The Future of Firefox

Creators of Firefox To Go Commercial

Read between the lines, and this decision really says, “We can’t count on handouts anymore, we have to support ourselves.”

In the beginning, it looks like Mozilla will try to make money from corporate support, much like the commercial Linux firms.

But what if they find they need more than that down the road?

A few questions:

1. What browser do you usually use?

a) Firefox
b) IE
c) Other

For Current Firefox Users Only

2) Let’s say it’s 2007, and the Mozilla Corporation finds that to compete with an improved IE; it’s going to need considerably more money than that, and the corporate support tail can’t quite wag the browser dog.

Let’s say Mozilla decides that from X, 2007 on, all new versions of Firefox, etc. will have ads in a free version, or you’ll get charged $15 a year for an ad-free version.

What do you do?

a) I pay Mozilla for Firefox.
b) I don’t pay Mozilla, and take the ads instead.
c) I don’t pay Mozilla, and find a cracked version of the program to get rid of the ads.
d) I keep using an older version of Firefox.
e) I go back to IE, or otherwise find myself another browser.

3) Let’s say it’s 2007, the circumstances are much the same as in question 2, except that to compete, the Mozilla Corporation feels that it has to heavily advertise the product to get enough marketshare.

What do you do?

a) I pay Mozilla for Firefox.
b) I don’t pay Mozilla, and take the ads instead.
c) I don’t pay Mozilla, and find a cracked version of the program to get rid of the ads.
d) I keep using an older version of Firefox.
e) I go back to IE, or otherwise find myself another browser.

Please send your response to the special email address listed below, additional comments welcomed. As always, all responses will be kept confidential (not that anyone has ever asked :).

Thanks!

Ed