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Why Firefox's Future Lies In Google's Hands

Barence writes "Firefox has just turned five, and it now accounts for 25% of the global market, according to figures from Net Applications. Its success has forced rivals to raise their game, and the past two years have seen Microsoft, Apple, and Opera close the features gap significantly. Google is the default homepage when Firefox first opens, and the default search engine when users type something into the 'awesome bar.' The deal, which runs until 2011, was worth $66 million to Mozilla in 2007, accounting for 88% of the foundation's revenues that year (the last year for which it had published accounts). But now that Google is a competitor as well as a partner, is it really wise for Mozilla to be so dependent on Google?"

5 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Lone Wolf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mozilla is very dependant on others, just like Linux. There are no islands in the software industry, unless you are Microsoft, in which case you are more like a shitty continent, like Asia. But that is beside the point. I've been in hotels with those interfacse too, and saw the Opera logo.

  2. Re:Better question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's not dependent on this story alone. No, there are other stories it is dependent upon rehashing.

  3. Re:What ? by bunratty · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, you mean like automatic software updating and automatic crash reporting, for example?

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  4. Re:Wise or not, what choice do they really have? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you want to lock down the color settings, here are the steps:

    1) Before deploying, go to the configuration file.
    2) Find a hot curling iron
    3) Shove it up your ass

    There's no fucking reason you need to lock down the color settings.

  5. Re:Lone Wolf by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

    non-pc devices.

    I've noticed that too. My mobile phone is always complaining about how black people don't know their place, asking who that 'mulatto' is whenever Obama is on CNN and saying that women should be back home cooking for the husbands.

    Oh well, it's an old model I guess.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;