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rdm_blackholelast Tuesday at 7:33 PM2 repliesview on HN

I think you are comparing apples to oranges here. Linux is made of many distros, each one with their own strong points and features. Many different maintainers matain them. There is no single point of funding for them.

Mozilla on the other hand makes basically one semi well-known product (and other even less known stuff) and gives it away for free.

If tomorrow Google pulls the plug, who will pay for the salaries of the engineers who maintain Firefox? The general public does not care if Firefox lives or dies. In my circle of friends and family, I am the only one who uses Firefox. Most people are on Chrome or Brave. That's it.

Someone in the comments above mentioned that Mozilla could release a paid version for Enterprise customers, imitating Red Hat in a way, but I am highly skeptical that Enterprise customers in times such as these will be willing to pay for something that they can get for free from Google or Microsoft.

I guess we will have to wait and see.


Replies

Seattle3503last Tuesday at 11:00 PM

> I am highly skeptical that Enterprise customers in times such as these will be willing to pay for something that they can get for free from Google or Microsoft.

They would have to build a better enterprise offering. Companies like Chrome because can use Google as their IDP, and when their employees log in with their company account the company can push certs and security politicies to their Chrome install.

Firefox doesn't have that level of integration with Google security services.

rolphlast Wednesday at 2:33 AM

1) Linux is made of many distros, each one with their own strong points and features. Many different maintainers matain them. There is no single point of funding for them.

2) Mozilla on the other hand makes basically one semi well-known product.

the way i see it mozilla has one thing to do, and didnt do it very well.

the linux GNU gang has a mountain to contend with and has has moved a mountain.

so what would be the secret sauce that mozilla doesnt have.