The State of Mozilla

http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/annualreport/2009/index.html

by atularora • 16 years ago

47 27 16 years ago

Encosia• 16 years ago

This stood out to me in the sustainability document:

> As noted last year, the IRS has opened an audit of the Mozilla Foundation. We do not yet have a good feel for how long this process will take or the overall scope of what will be involved.

With so much flagrant fraud and evasion dangled in front of our faces every day in the news, it's great to know this is how the IRS is allocating its resources.

tmiller• 16 years ago

I remember hearing that the structure they have, where a for-profit company (Mozilla Co) is owned by a non-profit (Mozilla Foundation) is highly unusual, which of course is going to attract scrutiny.

protomyth3• 16 years ago

Mayo does the same thing.

wmf2• 16 years ago

IIRC the current structure is a response to the IRS audit. Originally, Google paid MoFo directly. Now Google pays MoCo, presumably MoCo pays taxes, and any surplus money can go to MoFo to be used tax-free.

celticjames• 16 years ago

I don't think that's the issue. I think it is more of a case of whether or not the corporation and the foundation really are two separate organizations. Until the new director of the foundation arrived (Mark Surman), the foundation didn't really appear to do anything. To the IRS, this may have looked like the foundation was only a tax shelter for the corporation and not a real thing.

Now there's all this Drumbeat Festival stuff, etc.. coming out the foundation. Clearly they are trying to position themselves as a non-profit that advocates for the open web rather than just a company that gives away a browser. Owning a corporation that gives away a browser is just part of that cause. Hopefully that's how the IRS sees it.

Sadly, I don't think a lot of the foundation sponsored stuff really ever links up with anything happening on the corporate side. At least from the outside, it still looks like the corporation wags the foundation and not the other way around.

Edit: Yes, the foundation does own the corporation.

protomyth3• 16 years ago

The IRS is probably a little concerned with a 501(c)(3) earning so much revenue from "search royalties". It has the feel of a real business not a traditional non-profit.

SkyMarshal2• 16 years ago

Mozilla, and organizations like it, weren't involved in blowing up the global economy either.

The IRS has its priorities all wrong, and really needs to focus its audits first on domains where fraud can and has lead to asymmetrically negative results, like the financial industry.

Once they take care of those, then they can turn their attention to companies and domains where the consequences of fraud are much more localized.

matthew-wegner• 16 years ago

It's fascinating that "underdog" is such a big part of their identity. Don't they make $80+ million a year in revenue?

wmf2• 16 years ago

Considering the skepticism that Canonical gets from the community, Mozilla's underdog positioning is really smart. (And now it's >$100M. Please donate!)

mbrubeck2• 16 years ago

Let's look at the top competitors in the browser market, by revenue:

Apple: $65.2 billion/year

Microsoft: $62.5 billion/year

Google: $23.7 billion/year

Mozilla: $0.1 billion/year

Mozilla's revenue might seem high out of context, but we certainly are not going to win any browser wars by outspending this competition.

sudonim• 16 years ago

Like so many people I know, I've ditched Firefox in the past few months for Chrome. I loved Mozilla Firefox when it came out but the fast couple of versions they seem to have lost the plot.

I looked in "A competetive landscape" for some insight on how they would seek to be the best browser again.

http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/annualreport/2009/a-compet...

But, all I see is horn-tooting. Where's the Mozilla I fell in love with?

zcid• 16 years ago

I have been extremely impressed with the Firefox 4 betas. They have definitely restored my faith as it were. Previously, I had almost fully converted to Chrome myself.

SkyMarshal2• 16 years ago

I read that page and can't imagine what else they could possibly say. What were you hoping for?

QE2• 16 years ago

I, too, would like to see Mozilla become more agile and cutting-edge. I still hold respect for them, though, as the organization that taught the masses "IE != The Internet".

d0m• 16 years ago

I think that what is so great about chrome is the lack of useless feature and focus on the core ones (speed to name only this one). Mozilla, by contrast, seems to say Yes to everything and by any means become really slow. On my mac, I need to test on both browser and the speed difference between those browsers is phenomenal. Seriously, if firebug was on chrome, I wouldn't need firefox anymore. (I'm a bit sad about that)

paulirish2• 16 years ago

> Seriously, if firebug was on chrome, I wouldn't need firefox anymore.

I'm working with the Chrome Dev Tools team to make them even better. Would love to hear more from you on what needs to happen. :)

carussell• 16 years ago

What features does Firefox have that Chrome doesn't?

mbrubeck2• 16 years ago

One important point that's not really mentioned in this document is that the increased competition is good for Mozilla's goals. Not only does it force us to work harder and better to grow Firefox's user base; it's also good for our deeper goals as a non-profit dedicated to innovation and openness on the internet.

Mozilla never wanted to just kick IE6's ass for years. A market with several high-quality browsers is a big part of what this community has been working toward.

briandon• 16 years ago

The purple, blue and green-suited mascots in the foreground of the photo on the linked page are neat-looking.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gen/4784616521/

More photos featuring the same characters from the event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjoerfoks/5142119185/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjoerfoks/5142111909/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjoerfoks/5142708312/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjoerfoks/5142103071/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjoerfoks/5142096079/

juddlyon• 16 years ago

I was curious where their company pic was taken. It's Whistler, British Columbia. Looks gorgeous.

The State of Mozilla

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