It's complicated.
The Value Of Firefox
Browser Engines
A browser engine is a software component that renders webpages, handles security, and generally converts all website files into a user experience. Developing a browser engine is quite the task, and nearly all browsers that you see today use one of the three major web engines, with relatively minor changes overlaid on top.
Mozilla develops the Gecko engine, whose codebase it inherited from Netscape. It is the only engine not owned by Big Tech (debatable statement, keep reading).
KHTML is a now-discontinued engine that was maintained by the KDE team. Microsoft also owns two defunct engines called Trident, which was used in Internet Explorer, and EdgeHTML, which was used in the early version of Microsoft Edge.
Apple forked KHTML to create WebKit, which is used by Safari, as well as on all browsers on iOS devices outside the European Union.
Google initially used WebKit for Chrome, but forked it to create Blink. Thanks to Google releasing an open-source version of Chrome, called Chromium, Blink has become the first choice of engine for any new browser to use, including competitors like Edge and privacy-centric browsers like Brave and DuckDuckGo.
Why Gecko Stands Out
While WebKit and Blink are open-source, they are ultimately controlled by giant tech companies. Using any browsers based on these engines means giving up control over your web experience. There is no better demonstration of this than Google's discontinuation of the Manifest V2 extension format, which meant a lot of adblockers went kaput. Brave, to its credit, has committed to supporting some popular Manifest V2 extensions, like uBlock Origin.
Having an independent engine in Gecko allows puts control in a company less likely to throw its users under the bus.
Less Likely? What's Wrong With Mozilla?
Mozilla isn't perfect either. Some long-standing complaints with Mozilla have been:
- Its deal with Google where Google is the default search engine on Firefox. I don't think it's a big deal because changing it is just a few clicks away, but I do get that you have to start making noise before the slippery slope starts.
- The pay package of its CEO, which I have no idea how to even judge the validity of.
Recent Issues
Mozilla made a few unpopular changes recently, with the explanation that they want to focus on Firefox.
Shuttering Of Its Mastodon Server
Mastodon is a Twitter-like social media server software based on the ActivityPub protocol, and is thus part of the Fediverse. The Fediverse is a collection of independently-hosted but cross-networking-capable social media. This cross-networking is called federation, and it allows, for example, Mastodon accounts to follow PeerTube (YouTube-like fediverse software) accounts. Mozilla has its own instance of a Mastodon server at mozilla.social, which it is shutting down soon.
This is not a big deal in itself for two reasons. It is a small instance with only around 300 users, and it is easy to port one's data from one Mastodon instance to another. However, the bigger issue is that Mozilla has opted to stop showing support for the Fediverse, which rubs a lot of us the wrong way.
Abandoning Advocacy
The Mozilla Foundation is the non-profit arm of Mozilla, and it had an advocacy division. They would advocate for a free and fair internet, digital ownership rights, and other freedoms that Big Tech erodes away at. Mozilla recently opted to drop their advocacy division, which is a horrible idea, unless they choose to invest in more effective digital rights advocacy organisations. So far, closest thing to this I have seen is that Mozilla will be embedding advocacy into its other products, which feels like a big cop-out.