• Redex@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Ok sure, what do you want them to do instead then? 80% of their income is reliant on a tech giant’s grace and is seemingly more and more likely to be cutoff soon. They need to survive somehow, and every monetised service they tried flopped thusfar.

    • doleo@lemmy.one
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      1 month ago

      How about not have a multi-million-dollar-costing CEO? Seems a bit rich (pun intended) for a supposed non-profit org.

      • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Yeah I’m not defending that but CEO pay only rounds to like 1% of their total expenditures. Developing a browser is expensive.

        • doleo@lemmy.one
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          1 month ago

          only 1%? That’s about on par with a fortune 500 company, which supposedly Mozilla is not.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Ideas:

      • directly ask for donations, and actually use those donations to fund browser development
      • build an add-on to pay sites instead of seeing ads - Mozilla could take a cut here
      • push harder on existing, optional add-ons that generate revenue, like their VPN

      But the article here reads like, “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas. Have ads…”

    • rhabarba@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      What makes you think that developing a free web browser needs to grant anyone any income?

      • Metz@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Do you think developers don’t have to eat? or pay rent? And donations alone do not cut it.

        • rhabarba@feddit.org
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          1 month ago

          Being a developer myself (with no ads in his software), I don’t think you understand my point. The software I write in my free time does not pay my bills. That’s why I also have an actual job.

          • Metz@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            You are aware that there are full-time developers working at Mozilla, yes? Developing a browser is not a hobby-project that you can pull off with some volunteers in their free time. You need professionals that work on such a giant project with their full attention.

            Developing Firefox is their job. And of course they want to get paid for that (and deserve it). Just like you get paid for your actual job.

            • rhabarba@feddit.org
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              1 month ago

              (and deserve it)

              Please enlighten me: how do they deserve to be paid for a non-profit product?

              • Metz@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                How does someone deserve to be paid for work done? Is that your question?

                Is this some kind of pathetic troll attempt?

                I will not reward that with further attention.

                • rhabarba@feddit.org
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                  1 month ago

                  There is exactly no single reason to make this personal. What I meant is that writing a free piece of software does not necessarily have to be paid work. A variety of popular software tools, including a few web browsers, by the way, is written and maintained in the developers’ free time.

                  “Doing stuff” is not the same thing as “doing paid work”.

                  • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
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                    1 month ago

                    You simply cannot have a project the size of firefox without paid employees, why do you think chromium, webkit and gecko are the only three webengines

                  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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                    1 month ago

                    What’s making it personal?

                    Stop being a sophist, you’ll have more meaningful conversations.

              • abbenm@lemmy.ml
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                1 month ago

                Non-profit doesn’t mean that there’s no employees. They’re still organizations that have a cash flow, seek to raise funds, and employ people to serve their mission. Most non-profits have paid employees.