Firefox as a Service

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CharmCityCrab

Firefox as a Service

Unread post by CharmCityCrab » 2017-08-05, 06:36

From:

https://www.cnet.com/special-reports/mo ... ter-place/
Firefox is free, but you might pay Mozilla for something else: membership. This new option could increase Mozilla’s sales while changing what you expect the organization will deliver to you.

“You’d pay money to be a member because you’d get real value from the service or products,” says Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s chief business and legal officer.

She won’t commit to pricing or perks yet, but some options could be recommending online content Mozilla members might want to see, hosting events and establishing forums for discussion, she says.

Beard mentioned other possibilities, too, like Mozilla negotiating discounted pricing on behalf of its members. Mozilla won’t say what that might cover, but think of something like cloud storage services from a company that respects your privacy. Mozilla also could offer online services at a discount since it’s a nonprofit — likely services tied to Mozilla-focused concerns such as privacy, security and control over your data.
Pass. I've never seen anything like what they are talking about go well. They always start by saying that the free tier will remain the same, but pretty quickly you're missing out on stuff that would have been added to the free product or service had it remained that way for everyone, but now are only added to the premium tier. A bit further down the road, they actually do start cutting out things that used to be free. I've seen companies do this time and time again.

Also, this type of service always winds up being advertised obtrusively. I wound suspect that Firefox users can look forward to occasional pop-up nags urging people to upgrade to premium membership, it being heavily touted all over their website and the what's new in Firefox version x.x area, a menu option build in, something on the new tab page, and/or even a square in the corner of the browser with a click to upgrade to premium thing.

I mean, its not like Firefox hasn't tried to integrate ads for actually other companies into its browser three separate times, right? Oh wait, they did.

Also, I can say that occasionally in the Android version of their browser, they do pop-ups on the sort of equivalent of a home area to advertise Mozilla's principles or this or that with an unwanted link already. I hate it, but its so occasional that I deal because it beats ads on every site on Chrome.

I don't like the way the Firefox train is headed. I've been off that train on Windows for years and years. Currently with Vivaldi, the third browser I've used since (Pale Moon as a backup). No problem with alternatives on that platform.

If Firefox on Android, which I do use, goes to pot, though, I think I'm in trouble. All the major alternatives have significant issues for me. Chrome doesn't allow add-ons, for example, so no UBlock Origin (Firefox does and I use that extension for it). And many fewer credible browsers exist for that platform than for Windows.

Mozilla is doing a good thing on Android that they just need to advertise better, but I see this whole Firefox as a service paid membership stuff on top of their Windows decline and just think, how long will it remain that way?

And if they are making tons of money, which they brag about in the article, even touting upcoming financials that they say will surprise people, why do they need to become the only browser to charge people for membership? They make a big deal of being a non-profit (Which is only half true, they are now operated by both a non-profit and a for-profit in conjunction with each other), and then they have these huge profits they make, and its not enough, they want all of us to pay them a monthly bill to when the big bad corporate alternatives are free.

What is wrong with them? Do they not understand how this is perceived?

Also, they heavily advertise their privacy, but have Google analytics on their builtin add-ons display that the new Web Extension API will keep Ublock from being able to block, and the article talks about how they backed down on an anti-tracking project. I understand that the browser I use on desktop is based on Chromium and thus probably not the best privacy browser, but it doesn't claim to be.

Mozilla makes a big deal of being private, but it isn't. It makes a big deal out of being non-profit, but its not, and may actually wind up having a membership fee thing. They rose to prominence in part because of ad-blockers and keep moving to integrate ads into their product until the user backlash forces them to back off for a while until it dies down and they try again.

I wish Mozilla actually was what it said it was. That'd be a great organization and browser. But its not. And the sheer hypocracy of it makes it more grating than of Google or Microsoft tried the same things, because Microsoft and Google don't pretend to be things they aren't.

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Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-08-05, 06:47

So, in short "You pay us so we can advertise affiliated offers to you that we get revenue from on top". not that they don't have affiliated offers a-plenty yet anyway, in terms of search engines, but I guess they want to make their browser into a more generic vessel to pawn other services. And privacy? Don't make me laugh. Even if Mozilla itself might be privacy-oriented, the cloud services offered through them (and probably hard to distinguish as a different service, see hello/pocket/etc.) will have their own policies.

Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, it looks to me that Mozilla knows it's dying, and is trying to squeeze as much out of their product as they can before they are gone. I may be wrong, but that is what it looks like.
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Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-08-05, 08:21

It looks like this story has been removed. I've got a 404 error.
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Night Wing
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Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by Night Wing » 2017-08-05, 08:27

At one time, Firefox was my default browser. Then Pale Moon became my default browser back in 2011 and Firefox became my backup browser. Then Mozilla came up with the Australis look trying to be a Chrome wannabe. That strategy failed miserably. And because of that failed strategy, SeaMonkey became my backup browser to default Pale Moon and Firefox is relegated to my third browser only to be used if a site doesn't render properly with Pale Moon or SeaMonkey.

Then Mozilla decided to go into the mobile arena with it's Firefox OS and take on Android and Apple. Another strategy that bombed because Google and Apple have very deep pockets money wise which makes Mozilla look like a pauper. Mozilla makes it money through it's search function. First with contracts with Google and then with Yahoo. The smartest thing Mozilla ever did was convincing some dufus at Yahoo to sign a contract with Mozilla for it search feature. If Yahoo wouldn't have gone for that contract, I think Mozilla would have had both feet in the grave.

Now with the extensions decision coming with Firefox 57 which lots of Firefox users dislike with a pink purple passion, does Mozilla really think a subscription option is going to win back users? I think Mozilla is in a complete state of denial and needs lots of therapy work from a good old fashioned "shrink". The present Mozilla management doesn't listen to it's users regardless of the spin that Mozilla puts out saying it does listen to it's users. Mozilla's management has been living in it's ivory tower in la la land for a long time. As for the corporate double speak of Beard, Dixon, Mayo, White, etc; they all speak the same corporate spin line of a snake with a forked tongue. If Mozilla has a board of directors, I don't see how they keep the present management of Mozilla given all the wrong decisions during the last 5 years.

Would I go back to Firefox knowing what I already know about what is coming in Firefox 57? The answer is a resounding....NO. And would I be dumb, stupid, gullible enough to pay a subscription fee to Mozilla for their present management decisions over the last five years? The answer is a resounding...............HELL NO.

In closing, CEO Beard has been dismantling Mozilla for the last three years under his tenure. The problem is, he reminds me of someone who is very good at dismantling things, but unfortunately for him, that is where it ends.
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Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by FranklinDM » 2017-08-05, 08:37

gracious1 wrote:It looks like this story has been removed. I've got a 404 error.
I think this is the correct one. I just omitted the 404 on the URL.

petrus

Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by petrus » 2017-08-05, 10:03

It's almost as if they want to drive Firefox into the ditch on purpose!

But then i saw a picture of the Mozilla chief executive SJW & chairwoman:
Image
And it all became crystal clear.

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Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-08-05, 10:10

Reading into it a bit more, all I see is more "Google wannabe" behavior. Google is successful, so copying Google means copying their success, right? .... right? *crickets*
As the article says "they've slipped into Google's shadow". Well, that's what happens when you're no longer offering something different. Does the CEO really think that effectively making Firefox a just-as-limited clone of Chrome will improve upon that? Where's the value for the user?

So, Mozilla wants to make a paid subscription to offer services they acquire from 3rd parties, to compete with similar services that Google offers already... for free. As a consumer, why would I ever want to? Because Mozilla claims to be non-profit? I'm sorry but consumers, above all else, think about their own wallet first. Because they have to.

Firefox 57 becomes a Mozilla Services client, is that what it is, then? ;)
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
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John connor

Re: Firefox as a Service

Unread post by John connor » 2017-08-05, 16:09

One of the wide ranging reasons why I went PM. Screw Mozilla! They have gone to a very, very dark place. I used to use Firefox since it came out! Now it's utter garbage!

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