Nope, or at the very least, much more complex than just that.
Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation, a for-profit corporation.
This corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Mozilla Foundation.
In order for an organization to be eligible for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, it has to have a “charitable mission”. So it can't just be a “normal” business that simply retains all profits and keeps public financial records. On top of that, if it is determined that the organization is allocating a “significant portion” of its resources to economic activity that does not directly service the nonprofit mission, then it can lose its nonprofit status. Also, lastly, an organization with a 501(c)(3) exemption is literally not allowed to funnel resources into assets which cannot be scrutinized (like a wholly owned for profit subsidiary).
Long story short, literally the only money that Mozilla can use to support Firefox development is the money they get from its commercial ventures, and any profits these commercial ventures would theoretically be for the Mozilla Foundation to use to perform consumer advocacy, which is what they supposedly “really” do, at least as far as the IRS is concerned.
So it is very likely that some of the "stupid things nobody wants" have been initiatives from the foundation.
On top of that, the large majority of revenue of the Mozilla *Corporation* comes from Google as part of a search deal. This makes that income stream very precarious and uncertain.
So, a lot of the remaining things on the list of "stupid things nobody wants" have been the result of the corporation attempting to branch out and find other, more sustainable sources of revenue.
Not to say that all decisions made by the corporation have been to my liking either, but I figured I'd give this context.
This is not an excuse. Either the nonprofit can have the charitable mission of building a free web browser or the corporation can accept donations that aren't tax deductible. Their leadership obviously wants to spend their money on stupid things nobody wants and chose their corporate structure accordingly
Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation, a for-profit corporation. This corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Mozilla Foundation.
In order for an organization to be eligible for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, it has to have a “charitable mission”. So it can't just be a “normal” business that simply retains all profits and keeps public financial records. On top of that, if it is determined that the organization is allocating a “significant portion” of its resources to economic activity that does not directly service the nonprofit mission, then it can lose its nonprofit status. Also, lastly, an organization with a 501(c)(3) exemption is literally not allowed to funnel resources into assets which cannot be scrutinized (like a wholly owned for profit subsidiary).
Long story short, literally the only money that Mozilla can use to support Firefox development is the money they get from its commercial ventures, and any profits these commercial ventures would theoretically be for the Mozilla Foundation to use to perform consumer advocacy, which is what they supposedly “really” do, at least as far as the IRS is concerned.
So it is very likely that some of the "stupid things nobody wants" have been initiatives from the foundation.
On top of that, the large majority of revenue of the Mozilla *Corporation* comes from Google as part of a search deal. This makes that income stream very precarious and uncertain.
So, a lot of the remaining things on the list of "stupid things nobody wants" have been the result of the corporation attempting to branch out and find other, more sustainable sources of revenue.
Not to say that all decisions made by the corporation have been to my liking either, but I figured I'd give this context.