[I work for Mozilla; but don't represent them of course]

On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 at 14:37, axel simon <[email protected]> wrote:
> Regarding Firefox vs. Chrome, Firefox has been the only browser (with any 
> relevant market share) that isn't the product of a for profit company for a 
> while. While Mozilla have made questionable descisions at time (and outright 
> mistakes at others), that alone should be a strong argument to consider where 
> one gets their browser from.

Our mis-steps are often and painful - at least a few every year. But
everyone's support - and constructive feedback - when we make them is
what helps keep the ship on course. And of course actual users
engaging with our browser and our service suite [0] keeps the ship
sailing.

[0] We are investing more in the suite of related services via a 'Join
Firefox campaign': https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/join-firefox/

If you have gripes about Firefox; want to raise an issue or ask after
the status of it - I can't promise I can make your desire happen but I
can at least listen and pass it along. And if you're inclined to try
to write a patch yourself I can try to mentor you or find you one.

> I recall reading a statement in an article around Chrome's release about 10 
> years ago by then-CEO Eric Schmidt explaining that at the end of the day, if 
> you want to be able to really control and see what users are doing, you need 
> your own browser. This was when people couldn't quite understand why Google 
> would build its own browser when Firefox had manage to end the Internet 
> Explorer dead lock and they had a good relationship.
> That passage really stayed with me (and if anyone were to find it, I'd be 
> very greatful, I can't seem to do so).
>
> So yes, it's not that surprising that, when push comes to shove, the 
> engineering teams working on Chrome have to bow to the business priorities of 
> Google, the world's (more or less) biggest advertisement company.

A similar reason is why I joined Mozilla. I have lots of friends at
Google and Facebook and all they do all day is working to make the
internet a better place. But the mechanism that enables them to do so
often does not make the internet a better place.

-tom

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