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
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 10 hours 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.