Linkedin says 501 to 1,000 employees.
But 2,106 are on Linkedin…
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mozilla-corporation/about/
Craft says 2,083
https://craft.co/mozilla-foundation
Crunchbase says 5 to 10 thousand!
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mozilla#section-overview
Of Mozilla’s 2013 $314 million revenue, $275 million came from a single search engine.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041315/how-mozilla-firefox-and-google-chrome-make-money.asp
And if it ain’t Google, it’s Yahoo!
this links about the revenues related to the default search engine settings IMHO illustrate very well, that just counting obvious network traffic resp. “trackers” isn’t a suitable measure for security and privacy claims.
the real issue are often much deeper hidden in the software – especially in the case of chrome/chromium, where google frequently used its de facto monopoly power to change even the fundamental network protocol (SPDY, QUIC) and many other aspects of the actual WWW implementation details (e.g. file-/USB-/DRM-APIs) in more or less uncoordinated and dictatorial manner.
this much more complex sources of the issue IMHO can not be corrected by simple patches and whitewash attempts provided in parallel to all this main browser projects. sure, they may come with more acceptable default settings etc., but that’s at the end just a cosmetic improvement. the main issues resp. security dangers and hidden privacy concerns still remain. in this respect we simply have to trust in the good will of the main project upstream developers and the declared goals behind their companies. concerning this aspect, i hardly see any doubt, why mozilla shouldn’t be seen as a much more attractive/acceptable base than google and chrome.
Let’s make it clear: among the basic browsers there isn’t a single one that really cares about making its user to be safe from tracking across the web. Firefox or Chromium - all this does not matter, because both are more or less bad.
A serious approach to private web surfing involves specially hardened solutions, like Tor Browser on desktop, or Bromite on android. The last one was taken on the role of build-in browser in eOS, and that’s the wise decision, because if the development team were to create their own solution in each area, the release of the eOS v1.0 would take place sometime in 2030.
In addition, Cromium-based browsers have the largest population on the mobile platforms, so using one of them allows you to mix with the crowd a little better.
the Tor browser for desktop and for android are both based on firefox and not on chrome for good reasons!
In addition, Cromium-based browsers have the largest population on the mobile platforms, so using one of them allows you to mix with the crowd a little better.
no! – this growing monopolist state of chrome is just a pain! nothing that should be promoted or countenanced.
But this doesn’t make Tor Browser a good choice as a default app for android, whereas the regular Firefox is worse than a privacy-tuned Chromium (Bromite). Also, a few months ago, I examined the Tor for android (Alpha) configs, and it seemed much less advanced than the desktop version. But maybe things are different now.
We can’t change that. I am only suggesting to take some advantage of this.
We are the ones whom literally can change that. Adoption of Chrome was not because of security and privacy reasons, it was because is a fast and fairly secure browser tightly integrated with Google. You used to go to www.google.com and they offered you to install Google Chrome, as simple as it sounds, it was a massive campaign that any other browser couldn’t possibly pay for, if it could be on the table at all. But those were different times.
A user answered you before there are reasons why Tor uses Firefox for its browser’s base. Here you can find more information about this situation. In a very polite way they say “Google Chrome is a very fine-tuned high performance browser, and keeping it this way is priority #1 for Google”. Two things: priority #1 is not privacy, is not security, and the second, priority #1 is set by Google. Yes, Tor browser is so much better now and partly thanks to Mozilla’s efforts.
If I may add something to this debate : some people here say that it is not logical to have /e/ de-googled on the one hand, and to use a chromium-based browser on the other hand.
But the relation between Google and Chromium is in fact quite the same than between Google and AOSP. If you don’t want any kind of relationship with google-based products, then you can’t even use /e/.
Using a bromite-fork looks quite logical for /e/. It perfectly fits with the whole project : you take a google-stuff in order to have compatibility with other users, and you ungoogle it as much as you can.
Besides, don’t forget that /e/ Webview is also chromium-based. Even if you use Firefox as your main browser, you will still have some kind of relationship with chromium.
If you don’t want google-stuff, then you have some other solutions, but none of them is totally practical. Ubuntu Touch ?
Now like some others here, I truly like Firefox on PC, but on Android I don’t. The most privacy-friendly version, Firefox Klar, has ugly design and lacks some features.
I was the one saying that and while I wrote that I felt the same. But after weighting the fact that AOSP is backed and controlled also by Google, there are differences, mainly, what are the options? One thing is to have Firefox as the main competitor of Chromium/Chrome and another one is to have iOS as the main competitor of Android. My point is /e/ team didn’t really have an option if they wanted a large adoption because of the lack of apps (see the FAQ in the Kickstarter campaign). In the case of Firefox, it is a very competitive browser that can do basically everything Chromium can do.
But the analogy is useful to prove the point of having Firefox (or a fork less “invasive”) as a default browser in /e/ since anyone can see how much development of Android features are linked to privative libraries (for example, the “swype” writing in AOSP keyboard) and APIs (chiefly Google Play Services). This also happens with Chromium, in the desktop, Chromium used to be a crippled experience compared to Chrome, I don’t know right now, but could be better or could be worse, always.
Personally, I don’t use WebView nor I use the /e/ Browser. Personally, you don’t like Firefox for Android. That is OK, to include Firefox as default is not a personal decision it’s more a declaration of principles or a philosophy. As I do right now, you’ll just need to install a Chromium-based browser and be done, I mean, you won’t have problems to install the Chromium-based browser that fits your most specific needs.
Following the personal preferences, yes, there are options but they are pretty much isolated in several aspects. I can’t have an Ubuntu Touch phone because they are hard to buy here, the same goes for the Sailfish OS phones which aren’t completely FOSS but I’d prefer over most Android phones. My next phone is gonna be a Pinephone, that’s a fact as long as it manages to get into the market and I’m glad /e/ is interested. As I said in my first post here I don’t really think /e/ is changing its default browser and the main argument against Firefox is “trackers”, a topic that needs to be addressed in a truly careful way and not only with an Exodus analysis. I think I’ve said enough in this debate.
in favour of Firefox:
Source: Firefox Maker Mozilla: We don't Need Google's Money Anymore
Source: Which Browser Engine Powers Your Web Browsing—And Why Does It Matter?
vs.
Against Firefox:
Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Mobile Browser Market Share
Source: Exodus-privacy.eu - Privacy Report for Firefox Browser
In favour:
They get the money from where they have to, respecting their ethics. Having a search engine as default in a main browser is a good way to monetize your search engine and having money is great for software development.
OK.
Against:
I would say this is in favour, because it goes against Blink web engine overwhelming (maybe already monopolistic) adoption. Furthermore, W3C counter puts Firefox at ~7% and Stetic at ~10.5 %. Anyhow, those are Desktop Browser stats, if you go to StatCounter and arrange by Mobile you’ll see Chrome (63.8%), Safari (19.7%), Samsung Internet (6.27%), UC Browser(5.33%) and Opera (2.48%). It is really worse than I thought. Basically, Chromium-based mobile browsers occupy 80% of the market share, it’s very dangerous to allow Google to direct this market at will and promote Chromium-based browsers on the grounds of overwhelming adoption.
This isn’t even fair. For starters, I don’t even know if this build is an official one. Then, I should note maybe we should compare Firefox to Google Chrome and Chromium/Bromite/e/browser to Fennec F-Droid or GNU Icecat. I analyzed my current official Firefox build (v68.x) and it is free of Google Analytics and Google Firebase. I don’t know if the version linked is an authentic one or a very bad release. Anyway, I don’t see this as a strong argument without a thorough analysis.
Hey, @yslor I respect your opinion (and I hate flames and nerd wars), but, with the exception of Fennec (F-droid) and Firefox Klar (which, btw, should in theory only be available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland), all the other browsers from Mozilla are infested with Ad-tech trackers.
Don’t believe me? That’s great. Download them and check them with ClassyShark.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.oF2pks.classyshark3xodus/
Interesting indeed that there are so many trackers in the Firefox android version.
that said @dotcoma, I followed your advice and downloaded classyShark to analyse my local installation of Firefox.
It quite did not find any Google related tracker, so you might double check your information source. Adjust and lean are indeed listed.
Gaël was mentionning in another thread (ms exchange related) the option to block trackers at the system level. This would look like a sound option to me.
Little break :
For those interested in Firefox and web privacy here is my configuration, which is barely the same as the Tor Browser but without the TOR network (but I use a VPN).
Addons :
HTTPS Everywhere (with the setting to block HTTP only websites)
NoScript : in order to prevent fingerprinting which comes a lot from scripts.
In advanced settings (enter about:config in the bar address) :
privacy.resistFingerprinting : true (this will use the agent user the Tor Browser uses and on firefox for desktop resize the window like the Tor Browser does).
intl.accept_languages : en-US,en (it’s the most used setting so it reduces fingerprinting capability against you)
media.peerconnection.enabled : false (disable peer to peer connection)
privacy.trackingprotection.enabled : true
security.tls.version.min : 3 (disable the support of TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 that are unsecured, firefox will disable them by default in 2020 by the way)
webgl.disabled : true (disable WebGL)
And of course try to delete data (especially cookies) each time you quit firefox.
Check https://amiunique.org before and after applying those changes, you won’t see any red color after. Firefox and the Tor Browser have exactly the same fingerprint now.
End of the break.
The new Firefox engine is Servo, which replaced the old Gecko (still in use e.g. in Seamonkey). There is also WebKit. Apart from that there is not much, Goanna (Palemoon) and Netsurf. Opera’s Presto was unfortunately discontinued.
Man, that is exactly what I did. I will upload the screenshot. No Google trackers in my Firefox app. Your link points to an old Firefox version (v61) that’s why I don’t even know if it is a legit analysis at all. Screenshot_20191106-140845_ClassyShark3xodus|281x500
Enjoy Adjust and LeanPlum ! 
More info about Adjust and LeanPlum in Firefox :
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/privacy-and-security/no-surprises
Conclusion : they can be easily deactivated so I have a webrowser who doesn’t send analytics and who protects me very well against fingerprinting and tracking.
I’m fine with that.
Anyone using Waterfox (https://www.waterfox.net/) ?
I use it for years on Windows and Linux, so far I’m very satisfied with it.
Android apk is very beta and little hard to find, but works fine on my Oreo /e/.
