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I always found the denials of this to be bizarre:
Given the intrusive nature of government surveillance, Mozilla—with its dedication to privacy and independence from corporate and government interests—should be more vital than ever. But in the age of social media and mobile devices, it has struggled to maintain relevance and failed to transition to a world where the desktop browser is fading in importance. Mozilla hasn't even dented the mobile market with mobile versions of its browser or its Firefox OS smartphone operating system. And the organization has done little to counteract Facebook's expanding influence. What's more, its foothold on the desktop continues to slip as Google Chrome grows in popularity.
[...] The good news is Mozilla has found some partnerships to supplement its search revenue. For example, the company quietly integrated the "read-it-later" service Pocket into Firefox along with a video conferencing feature powered by European telco Telefonica earlier this year. Although the company emphasizes that Pocket and Telefonica didn't pay for placement in the Firefox browser, Mozilla Corp. chief legal and business officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer told WIRED that Mozilla has revenue sharing arrangements with both companies.
takyon: Mozilla retires Firefox's sponsored tiles, hunts for new revenue streams
Previously: Mozilla Integrates Proprietary Pocket Plugin
Warning - Firefox Has You in the Pocket
(Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:55AM
I am going to address this from the perspective of someone who maintains desktop images for their organizations.
I started putting Firefox in my desktop packages around v0.9 which was a few companies ago. It was significantly less prone to browser hijacking compared to IE 6 on Windows 2000 which made my users pretty happy. I want to say this was around 2004. So, I have been packaging and installing it for about 10 years, give or take. Right now, we are testing Windows 10. We use Enterprise so I cannot speak to any other releases. So far, it has been pretty good and we will likely look to move our Windows 7 desktops to it (Actually, we are waiting for Server 2016 to go RTM - once it is stable enough for the RDS farms, it is good enough for general release).
In any case, what does this have to do with Firefox? Given the Mozilla organization's open hostility to institutional needs, their continued insistence on chasing the technology of the month (Firefox Phone OS?? Really??!! Why??), flirtations with the same types of companies we use FF to ignore (sponsored tiles) and Microsoft finally taking their own browser seriously, I don't see much of a future. If Edge + IE is "good enough" for the corporate desktop package, then I am happy to have one less application to manage.
I really do want to like Firefox but I have not been too happy with the direction of the Mozilla organization for the past few years. It may be time to look elsewhere. Just my two cents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:00PM
back when I used netscape, and then was upset to see what netscape navigator 4.x turned into, i was happy when Firefox came out. Firefox seems to be doing what Netscape did before they failed. I am not the only one to mention this, but history sometimes repeats, as do I.
That happiness mostly eroded after version 24.x. I can't even recognize it for Firefox anymore and mistook it for Chrome. Chrome doesn't even have a stop button in it anymore -- many sites I visit will display the content I expect and then "oh i'm sorry this site doesnt work unless our tracking scripts work on your computer, upgrade to a modern browser or agree to get tracked by 30 different domains we do not list out for your review prior to accepting such connections and cookies".
In a regular browser, if I am quick in hitting stop... I can read the page and then take time to see what I want or do not want to permit (if the site is worth the BS to me or if I shall never return, etc).
Anyway, what this has to do with firefox is that if they remove the crap, leave features in like a search bar that doesn't include a single URL bar that sends copies of what I type in to various other companies, sending my stuff mostly in cleartext unless I go to an HTTPS site (use an MD5 hash for now, if wanting to securely send updates. With it encrypted I don't know if if I have been hijacked and getting instructions from a domain that looks legit. At least with cleartext I can pretend to know what I am looking at).
But all of these features for my security, safety and convenience have resorted in my opting to use palemoon and even a customized EFR release of firefox that is quite old (24 or so, as mentioned).
I guess as a non-paying customer that doesnt want a part of their advertising revenue scheme and tracking agendas, I don't really have much of a say in the matter. But these developments of theirs sure is not the way to convince me to reward them to continue tracking me and solicit further donations from me.
Sell the small, quick, cheap version, no bloated version with checkboxes for the email client or extensions and whatnot for $5 or $10 and I'll buy it.