Mozilla: we'll pay developers where we can
Mozilla Foundation has said it is committed to rewarding the community that helps develop its software. Mozilla's suite, which includes the Firefox Web browser, is partly developed by unpaid programmers, often working in their spare time. Mozilla on Wednesday said it could not afford to pay all of its voluntary contributors, but instead may contribute by providing hardware to some developers. "Sometimes [volunteers] struggle on bad machines, or stay up all hours looking for someone with a Linux machine to test a program. Maybe we can provide machines," said Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Corporation chief executive and a member of the Mozilla Foundation board of directors, in an interview with ZDNet UK.
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Despite its success, however, Mozilla's fans are becoming increasingly -concerned that the organisation is moving away from its altruistic roots and becoming a fully fledged money-making operation. The company makes no secret of the fact that it turns a profit. Firefox uses Google as its preferred search engine partner. When a user carries out a search via the browser's built-in search facility, about 80 per cent of the advertising revenue from any associated hits goes back to Mozilla.
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3 Comments
That's a false dichotomy. Why are "altruistic" and "money-making" opposites?
If you are a U.S. corporation beholden to Joe Public and institutional shareholders, then perhaps may be (Dodge vs. Ford etc.). But the Mozilla Foundation and Corporation do not fall into that category.
As having been working on the pr, I downloaded the google toolbar for IE and the firefox to see the pr real-time. I found that the pr changes so slow from one page to another in the firefox. I dont doubt the speed of my net and my computer. So... you see.
I don't mind mozilla making money. So long as they keep the code and documents open source.
I do think that passing on money (for example to sqlite) would be great for other projects.
I like that mozilla is scrutinised by *us* about what they do. Rock on, baby.
monk.e.boy
Comment by monk.e.boy at May 31, 2006 09:13 AM | Permalink