Recently, due to changes in Mozilla’s Terms of Service (TOS), I decided to switch browsers.

I thought that the transition would be simple and uneventful. I was wrong.

I switched to Waterfox, and here are some of the differences I noticed:

• Custom Search Engines: Waterfox allows me to add a custom search engine. This was a huge win for me because Mozilla has blocked this option. Why, Mozilla? Did Google pay you enough to make this feature inaccessible? It’s frustrating.
• No Pocket Annoyance: I don’t use Pocket for bookmarks—I prefer my own system. How many times have I accidentally clicked the context menu entry, only to be frustrated by the Pocket pop-up? It’s been a problem, but Waterfox doesn’t have that issue.
• It does not make any suggestions in the start screen. Who thought that was a good idea. I understand they need revenue, but… I don’t know. There are many open source projects that operate without problems and which do not require such oboxious things

These two differences are enough to make me question Mozilla’s decision-making. It seems like they’re moving more towards big corporations, subscriptions, and advertisements, rather than focusing on what users actually want.

I want a tool, not an ad delivery platform.

After these realizations, I came to one conclusion: Waterfox may never be truly successful.

Let’s play a little “what if” game:

• Waterfox becomes more popular than Firefox
• Mozilla sees this shift and decides to pull back investment in Firefox
• Progress on Waterfox slows down because it relies on Firefox’s development

The future of Waterfox is tied to Firefox’s progress, and if Firefox is sidelined, Waterfox could struggle too.