Say Hi to Kit
50 comments
·November 6, 2025latexr
noir_lord
Indeed if those graphic designers hadn't been wasting time drawing a cute fox they'd have been waste deep in 15 year old code fixing bugs.
Orgs can do multiple things at the same time.
latexr
> Indeed if those graphic designers hadn't been wasting time drawing a cute fox they'd have been waste deep in 15 year old code fixing bugs.
That’s not the criticism I’m making.
> Orgs can do multiple things at the same time.
Of course they can. But they should also prioritise—allocating money and resources appropriately—and Mozilla has for far too long not prioritised Firefox itself. That’s the issue. If people felt Mozilla were a good steward of Firefox, they wouldn’t mind most of the tangential stuff they do. The issue is that Mozilla has a history of getting distracted with irrelevant side projects that go nowhere and are summarily abandoned (meaning they were a waste) while Firefox doesn’t get as much attention as it could and should.
One sentiment I often see on HN is “I would like to donate to Firefox but Mozilla only lets you donate to the organisation as a whole, and I don’t like the other things they’re doing”. Unlike every other major browser, Firefox is the main product of its parent company. It should be the best at what it’s for, yet far too often I see people saying they use Firefox not because they prefer it but because it’s not from Microsoft/Google/Apple.
greatgib
Maybe the point is that if they were so useless that they could waste time doing that, we could have fired(/not hired) them and instead hired a developer to improve the product...
And at the same time, the dev already paid by Mozilla that could have been fixing the product, was busy updating the source code to update the mascot...
miroljub
> Orgs can do multiple things at the same time.
In principle this is true. In the concrete case of Firefox, they have proven they focus more on side quests than on making a quality browser.
I lost any hope they'll go for technical excellence instead of virtue signaling and branding after the Brendan Eich disaster. They feel now like a Microsoft, Google, Apple, or any other big corp.
I used Firefox since it was called Firebird and finally gave up and switched to another (non big corp) browser and couldn't be happier.
1718627440
I always thought Mozilla Firefox does have a mascot, which is well "the FireFox".
sixhobbits
I think you might have missed the dripping sarcasm in the comment you replied to
Ezhik
This but unironically.
zephyreon
This may be a controversial position but I actually enjoy using Firefox. Vertical tabs, better profile management, etc. have all been welcome things I had in other browsers (cough Arc cough) that have made it bearable enough to use Firefox as my daily driver. They may not be as privacy-focused as some of the other derivatives of Firefox but they’re sure not Chromium.
cal85
They seem to be actively working on vertical tabs for Chromium right now: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/q/message:+vertical...
masfuerte
Vertical tabs are still broken. Fullscreen mode (F11) hides all the chrome except for the vertical tabs. Who wants this?
aswerty
While there is nothing inherently wrong with this. It does have vibes of Mayers and the Yahoo logo. The ship is going down but we have a fresh new look!
chrismorgan
I pressed the “play animation” button, and the fox disappeared and nothing else happened. If I hadn’t had video autoplay disabled, the fox would just not have been visible in the first place.
> Media resource https://assets.mozilla.net/video/kit/pop-up-800.webm could not be decoded, error: Error Code: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_FATAL_ERR (0x806e0005)
> Details: auto mozilla::MediaChangeMonitor::CreateDecoderAndInit(MediaRawData *)::(anonymous class)::operator()(const MediaResult &) const: Unable to create decoder
Unfortunate.
(firefox-nightly, Linux.)
noir_lord
Works fine on the mainline version of FF - nightly and firefox are always fun with multimedia on linux/codecs.
slig
Yes, that will certainly improve the current 3.7% market share [1].
[1]: https://radar.cloudflare.com/adoption-and-usage#top-browsers...
nozzlegear
Let's dispense with this notion that all employees and volunteers at Mozilla must be singularly focused on improving the market share of Firefox at all costs.
mythz
Their latest 2023 results, shows Mozilla still has enough revenue to do something [1]:
- Total revenue: $653 million
- Revenue from Google 85% ($555 million)
- Total expenses $496 million (Software Development Expenses $260 million)
miroljub
TIL that only half of the Firefox expenses are used on software development in a broader sense.
And even that is optimistic, since it probably includes all the side quests not related to the browser core engine that has bugs and performance issues that are not fixed for years.
AnonC
I love this. It’s good to see Mozilla trying different revenue generating approaches (edit: the merch with Kit), even if they may seem too small compared to what it gets from the default search engine arrangement with Google.
jonesjohnson
Took me a while to realize you're talking about the merch.
anilgulecha
IMO, Mozilla should make BDK - the browser development kit, allowing for easy creation of custom browsers.
AI era is ripe for disruption, and Firefox with it's openness can aim to kill the browser mono-cultures, but it's vision-less ATM.
flkiwi
A rebrand is the most ominous sign of Mozilla’s declining health I could have imagined.
mythz
Mozilla makes it really hard to root for them.
JoshStrobl
Cure. Ordered a shirt and stickers. Looking forward to being able to rep Firefox!
pluc
Well at least there's no AI involved. Take your wins where you can
jesse_dot_id
Yeah there is...
> The Firefox brand is getting a refresh and you get the first look. Kit’s our new mascot and your new companion through an internet that’s private, open and actually yours.
Your new companion...
malvim
I saw it and immediately thought Clippy. I’m pretty sure this is indeed going to be AI-related somehow.
null
Finally! All these years everyone has been complaining about this or that missing feature or lingering bug in Firefox, or how Mozilla has been hostile to users and pulling stupid stunts which only waste money and alienate even their most passionate fans, but by far the number one grievance everyone had was how Firefox was missing a mascot. At last I can make my mother switch to Firefox. I’m messaging all my friends right now, this is exactly what Firefox needed. Mozilla is finally back on track, focusing on the right things. It gives me tremendous hope for the continued bright future of Firefox.