2mo ago

Firefox is now officially hosted on Github!

github.com

GitHub - mozilla-firefox/firefox: The official repository of Mozilla's Firefox web browser.

19 comments

Real question, why downgrade to a proprietary host?
- My guess is they're preparing for the Google search money to vanish and cutting costs wherever they can however small and hosting their own code repo was one thing to go.
  
  That would seem a bit extreme, I was thinking more that they want to lower the barrier to contributions, but who knows, it could be. Both would positively affect the economical aspect of things after all
  
  Hosting the code is probably non-material as far as costs go for Mozilla, and I doubt they would ever recoup the costs of migrating the code off their current solution in terms of engineering costs.
  If I had to guess, this is them meeting other Open Source contributors where they usually are, which in large part is GitHub these days.
- Cost of binary blob downloads.
RIP
Didn’t they move to Microsoft for hosting quite some time ago?
- they only had this mirror
  https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev/
  but it seems they were using mercurial at https://hg-edge.mozilla.org/
Strange how so many, are so quick to anger towards Firefox. I have used it since Navigator, and I've always felt quite safe with it. I am in awe of a browser that not only competes, but also surpasses other browsers with a ton more money behind it.
Generally thats concerning.
But hopefully this means its easier to find and submit bug reports. Their issue tracker beforewm was a terrible UX.
- Not only that, it's easier to contribute. And generally more accessible to more developers. Which is a damn good thing.
It is still an improvement as this makes it easier to bring in more people.
With that being said, I think it would've been better to use Forgejo.
so they're getting rid of mercurial and self hosting? not sure if this is positive..
- Yes
And this is... good?
- Yes, it's incredibly good.
  If Firefox is trying to get more developers on board with working on it than being on the largest development platform helps them.
  It's a move that should benefit Firefox by making open source contributions more accessible And bringing in more developers.
- And this is how you make a meme, fellow kids!

19 comments