Damned if they sell ads, like sponsored sites in new tabs, and damned if they don't, instead relying largely on selling defaults.
While I wish donations could sustain a competitive browser, I'll settle for a reasonably independent one. Even if the lion's share of financing is from Google throwing them some bones in exchange for the top search provider slot.
Other browsers have yielded much larger parts of their stacks to Google.
Even if they are still financially dependent on Google, I suspect if they could follow through on being a bit more impartial[1], then I would trust them more
[1] last time I've used Firefox, there was a built-in, official Facebook Container, while the Google Container extension was a non-built-in, unofficial fork, and it wasn't among the list of recommended privacy extensions.
While I wish donations could sustain a competitive browser, I'll settle for a reasonably independent one. Even if the lion's share of financing is from Google throwing them some bones in exchange for the top search provider slot.
Other browsers have yielded much larger parts of their stacks to Google.