I'm often at the receiving end of angst about the business model funding #Firefox.
They do need to FUND the underlying web engines #Gecko & #Servo. Mozillians argue about implementations behind the scenes more than you do here. Why do you think we have such strong participation guidelines?
Go for a fork that resonates if you need. Waterfox, IceFox, there's loads! FOSS FTW!!
But consider donating to Mozilla and help support the only TRUE alternative to Google's "Blink" and Apple's "WebKit".
@david_ross I never understood what Mozilla does with donations. I thought that donations go to MoFo, not MoCo, and that devs are paid from MoCo while MoFo just does those pretty videos telling us how Firefox is gonna save the internet and thus the world.
You're telling me that donations from MoFo do make it into MoCo and to pay developers' salaries?
@david_ross Yes, but how does the money flow? Money is a big motivator despite best intentions.
@JordiGH You'll find 20 years of financials from Mozilla Foundation and its assets (including MoCo) right here. Just change the year in the URL to go back each 12 months. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/foundation/annualreport/2016/
@JordiGH YES a significant amount of money comes from the default search engine contract with Google. I use DDG for example though. But DDG as the default would NOT provide the necessary income.
Mozilla are testing innovative ways of breaking this thorn in our side. Their first ever acquisition of Pocket (and its 20 million users) is one. Testing sponsored content in new tabs in the USA is another. Emerging Technologies is another. Donations alone is not self-sustaining, sadly.
@david_ross Hmmmm... I wish I could get a straight answer. If I donate, do I help @tromey's salary or not? I'll try to puzzle through the financial statements later to see.
@JordiGH this is not what you originally asked me. I am providing very straight answers in my voluntary position of filling in the gaps for you. I can't know everything.
I do not know of any large organisation that has the ability to fund a particular aspect of their work, or a particular team's efforts in which you are hoping to find. If you do, please share.
I can direct you towards channels where it could be more effectively asked like https://support.mozilla.org/ and https://discourse.mozilla.org/
@david_ross I'm sorry. I thought I was clear when I asked if donations go to developers' salaries.
Your ignorance in this matter seems pretty widespread; I have asked this before and nobody else seems to know. MoCo and MoFo are large orgs whose details seem difficult to untangle.
Sorry I am not reading through the financial statements right now. I'll try later.
@david_ross @JordiGH when I read his question it seemed very much like the reference to a particular developer was an example.
I am also interested in knowing if any portion of any donation I may make go to paying any developers.
Surely this should be an easy question to answer? I donate to multiple projects, but I'd like to know what I'm funding.
@loke @JordiGH I dunno. Surely all the income gets added into a big pot and all the salaries and everything else is paid from that pot; spreading it over multiple companies just makes it more complicated but only the most dedicated charities have the ability to earmark donations for "only X". So the trivial answer must be: of course dev salaries are paid with the money, as is everything else. Viva SAP or whatever accounting software they use.
@kensanata @loke Having a for-profit MoCo owned by the non-profit MoFo makes me think the story is more complicated than a big pot. I do know that dev salaries come from MoCo, so there must be some sort of financial barrier between MoCo and MoFo.
@JordiGH @kensanata @loke My guess is that MoFo makes a budget for MoCo which pay the devs. When you donate to a org. You hand over your money for them to decide about. If you want to donate a single individual you should check that persons patron/paypal or something..
Anyway.. David are not sure so he redirected you to those who might know more. I don't think you will get a much better answer than that.
@loke I'm not currently aware that there is a model where I *could* base an answer of this. Stating my ignorance is widespread is not a route to getting further assistance from me.
This is not because it's some dodgy af subversion technique, but because it would need sourcing and protentially modelling to allow for such granularity.
If this truly is a point in which people wish to obtain an answer (not a fob off - an escalation towards the answer) support & discourse are the go to.
@JordiGH @david_ross I asked around and money donated to the Foundation doesn't go to the corp, only the other way.
@tromey @JordiGH @david_ross so that means that money donated to the foundation are not used to pay developers?
@loke @JordiGH @david_ross Not MoCo developers; I think sometimes the Foundation may do some development projects, but these aren't Firefox.
@JordiGH MoFo is the single shareholder of MoCo