Oh, come on, this is a pure conspiracy theory with zero logic behind it. The difference in Google's implementation is something almost certainly too small for Google to care about one way or the other, and easily accounted for by someone forgetting to update a small part of the code from draft 13 to draft 14. There is no reason to believe Firefox would "fold", rather than waiting for Google to fix it, and disabling HTTP2 in the meantime [possibly only for Google] if it hasn't been fixed by the time the stable release is supposed to occur. And Google has, in fact, confirmed that they will fix it:
Google directly funds the Mozilla foundation with about 300 million USD per year. If Google wanted to see firefox fall they have a very direct way of achieving it.
Not true - they don't pay this money out of charity. I am guessing other companies with interest in having a leading search engine (MS and Yahoo primarily, but also Apple, Amazon,...) would probably be happy to take Google's place if they backed out (maybe not for the same amount though).
Re:HTTP/2 interop pains
by cookiecaper on Tuesday September 02, 2014 @10:09AM
(#8257634)
This could be seen as a technique to undermine Firefox and get more users to Chrome, which would devalue Firefox's contribution to Google. As Google appears to embrace standards but continues to implement little flaws and Chrome-only behaviors (that is, extend), they will eventually deplete Firefox's market share to the point where such a monetary transfer is no longer beneficial (extinguish).
People always bring up the fact that there is some value currently provided by Google's payment to Firefox like there's no problem with the vast majority of the Mozilla Foundation's funding coming from a competing entity. It's still a dangerous situation, even if Google is in a position where they're willing to continue paying the "default search engine" toll for the time being. Even their willingness to do that is compassionate, because we all know that Firefox would only harm itself by switching to another default search provider.
Agreed, most of your points are valid and it is a precarious position for Mozilla. I just disagreed with the notion that their funding could be cut off this easily - even if Google retracted I'm sure they could reach some agreement with Facebook for example.
I still hope Mozilla is investing the money wisely, because this arrangement is temporary in any case. And I'm hopeful that FirefoxOS takes off!
Given Google's history around this whole HTTP/2.0 shenanigans, I see little reason to see anything in their favour.
They are probably gambling that Firefox will fold (like they forced them to with DRM) so that once again, they can have it their way internet-wide without having to wait for annoying things like feedback from others and standards-committees and such.
They will probably win.