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Is the Gecko engine the only reason Mozilla still exists? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by TheTwelveYearOld@lemmy.world to c/firefox@lemmy.world

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Most of Mozilla's money of course comes from Google to make them the default search engine on Firefox. And of course its a way for Google to ensure there's at least one alternative browser engine. Reading about how Texeira was recently fired and how executives have been pushing for AI features for a long time, Mozilla certainly loves chasing trends and then forgetting them, like how Google kills lots of products. It seems like the company can't stand on its own two feet without Google's funding and is poorly run.

What happened to Mozilla over the years? How much effort did they put in to trying to be a successful tech company? because it hasn't been until the past few that I really started following Firefox and Mozilla news.

I wonder if Mozilla could've been Proton, years before Proton AG existed, making their own comprehensive suite of privacy-friendly tools, since Mozilla makes privacy their brand. And they were late to the smartphone game with Firefox OS. If they were smart, they would've ensured their long term survival with an actual business, to continue funding development of their privacy and FOSS software like Firefox, without large funding sources like Google.

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[–] Doom4535@lemmy.sdf.org 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I believe Mozilla was heavily involved with the creation of Rust, although that has now been transitioned to the Rust Foundation; not sure if that impacts them and/or what other projects they might have

[–] MrMcGasion@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

This is correct, and along side the Rust development, they also started work on a web renderer, in Rust, called Servo that at one point was considered as a possible future replacement for the Gecko engine. Around the time Rust transitioned to the Rust foundation, Servo was also pretty much abandoned by Mozilla, moved to the Linux Foundation in 2020 and then Linux Foundation Europe in 2023 where it is finally getting some steady development again. There is also some recent progress on building a browser based on Servo, although it will probably be some time before it's ready for daily use.

[–] tal 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Some of the reason that Google makes a lot more money than Mozilla does is also, I think, tied up with some of the reasons that people take issue with Google.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They definitely could've been Proton, but they've just constantly played follow the leader into obscure things like making a new operating system instead of useful products.

Even when they do make something useful, it's normally tied to Firefox in a "you MUST use Firefox" kind of way, which is just so unnecessary.

[–] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

And even if they were what proton is today (a thriving company that is profitable and doesn't rely on VC funding), I think it would still have money problems because of the egoist executives that take huge bonuses