131

What happens to Firefox forks if Firefox dies? (lemmy.today)

submitted 1 month ago by nothingcorporate@lemmy.today to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

With the enshittification of all-things-Google, a lot of us have left Chromium-based browsers for Firefox. But still, over the last 15 years, Firefox has gone from 30%+ market share to about 6% now.

With the big backlash against them over the last week, I've seen a number of people advocating for Librewolf and Waterfox -- Firefox forks focused on security and privacy -- but if Firefox loses what little revenue it has left, what will become of the forks if Firefox dies?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ghostrider2112@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I would imagine since Firefox is licensed with Mozilla Public License (MPL), that they would be able to continue using the source code and adding additional features and other improvements (as long as they follow the MPL). However, since the base code itself would no longer be getting updates, anyone wanting to continue with a fork would have to fix any bugs and security issues that may be discovered going forward.

[-] zap12344@feddit.it 33 points 1 month ago

Don’t forget also the need to keep up with new web standards otherwise they will quickly become irrelevant due to not being able to go on new sites and I don’t think that will be possible without another company/foundation funding and taking over the project

[-] ghostrider2112@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Great point! Also, keeping things updated to ensure support with all the other libraries and APIs it may use, supporting new operating systems…

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Firefox’s codebase is of the scale of an operating system. I don’t think people realise just how complex web browsers are. If you took the drivers out of the kernel, Firefox dwarfs Linux.

It’s not something someone casually just forks and carries on.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago

Our codebase at work is bigger than Linux (with drivers) and Firefox combined, it gets real wild at scales bigger than a modern OS

this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025

131 points (95.8% liked)

Asklemmy

47282 readers

954 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS