this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I've donated in November after I switched back to Firefox as my main browser. I read about the search deal dependency and wanted to contribute to what Mozilla called "reclaim the internet". Feel something akin to 'buyer's remorse' when I now read how little goes to development of Firefox/Gecko (the only multi-platform alternative engine for rendering the internet) and how much goes into CEO salaries.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

Your donation money does not go towards the salary of the Mozilla Corporation CEO. But yes, it does not go to Firefox development either. The Mozilla Corporation, which develops Firefox, needs to have enough money independent of donations, because the devs' livelihoods depend on that. Well, and the donation money isn't nearly enough to cover those costs anyways.
So, the Mozilla Foundation (which owns the Mozilla Corporation and which you donate to) uses the donation money instead for political activism, for community work (which may lead to more contributors to Firefox) and sometimes they award some of that money to other open-source projects, which are also vital for an open web, but which are not visible enough to collect donations.