Open Sauce tech writer Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols [pictured] said the trouble began in February when Mozilla quietly revised its Terms of Use and Privacy Notice, scrapping a longstanding pledge not to sell user data.
A once-clear FAQ answer of “Nope. Never have, never will” was replaced with a woollier statement that it would “protect your personal information.” Weeks later, Mozilla declared that artificial intelligence would be its top focus for 2025, listing it ahead of privacy.
Vaughan-Nichols questioned Mozilla's priorities: “Good luck with that AI move. Mozilla, what the heck are you doing playing with AI, anyway? You don't have the resources to even sit down at the table, never mind be an AI winner. “I used to be a Firefox true believer. That was a long time ago. Today, I feel like you can stick a fork in Firefox. It's done.”
Mozilla has confirmed it was axing Pocket, its “read-it-later” web content tool. Although the company claimed this was because browsing habits had evolved, the decision sparked outrage among loyal users.
One Redditor wrote, “I'm grieving. I used this feature nearly every day and loved the Kobo integration that allowed me to read saved articles distraction-free on my Kobo e-ink devices. It's the end of an era.”
Another casualty was Fakespot, an AI-powered review checker that helped users distinguish genuine product reviews from bogus ones. Despite the growing issue of fake AI-generated reviews, Mozilla pulled the plug. “Go figure,” Vaughan-Nichols said.
Meanwhile, Firefox users report that the browser is becoming increasingly unreliable. Several mainstream websites, including Instagram, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp Web, now fail to load correctly or experience performance issues in Firefox, especially those that rely heavily on JavaScript. Vaughan-Nichols noted some are finding Firefox up to 30 per cent slower than competitors and suffering from high idle memory usage, freezes, and crashes even on high-end gear.
Vaughan-Nichols quoted Linux journalist Jack Wallen as saying: “What was once a blazing-fast browser on Linux has become doggedly slow.
On top of that, features started to disappear (such as Do Not Track)... every browser on the market has moved ahead of Firefox with regards to Tab Management.”
Mozilla’s Linux packaging via Snap and Flatpak hasn’t helped, with Snap in particular described as slow and buggy. Things got worse in March when Mozilla failed to deal with an expiring root certificate. As Vaughan-Nichols explained, users had just two days to update or risk losing access to add-ons and secure content.
Internally, Mozilla’s problems are deepening. Another five per cent of its staff were laid off in May. Only 17 per cent of employees approve of CEO Laura Chambers, according to Glassdoor.
Vaughan-Nichols highlighted Mozilla’s financial dependence on Google, citing CFO Eric Muhlheim's admission that 90 per cent of Mozilla’s revenue comes from the search giant. If the US Department of Justice breaks up Google and Chrome, Muhlheim warned it could trigger a “downward spiral” for Firefox.
Firefox’s presence is already minimal. The US federal government's Digital Analytics Program shows the browser holds just 1.9 per cent of the web market.