Ask HN: Should the Mozilla Foundation be forked?
The recent ToS issues with the Mozilla Foundation [1] isn't the first time its continuing viability as an organization have come into question. Issues like its massive executive salaries [2], its dependence on Google funding [3], continued focus on things like bundled software (!!!) that isn't a web browser (eg Mozilla VPN), and the fact that Firefox is one of the last competing web browser engines to Chromium/Blink - all of that has me wondering if we can continue to trust Mozilla continuing to develop and maintain the Firefox browser.
It's easy for us as devs to say "if you don't like it, fork it" for software code, but the code isn't the problem here. The organization managing and turning the code into a software product is the problem. And we can't necessarily fork that - something totally new would have to be built to manage the Firefox code.
So how do you all feel about this? Is it time to find Firefox (or a successor brand for the codebase) a new home? Is it time for the 3rd iteration of Netscape to happen?
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/28/mozilla-responds-to-backlash-over-new-terms-saying-its-not-using-peoples-data-for-ai/ [2] https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Mozilla#Excessive_Executive_Pay_Critiques [3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/25/doj_google_collateral_damage_opinion/_opinion/
I think it would help to explicitly reframe this question as: “where can we find the millions of dollars needed to pay for however many full time software engineers are needed to develop a modern browser?”
I do not think this option alone would suffice, but I think Mozilla under estimates people’s willingness to donate to the development of Firefox specifically.
Nowadays Mozilla seems to be focused on many things, just not their browser. I do think there is a significant amount of people that would be willing to donate if they are sure these funds get allocated to the development of FF instead of AI and AdTech investments or ridiculous CEO pay packages.
Again, I don’t think this funding stream alone would suffice to make up for lost Google money, etc. - but I do think it would be significant enough to be worth a shot.
> Is it time for the 3rd iteration of Netscape to happen?
The 3rd iteration is Brave.
Those pursuing the 4th iteration need threat models and defenses to improve upon the results of prior iterations.
You could maybe argue that it's a spiritual successor, but tech-stack wise, Firefox and Netscape are in their own family, and Brave is in the Chromium-based browser family.
There's nothing stopping anybody from forking the code and maintaining it--you can just do things.
But, I would ask...was the excommunication of Eich worth it, all things considered? Have we learned anything?
go for it bro