The Lunduke Journal regularly offers Mozilla a chance to comment on stories. Mozilla never responds. Until last week, when Mozilla learned of whistleblowers talking to Lunduke.
Based on available data, as of June, 2025, there are as many as 72 Million Desktop PCs running Linux. Which is more than all Apple Ils, Amigas, & Win 3.1 PCs combined. Ever.
The "Learn Linux TV" YouTube channel hit 1 Million subscribers. But how many of those are bots? At first glance... a lot. Possibly most. The Dead Internet Theory is real.
Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.
It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.
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Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.
Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣
Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal
Instead of the regular shows (audio podcasts & videos), The Lunduke Journal will be publishing only articles for the next week.
I’m traveling this week, and recording shows is a little tricky. But there are some great stories that deserve to be told — so articles it is!
Be sure you’re following The Lunduke Journal on any of the four platforms where articles are published (all are free to follow be alerted to new articles).
-Lunduke
The DOJ v. Google case — which found that Google has been violating antitrust laws related to its monopoly position in the Search Engine market — is weeks away from ending the remedy phase. Judge Mehta is expected to issue his final decision some time in August (next month).
Significantly for Mozilla, one of the most heavily pushed (by the DOJ) remedies would block Google from paying Mozilla for default search engine placement within Firefox. This would, effectively, end over 80% of Mozilla’s yearly revenue… and force the company to dramatically downsize.
During the court trial earlier this year, the Mozilla CFO testified that, should this happen, Mozilla “may be forced to scale back operations”.
At the same time as the DOJ v. Google case is moving quickly towards a conclusion, the US government has pulled Mozilla funding — resulting in renewed, desperate pleas from Mozilla, asking for donations to attempt to cover the lost tax payer revenue.
Mozilla appears to have a four pronged approach to securing funding and staying in business:
Fight the DOJ v. Google case (both in court and public opinion).
Rebrand (and re-focus) on political activism in the hopes of securing new funding sources. (They are now a “global crew of activists” focused on Marxist causes.)
Monetize data collected from Firefox users. (See: Firefox recently changing their Terms of Use to allow Mozilla to collect user data.)
Encouraging users to donate.
Many questions remain in this saga:
Will Judge Mehta tell Google to stop payments for Search Engine placement? We’ll find out very soon.
Will Google appeal after the remedies are handed down? (Most likely.)
If so, what will the outcome of that appeal be? And how will default Search Engine payments be impacted during the appeal?
Will Mozilla see enough success in their new business of being a “global crew of activists” to avoid significant layoffs?
According to multiple sources within Mozilla — who have spoken to The Lunduke Journal on the condition of anonymity — employees have deep concerns about the future of the company, the leadership currently in power, and the stability of their jobs through the end of this year.
Now, Mozilla has several hundred million dollars in cash on hand. Which means, even if they experience the loss of 80%+ of their revenue… they have enough runway to keep them afloat at least for a little while. But burning through savings to keep a company afloat is not a great long term strategy.
What will Mozilla look like this time next year?
Heck… what will Mozilla look like this time next month?
It’s going to be interesting to watch as this unfolds.
To all of you amazing nerds who have signed up for a new Lunduke Journal subscription today, thank you! You make The Lunduke Journal possible!
If you haven’t snagged yours yet, the “50% off everything, even the Lifetime Subscriptions” deal is available today and tomorrow (through Saturday, May 31st).
50% off Monthly — Now $3 / Month (was $6 / Month)
50% off Yearly — Now $27 / Year (was $54 / Year)
50% off Yearly MP4 Downloads — Now $27 / Year (was $54 / Year)
50% off Lifetime Subscriptions — Now $100 (was $200)
All the details on how to grab each type of subscription is right here. There’s also an audio podcast and video of me rambling about it.
Once again, thank you for all of the support. It truly does make a difference.
-Lunduke
