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Comment by mijailt | Hacker News Reader

Mozilla is not the same as Firefox, unfortunately. If I remember correctly Mozilla itself is relatively flush with money (through a deal they have with Google) and doesn't really need the money. Their chair is paid extremely well, in any case [1].

A lot of Mozilla's money seems to be spent on executive pay, overhead, and questionable side projects. Not so much (or not enough) on browser development, it seems. I'd MUCH prefer Firefox to be a product organization with its own budget and perhaps a yearly contribution from Mozilla. I have more faith in Firefox than in Mozilla.

[1] https://calpaterson.com/mozilla.html

This is on the right track but a bit confused. There are two entities:

1) The nonprofit Mozilla foundation

2) The Mozilla corporation

The foundation owns the corporation.

The corporation develops Firefox and is primarily funded by the Google search deal. It also develops pocket and the VPN and gets some funding from their sales.

The foundation is funded by grants and donations, both from individuals and from other organizations (including from the corporation).

> Contributions go to the Mozilla Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organisation based in San Francisco, California, to be used in its discretion for its charitable purposes.

This goes to the Mozilla Foundation and not to the browser's development. As far as I know there is currently no way to donate to the browser's development.

Buy products [1] from the Mozilla Corporation if it's your concern.

[1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/

It is not something I would want to do from abroad.

That sounds like a way to fund development of their salable products, not firefox.

A browser has long been not a saleable product and buying side products is the closest thing you can do to fund its development. Not that it is satisfactory, but if you aren't doing that already then your complaints sound less credible IMO.

The Enterprise™ spends insane money on security products, lots of which are bordeline snake-oil. There's no reason a browser couldn't be part of that, especially considering it's at the front line when it comes to threats and could actually make a real difference.

Electron is also popular and Mozilla could produce a Firefox-based alternative (whose selling points could be performance/memory usage/battery life) and provide commercial support.

Is it going to sustain extravagant salaries & bonuses for the C-suite? Debatable. But it can absolutely be a suitable business paying reasonable salaries.

>> not a saleable product

Isn't that a lot like saying "those sausages with toothpicks in them at the supermarket" are not saleable products?

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