Re:Browser-Wars History: MD5-Hashed Posts Declassified
by roca on Sunday January 07, 2018 @04:02PM
(#16092684)
> Their role is to champion a view of the web as an open utility, not to be the most popular widget maker. They don't need bazillions of money to do that.
To maintain Firefox as a viable product they do need a lot of money, and significant market share too.
Without Firefox as a viable product Mozilla would be a very different and much less useful organisation.
Re:Browser-Wars History: MD5-Hashed Posts Declassified
by moz23 on Monday January 08, 2018 @11:55AM
(#16098016)
Inroads on Android? Got data on that? As much as I love Focus, it's irrelevant in terms of marketshare (and it's also just webkit/chrome under the hood). And Firefox for Android marketshare was going down ever since Mozilla shelved developing it. And Firefox for iOS is neutered thanks to Apple's policies.
Re:Browser-Wars History: MD5-Hashed Posts Declassified
by fabrice_d on Sunday January 07, 2018 @04:02PM
(#16092690)
I agree about their role, but they need a strong, successful product to defend this ideal of the web as a open/public utility. That is what they are struggling with, and giving up on owning a platform was a mistake imho - they have less options than their competitors.
> they are still playing catch up on the desktop market
It's not the sort of wave you turn in a month. 57 is a big release, give it time. It had a massive surge of good press, which is a good sign. If they can come up with developer tools that can beat Chrome at something, they will see numbers go up.
> totally irrelevant on mobile.
They are making inroads on Android, which is the only market they will ever play into. iOS will only be cracked open by legal coercion. Anything else is wishful thinking.
> But they have enough money to last years
Mozilla is not just a company, it's basically a public institution. Their role is to champion a view of the web as an open utility, not to be the most popular widget maker. They don't need bazillions of money to do that.