What’s stopping web standards from being made simple or unchanging enough for a smaller project to maintain a functional web browser?
Maintaining a web browser is an intensely cost and time prohibitive endeavor, especially nowadays. The FOSS community can maintain a lot of things but the sheer scale of Firefox, the need for expertise, the necessary labor, it just can’t be done by volunteers and donations. They have to get a cash infusion from somewhere.
I don’t like it anymore than you do but ultimately the issue isn’t Mozilla, it’s the state of the technology market. Silicon Valley is no place for a non-profit organization right now, no matter how much we need it.
What we need is regulations and anti-trust, but even that may not truly save us.
They need money. That’s it. That’s the long and short of it.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 10 months ago
At this point the web is about as complex as an operating system in terms of complexity. That needs really strong specific standards in order for it to work, and in turn projects like web browsers are huge and complex.
If someone wanted to build a web browser that only followed the simpler parts of the specifications, it wouldn’t work for many websites* and people would not use that browser.
*Whether or not sites need to be so complex is another question entirely, but the reality right now is that they are
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Occasionally when I do web stuff I look into the big frameworks but quickly get overwhelmed and go back to simple html/css/js, so yeah I kind of just don’t get what the point is or why anyone needs or wants complexity there. Large websites always do most stuff serverside anyway it seems, so where is this complexity even getting used? Suspect Google etc. are pushing stuff no one needs in this regard as well to move the web towards something only they can handle.
dan@upvote.au 10 months ago
simple html/css/js,
There’s a very large number of DOM and browser APIs now though… Even with basic JS without libraries or frameworks, you can still build fancy 2D and 3D graphics (WebGL), interact with USB devices, allow input via game controllers, stream H264 video, implement custom caching, use push notifications, and a bunch of other things. The web browser has to implement all of that complexity.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This seems like a reasonable and insightful take. Is there a way a non-profit could still survive in silicon valley? For ex, IETF isn’t a profit focused organization.
Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
I’m not sure if this qualifies exactly but the FOSS 3D package Blender has been surviving for quite some time. They’re in Amsterdam, not silicon valley, but they seem to do really well off primarily donations and funding from some big companies.
IAm_A_Complete_Idiot@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I think the key there is funding from big companies. There’s tons of standards and the like in which big companies take part - both in terms of code and financial support. Big projects like the rust compiler, the Linux kernel, blender, etc. all seem to have a lot of code and money coming in from big companies. Sadly there’s only so much you can get from individuals - pretty much the only success story I know of is the wikimedia foundation.
Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
I may be wrong but I thought they were majority user funded.
valen@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If you’re interested in donating, go to foundation.mozilla.org/en/?form=donate
Matt@lemdro.id 10 months ago
Those donations cannot be used for Firefox development due to the structure of Mozilla.
Midnitte@kbin.social 10 months ago
I'm not entirely sure that's true. The money goes to Mozilla and Mozilla will use it to fund Firefox (and other projects). It seems to work exactly how one would expect it to work - you just can't donate directly to a project such as Firefox.
There are limits to how much money they can move to projects due to their structure as a 501(c)3, (but all of their projects are towards an open web) so maybe not all of the funding goes to Firefox, but it still does go to Firefox.
Matt@lemdro.id 10 months ago
Firefox is part of the for-profit Mozilla Corporation. Donations go to the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. Even though Mozilla Corporation is owned by Mozilla Foundation, donations cannot be transferred to it since it is still legally a for-profit business. The funds donated to Mozilla Foundation are used for advocacy work.
Zana@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I get paid next week and will definitely be donating, thank you for the link!