> What I don't like is Mozilla using it as a dairy cow, and starving it on top of that.

I don't get the analogy. What exactly is Mozilla doing that you don't like?

They’re implying that Mozilla are milking Firefox for all it’s worth. Exploiting it and at the same time not treating it very well.

Correct. I feel Mozilla is starving Firefox and using the money somewhat frivolously.

Mozilla have many interesting projects and several of them may be good, but none of them have had such impact or has such potential for the future as Firefox.

Edit: and I'm willing to pay $10 - $50 a month to someone who will create and maintain a patched version of the latest Firefox that fixes the worst problems like not being able to hide the standard tabs (in addition to any sponsored search deals they may get).

I suspect I'm not alone: for many(most?) of us our browser is one of our most important tools, the other being and IDE, an editor or some graphics tool.

Edit 2: Paid Chromium based doesn't count for me. A major point is to counter the Chrome monoculture.

Well, that's a really bad reason to use chrome or some other chromium based browser.

But if you are willing to fork Firefox, that's a very good reason. I just don't think any fork will be as long as the majority of users are on a chromium based browser, those are toxic to the ecosystem.

> Well, that's a really bad reason to use chrome or some other chromium based browser.

Who said I do, I often have multiple months between every time I use a Chrome or Chrome based browser.

Edit, I use a multipronged approach:

- I use only Firefox - except once in a blue moon to verify if something is an actual Firefox bug or a general bug.

- and develop in Firefox. Bonus: Without testing in any other browsers most weeks I can count on one finger the times I have introduced cross browser defects

- I raise awareness that Mozilla is extracting money from Firefox, not funding it.

- I raise awareness about how Google is pushing to kill competition in the browser markets (besides here on HN and contacting authorities myself I have also urged a grumpy colleague today to contact relevant competition authorities)

- I rise awareness about the likely outcome of a Chrome monoculture: mostly that ad blocking will disappear, the web as a platform will stagnate and we will have to live with more nasty restrictions.