So a lawsuit against Google will end up killing Firefox?
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
64 points (100.0% liked)
Firefox
5 readers
2 users here now
The latest news and developments on Firefox and Mozilla, a global non-profit that strives to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the web.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Related
- Firefox Customs: !FirefoxCSS@fedia.io
- Thunderbird: !Thunderbird@fedia.io
Rules
While we are not an official Mozilla community, we have adopted the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines as far as it can be applied to a bin.
Rules
-
Always be civil and respectful
Don't be toxic, hostile, or a troll, especially towards Mozilla employees. This includes gratuitous use of profanity. -
Don't be a bigot
No form of bigotry will be tolerated. -
Don't post security compromising suggestions
If you do, include an obvious and clear warning. -
Don't post conspiracy theories
Especially ones about nefarious intentions or funding. If you're concerned: Ask. Please don’t fuel conspiracy thinking here. Don’t try to spread FUD, especially against reliable privacy-enhancing software. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Show credible sources. -
Don't accuse others of shilling
Send honest concerns to the moderators and/or admins, and we will investigate. -
Do not remove your help posts after they receive replies
Half the point of asking questions in a public sub is so that everyone can benefit from the answers—which is impossible if you go deleting everything behind yourself once you've gotten yours.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
@superkret weirdly, yeah. Firefox gets the majority of its money from Google paying to be the default browser. If they're banned from doing that, a lot of browsers will see a big drop in funding.
And Chrome too. I don't really see how either of those can be viable without that search engine money.
If happens, it will start a clock ticking for Firefox to replace that income or shrink to a sustainable staff size before their money runs out.
Would Apple be banned from funding Firefox by this?
Why would Apple fund Firefox? Not for the kindness of their heart, that's for sure. I can see Microsoft/bing replacing google though.
For the same reason as Google, to be the default search engine.
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/07/will-apple-build-a-search-engine/
Note that it's not "will have to be" sold off, it's that the demand is for that to happen. The case still has to play out (including appeals) before we know what the actual consequences will be.
This is going to be very interesting. Not getting that sweet Google money anymore will Mozilla a) finally concentrate on making a good browser or b) enshittify all the things! I really wonder if it would possible for the community to maintain a fork when Mozilla implodes. It seems to be working for Thunderbird but E-Mail is probably a lot less complicated than keeping up with a gazillion webstandards pushed by thousands of Chrome engineers.
@jlow@beehaw.org
@hazz223@mstdn.social Hopefully Chrome can't do much better. Also hopefully Apple continues to make Safari good, but rejects adding more standards in general (a few might be good, but not too many)
@jlow if the Google funding dropped out, I really don't know how tenable it would be to keep the Gecko engine working / with pace with Chromium etc.
Ironic that this is to help competition, when really it'll probably end it.
That would be just awful, I cant really believe that is going to happen. I'd think it end up maybe be a browser for "just" browsing websites and you'd need a Chrom(ium) based one (or - like back the day! - specialised programs!) for fancy stuff like videocalling, DRM video playback, docs, chat and whatever else you do in the browser nowadays. Which would be awful as well but ...
What about operating systems? Apple sells out their users to Google in the same way for billions of dollars a year.
@zoostation good question. Though in Apples case, they're probably fine. They make a tonne of cash, and have a pile of it 😅