Mozilla: From non-profit to for-profit corporation


Recommended Posts

Saw this story on Cnet News:

http://news.com.com/Mozilla+plans+faster+g...ml?tag=nefd.top

Kind of freaks me out. I would have thought it was April Fools or something.

Foundation executives say they want to help Firefox gain greater use. That will require offering service and support at a fee, which are beyond the scope of the original nonprofit organization, they say.

Mitchell Baker, a former Netscape lawyer who has led the Mozilla Foundation, will be chief executive of the new entity, the Mozilla Corporation. She said in a telephone interview on Monday that while the new corporation would be taxable, its aim was not shareholder returns but furthering the goals of the foundation. The organization was established in June 2003 to promote the open source software movement's creation of a competitive Web browser.

"Our fundamental goal is promoting an open Internet," she said. At the same time, she added, "We could not ignore the fact that Firefox has become a valuable asset."

Most of the roughly 40 employees of the Mozilla Foundation will shift to the corporation, but the operations of the Mozilla project, which develops Firefox, will be unchanged. It is working on Version 1.5 of Firefox, scheduled for release this fall.

One issue the new structure may raise is whether it will alienate Firefox loyalists and volunteers who helped create the software. The corporation will not consider a public stock offering, Baker said.

Anyone else concerned?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who didn't see this coming? It doesn't necessitate that end users of FF will have to pay for the browser, but it will make a change to the motivation of many current contributors to the project (namely some will leave altogether.)

Cest la vie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was their plan all along...

1. Steal users away from IE with a "free" and "open" product

2. ???

3. Profit!

Hope this isn't another thing like Gracenote / CDDB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article was a little bit unclear - does this mean that Firefox will turn into a paid-only or ad-supported application (a la Opera)? Or are they planning on offering other services that cost money in order to raise funds to continue development of the free browser?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article was a little bit unclear - does this mean that Firefox will turn into a paid-only or ad-supported application (a la Opera)?? Or are they planning on offering other services that cost money in order to raise funds to continue development of the free browser?

I guess that is yet to be determined. But the fact that they are moving most of the folks over to the for profit corporation may be a telling sign of things to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article was a little bit unclear - does this mean that Firefox will turn into a paid-only or ad-supported application (a la Opera)?  Or are they planning on offering other services that cost money in order to raise funds to continue development of the free browser?

586317479[/snapback]

If Firefox becomes adware or payware like Opera, I will drop it like a bad habit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a simple structural change and nothing to be alarmed about...

They have a product that is used by millions, they want to make everything they do better, so they centralise and run as a real company.

Even if they make a loss, with millions of users out there it wouldn't be hard to spin off "Advanced" or "Plus" options at a small cost to those that want it, and to progress faster due to a better working environment.

I don't think they will charge for Firefox, but they may charge for an Outlook competitor (or at least offer a combination of services that link in a way to beat something like Outlook).

Think also of the advantages with productivity in a proper working environment, any losses also can be tax credits later on, so essentially they have a lot to gain given their strong user platform and desire to make great products that are pretty much free.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a simple structural change and nothing to be alarmed about...

They have a product that is used by millions, they want to make everything they do better, so they centralise and run as a real company.

Even if they make a loss, with millions of users out there it wouldn't be hard to spin off "Advanced" or "Plus" options at a small cost to those that want it, and to progress faster due to a better working environment.

I don't think they will charge for Firefox, but they may charge for an Outlook competitor (or at least offer a combination of services that link in a way to beat something like Outlook).

Think also of the advantages with productivity in a proper working environment, any losses also can be tax credits later on, so essentially they have a lot to gain given their strong user platform and desire to make great products that are pretty much free.

586317522[/snapback]

Nah. They just want to make some cash. the women said as much "We could not ignore the fact that Firefox has become a valuable asset." e.g - golden egg/cash cow. everyone likes money.

And you're right, i didn't even think of that.

Firefox Consumer Version (Updated on a monthly cycle)

Firefox Plus (updated dynamically)

Or such likes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another reason why IE is superior to FF. Its Free always has been always will be... But you have to pay for the backbone of IE (Windows.) FF has no backbone to pay for so It will be dropped by millions.

(had to be said :p)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No need to be alarm.

Most major opensource program have similar setup. They give the software away for free or charge a minimal fee to cover packaging. Their main revenue stream would comes from tech support and building custom feature for corporate sector.

Firefox will be around as long as there are people giving their free time developing it and us users running it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article was a little bit unclear - does this mean that Firefox will turn into a paid-only or ad-supported application (a la Opera)?? Or are they planning on offering other services that cost money in order to raise funds to continue development of the free browser?

586317479[/snapback]

Support, as in support over the phone, will cost money. I thought Mozilla already had such a service already? (EDIT: here it is. )

Otherwise Firefox will remain free... hopefully.

If Firefox becomes adware or payware like Opera, I will drop it like a bad habit.

586317513[/snapback]

Problem is that Firefox is just too simple of a browser to fork over a fee like $14, $29 or $39 for it. That won't ever happen while Firefox remains as the second most used browser, after IE.

Side note: title is misleading. People are getting the impression that the Mozilla Foundation will completely change into Mozilla Corp., which is not the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Side note: title is misleading. People are getting the impression that the Mozilla Foundation will completely change into Mozilla Corp., which is not the case.

Moving almost all of the 40 employees over to the for profit Corporation is not a good sign of things to come, maybe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not necessarily. Open Source doesn't mean "you're not allowed to make any money". Red Hat and mySQL have obviously done so without "selling out".

Right now, the only revenue stream they have is t-shirts and stuffed red pandas. The Telephone support they outsource, and probably get a small percentage.

BTW, the thread title is wrong. Mozilla Foundation is not be dissolved. They're making a NEW subsidiary, which happens to be for-profit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who the hell would pay $40 for technical support for only Mozilla products?

Anyway, this is only mildly disturbing, but it certainly bears watching. Firefox is not going to remain the open source utopia is always has been, most likely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Getting corporations to use Firefox/Thunderbird pretty much requires 24/7 professional tech support, only way to do that is to make the corporations pay for it.

And I bet the MoFo people were pretty tired of having a tax lawyer sitting in every meeting that was about revenues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Support, as in support over the phone, will cost money. I thought Mozilla already had such a service already? (EDIT: here it is. )

Otherwise Firefox will remain free... hopefully.

Problem is that Firefox is just too simple of a browser to fork over a fee like $14, $29 or $39 for it. That won't ever happen while Firefox remains as the second most used browser, after IE.

Side note: title is misleading. People are getting the impression that the Mozilla Foundation will completely change into Mozilla Corp., which is not the case.

586317663[/snapback]

Wow, that's interesting. Granted it's phone support but hey, for that price I can buy the full cost Opera, and get unlimited support incidents from the company via e-mail.

Wonder which is a better deal for general users? Also, is there any competition for paid support for FF? Cause $40 per incident seems very expensive - unless they are also offering to rewrite part of the program to fix the problem if necessary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing wrong with making money.

But it would be sad to see a product that was built with so much donated time and effort be turned into a commercial only product.

I would think that most people who gave their time and energies to the project did so with the understanding that their work would help support an Open-Source, Free product that would remain that way.

I hope that original understanding does not have to change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Corperations need support... Mozilla can offer it as a company whereas as the not-for-profit Foundation they couldn't

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who the hell would pay $40 for technical support for only Mozilla products?

Anyway, this is only mildly disturbing, but it certainly bears watching. Firefox is not going to remain the open source utopia is always has been, most likely.

586319925[/snapback]

Mozilla does not only makes Firefox. If you look here you will find that Mozilla also makes other products.

Once again some people are just too quick to jump the gun. Put some thought into the matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sad part of this is that some people may strt hating Mozilla and stop using Firefox simply because they are a "corporation".

There could well be a backlash, depending on how things go. The Open Source community is very passionate, and they surely don't like it when people take the work of a dedicated group of volunteers and try to profit off of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the reason behind this was not to start profiting from end users using Firefox but to profit from Corporations using Firefox.

586319970[/snapback]

I truely hope it's that..... because if they charge even 1 cent for their browser, i'm switching straight back to IE... same if they do a stupid Plus, or Corp version that as more options or support

I hate getting threated like an idiot and you jsut can't attract people with a free candy, get them addicted and then charge for it after.

I hope this is only for businesses and not for home users and that they will keep updating their browser for free.

...and even for businesses... I don't think a sane company would put even 1 dollar for extra support or on a third party browser when they have one for free with their OS and support available for it since it's included in windows

..maybe BangBang023 can tell us a little bit about that... or supernova_0 (not sure of the nick here) I know those two guys are involved in one way or another concerning the firefox project

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There could well be a backlash, depending on how things go.  The Open Source community is very passionate, and they surely don't like it when people take the work of a dedicated group of volunteers and try to profit off of it.

586322115[/snapback]

that's also true... some people in there want to make money on the back of volunteer who gave their time and dedication for free.... another reason to drop firefox if they charge for a future browser version

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.