this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Even if they did so, isn't Firefox entirely open source? At least their work could be forked (though I agree if they don't have the resources, hardly anyone else could make it)
Sure, but is Google gonna pay them or you hoping they will do that work for free? A browser doesn't seem like a hobby project to me.
They can also use Yahoo or Bing as default for money.
The other option is diversify your revenue. Which is likely where the ad stuff comes in. If they can do that in a privacy respecting way with a facility to opt out, I have no objections. The loss of the biggest open source chromium alternative is massive and unthinkable.
For all the flaws of Mozilla, no one has forked, done better and put it out of business. It's easier to run it behind a keyboard with zero responsibility.
Endless feature creep made browsers are the most complex programs ran by most users. I disbelieve a new browser could be made (securely, or at all). Forks are nice (I use Librewolf btw) but they do not deviate significantly. The browser market is unhealthy and unrecoverable: either it's Google vs Firefox forever or one wins.
Perhaps the alternative to the all-in-one software solution is just to use smaller programs dedicated to each common use of the modern browser (a video player for playing video, an old style internet text-page reader for browsing text, etc).
True, but it probably won't work. Unless the browser pulls them in as plugins and becomes modular. Most are trying to give a rich web experience out of the box and I'm not sure users will accept different programs for different things.
I really like Gemini as an idea and hope it finds it's groove for many, but lots of mainstream users may not like it and the ad industry that people are using to fund there sites certainly won't.
Yes, but neither do many of the large open source projects that aren’t funded by Google.
Most large scale open source projects at this point are funded by somebody. usually because they have benefit to an enterprise somewhere. But I don’t know if an alternative browser really provides much enterprise support anywhere, sadly.