How did they survive without their funding before they got it? And don't say that web standards are much more complex nowadays - yes, they are, because it is in Google's interest to make them such. Will it hurt? Yes. Will Firefox survive? I hope so. Is it a bad idea? No.
> How did they survive without their funding before they got it?
They were initially Netscape, a commercial company, so they had money from their customers.
After the browser code base was handed over from Netscape/AOL to the Mozilla Foundation in 2003, they got donations from AOL, IBM, Red Hat, etc. which kept them going for a few more years.
The Mozilla Foundation signed the deal with Google two years later, in 2005.
In short, they survived first on commercial revenues and then from donations, neither of which are substantial now.
Informative. AOL also sued Microsoft for iirc $1 billion for their illegal Netscape shenanigans. That kept Mozilla going for several years when they really didn't have a product, and probably would have been shut down otherwise.
