Firefox

The only reason Mozilla still exists is because Google needs them to so Chrome can't be a complete monopoly.

Their priorities have always been... questionnable. Like, we got FirefoxOS all while Firefox was basically unusable on Android and Chrome rapidly eating their lunch, PWA support was abandonned then removed, which was the whole idea behind FirefoxOS... Then they started Servo, the rewrite of the rendering in Rust only to cancel it midway.

But hey they acquired an ad company, as if people don't use Firefox so uBlock keeps working. And Pocket, and VPNs and a whole bunch of other crapware nobody wants from Mozilla. It's like they go out of their way to be the second option.

Well... I'd rather say It's the only reason why we still care about Mozilla and put up with their crap :)

I wonder if Mozilla could've been Proton

I wonder if Proton will someday in the future add a browser to the tools they offer.

Gecko is the main reason Mozilla is important.

I'd say Proton has become Mozilla more than the other way around, now that they're also a non-profit. Mozilla does have its own set of privacy-related tools (Firefox Relay, Mozilla Monitor, Mozilla VPN, ...), but not all of them have been successful, and some have been discontinued (e.g. the password manager). All of those were/are certainly attempts to reduce the dependence on Google money.

Does anyone else wonder where all this recent FUD about Firefox's funding is actually coming from? No offense meant, but this really doesn't seem natural to me.

Firefox's funding has been this way for well over a decade. Why does it only suddenly matter now, when Google is under a lot of fire politically and making a lot of anti-consumer moves in rapid succession?

Maybe there's a ton of people who truly weren't aware of this, but I really have to ask what the motivation is behind the tech news outlets suddenly talking about this all again. It's not new information. It really doesn't qualify as news.

Firefox has been more or less doing fine for multiple decades now, regardless of the main source of their finances. While I don't agree with their continued fad chasing, I have no concerns about the longevity or trustworthyness of their core "product", the browser. I'm even less concerned when I consider the large, diverse, and healthy community of forks surrounding it.

Edit:

More to the topic: Gecko is why Firefox is important. More specifically, the fact that it uses a unique underlying engine. Doesn't matter what they call it, just that there is an open source web browser engine that exists at feature parity with commericial and closed source browsers.

More edit:

As far as Mozilla's decisions making sense in terms as a business, I really could care less. To me, Mozilla's existence is to ensure continued adequate funding for Firefox development and maintenance.

Any further pursuits in the realm of things that would be good for open source software and privacy are important but secondary to keeping their primary product, the browser, alive.

It's also vitally important to note that Google has a basic business contract in which they pay Mozilla to make Google the default search engine in Firefox. That is it. They don't own Mozilla or Firefox, have any direct seat on the board, or have any postion with them involving decision making or influencing. No one knows what happens behind closed doors, but there has never been any quantifiable reason to believe that Google is pulling Firefox's strings.

like how Google kills lots of products

Mozilla also loves killing things. https://killedbymozilla.com/

It's pretty much the only reason I use it. If Gecko disappeared, I'd probably go to Brave, because they're the next most interesting privacy-oriented browser. But I doubt that'll happen because Tor Browser still uses it, so there's a very good chance someone else would take over Gecko development if Mozilla stopped.

Mozilla also has a VPN, so that should provide some revenue. Might not be enough to let go of Google’s support, but at least it’s something.