast majority wouldn’t.

      Not many people care about privacy from big tech, and those that do probably know what FOSS is and would know that they can trivially get Firefox for free.

      I also doubt that Mozilla could get the hundreds of millions per year that they need to maintain a modern web browser engine, keep up to date on security, etc.

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      • 2910000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        This story marks the loss of another revenue stream for Mozilla. Their business is increasingly reliant on Google’s search deal for money, and if that money stops, they’ll have to face that same reckoning. For example, they won’t be able to afford paying their CEO millions of dollars a year any more.

        I think they should start repositioning themselves now as an activist organisation that is fighting corporate interests trying to control the internet. If they can do that, I think a lot of people would pay to use Firefox

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  • TonyOstrich@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Patreon and Wikipedia are things people pay for that they can get for free. I have long wanted a way to directly find Firefox development and sustainability.

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    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Wikipedia has a far wider reach, doesn’t have competitors in quite the same way Mozilla does, and needs far less money than Mozilla.

      It takes hundreds of millions every year to maintain a modern web engine, have top-tier security, etc. It’s harder than maintaining an OS, even.

      I just don’t see enough people getting in on that.

      You mention Patreon. Alright, let’s go with that. The largest Patreon project by far earns less than $3m per year. Mozilla would need probably 150x that.

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