With the enshittification of all-things-Google, a lot of us have left Chromium-based browsers for Firefox. But still, over the last 15 years, Firefox has gone from 30%+ market share to about 6% now.

With the big backlash against them over the last week, I’ve seen a number of people advocating for Librewolf and Waterfox – Firefox forks focused on security and privacy – but if Firefox loses what little revenue it has left, what will become of the forks if Firefox dies?

  • blackbrook@mander.xyz
    2·
    1 month ago

    I’d say the more likely version of that scenario is not all the forks merging, but them all collaborating on a common base project from which they each can still produce their own spin.

    • megane-kun@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      I really hope that the forks coordinate for this to happen, soon, if not yesterday.

      Maybe a group that keeps track what is to be done if Firefox development stops or if Mozilla folds or somehow abandons Firefox. Things such as:

      • how to take over development from Mozilla
      • the minimum that needs to be done to keep up to the standards
      • the minimum that needs to be done to keep the (base) browser on par in performance with Chromium (and the others, such as Servo)
      • coordinate developers and other people involved in the project
      • manage donations and funding

      Maybe I’m imagining some sort of a cooperative formed by Firefox forks with the main aim of keeping Firefox alive despite of (or after) Mozilla.

      • jcg@halubilo.social
        2·
        1 month ago

        But since Chromium has soooo much of the market share, Firefox will always be playing catch-up. If Google decides to go full rogue and ignore W3C specs entirely and make up a bunch of their own shit, that devs then start to use because why not since the majority of their userbase use a chromium based browser, then Firefox can easily be taken out.