Let me pay for Firefox!
I’m a long time Mozilla supporter, I’ve published free and open-source software, and I desperately want Mozilla to charge for Firefox. If that sounds like a contradiction, please keep reading.
Image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay
I first became involved with the Mozilla community around 2006. I was active in the Spread Firefox project, where I ran a contest that encouraged others to promote Firefox in the most creative ways they could imagine. In hindsight, I guess it could have been called a guerrilla marketing contest. We had some amazing entries, including, as I recall, a Firefox decal that was installed on a private plane and a giant Firefox banner that was unfurled at a baseball stadium. I also participated, hanging flyers around New York City.
Later, and for eight years, I was a full-time Mozilla Corporation employee. It would take too long to summarize those years here, but it was a strange and wonderful experience for which I’m genuinely grateful.
Here’s the point: there was once a time when a paid version of Firefox was unthinkable. Now, I believe it’s essential.
Charging for open-source software may sound hypocritical, but even the Free Software Foundation believes software fees and software freedom are completely compatible. I don’t know of any organization that treats software ethics more seriously than the FSF, and even they support setting reasonable prices. I recommend any skeptics read their full article, but to quote a few lines:
Many people believe that… you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possible—just enough to cover the cost. This is a misunderstanding… Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free [as in freedom] software to charge as much as they wish or can.
[…]
People sometimes worry that a high distribution fee will put free software out of range for users who don’t have a lot of money. With proprietary software, a high price does exactly that—but free [as in freedom] software is different. With free [as in freedom] software, users don’t have to pay the distribution fee in order to use the software. They can copy the program from a friend.
That’s exactly right! In the world I’m imagining, any user who didn’t want to pay wouldn’t have to. As long as Firefox remained free (as in freedom) and open-source software, as it should, those users could install a copy or a fork. They wouldn’t be supporting the product and perhaps they wouldn’t have access to the same customer service or speedy software updates, but using an unpaid alternative would be their right. There are many zero-cost forks of Firefox already, including LibreWolf, Waterfox, and IceCat, to name just a few. Those wouldn’t be going away.
When I first heard someone propose an idea like this, as a thought experiment more than ten years ago, the reaction was intense. I was incredulous. Someone stormed out of the room. Today, things are different. We know what happens when companies rely on ads to fund their operations; does anyone really think Facebook is doing good for the world? That’s the end game: enshittification, addiction, algorithmic bullshit that fuels extremism and outrage, and invasive targeted advertising. That’s the fate I want Mozilla to avoid. Let me pay for Firefox! Let me fund the product directly—not through the Mozilla Foundation, but directly—with my own money. (The Mozilla Foundation is Mozilla’s non-profit parent organization. It does work for the public good, and it accepts donations. To be clear, I support the Foundation, and it does great work, but I want to know this money in particular would directly support Firefox development.)
Today, I happily pay for software (including free and open-source software!) that puts users first, including Proton, Standard Notes, Kagi, and others. I’m fortunate enough to be able to fund products that put users first, but again, anyone who didn’t want to pay wouldn’t have to. Let me pay for Firefox!
Some might worry that people would flock to alternatives if Firefox became a user-funded product. I disagree. In fact, I suspect the opposite is true. Right now, people are abandoning Firefox because they dislike Mozilla’s business model. Adopt a business model that makes sense—I give you money, you give me a good product—and many of those same people would become customers.
Am I suggesting Mozilla entirely pivot to this business model overnight? Of course not. But at least give us the option. Run an experiment! Publish a paid version of Firefox with no sponsored content, no tracking, a default search engine that respects privacy, ad blocking built in, and no other privacy-eroding bullshit that we need to disable in settings. I wouldn’t hesitate to pay.
If Mozilla doesn’t do it, I predict someone else will.
#Article #Business #SoftwareDevelopment #Technology #Usability #UserExperience
This post began as a post on Mozilla’s Discourse. I believe in what I’ve written, so I’ve decided to republish it here, lightly edited.