Why does Mozilla not ask the users to pay for Firefox

Question

A genuine question, that's timely in context of the recent layoffs at Mozilla:Why doesn't Mozilla take user's money for Firefox? I would gladly pay a few bucks per month for a browser. It could even be the same version that other people get for free.I don't want to pay for other services that Mozilla has to offer, like Pocket or VPN. I just want a great open-source browser from someone who is not FAAMG.

Normille · Accepted Answer

Because there are eleventy billion free browsers out there already --quite a few of which are at least as good [if not better] than Firefox-- so almost no-one would see the need to buy a browser.

jimmyvalmer · Answer

Mozilla already accepts what you've described (a fee for a product indistinguishable from the free version). The industry parlance for such a thing is a "donation."

sdfhbdf · Answer

You can donate to the foundation - https://donate.mozilla.org/

thu2111 · Answer

Donations have been tried as a way to fund other open source projects. It doesn't work. Almost nobody is like you.