Comment by runeks
6 days ago
> I agree, this is a problem, but there should be a trivial solution: Users of the browser should pay a small amount of "money" for the product they use all day every day.
If getting people to pay for stuff they use were trivial then advertising wouldn't be as big as it is.
Yeah, OP is naive. Nobody ever paid for browsers, even before IE was a thing (well, nobody I know...).
We also don't pay for open TV which is ad supported.
This isn't a single decision that someone madennn it's actually very natural.
We don't pay for most of the web, not only browsers. Indirect monetization is great because making a consumer open his/her wallet takes a lot, no matter the price.
Netscape was sold at Babbages in my local mall. Plenty of people bought it. Just like my father bought Telix and Laplink and earlier communication software.
Not knowing anyone who admits to having done something, doesn't mean that thing never happens.