+++ title = "How Much Is a Browser Worth?" date = 2024-07-03T17:22:01+10:00 # [extra] # updated = 2024-06-04T07:49:36+10:00 +++ Apparently people are excited about funding independent browser efforts this week. I have little interest in funding yet another browser built in C++ in 2024 but [Servo] is still alive. Since Mozilla refuse to let us directly fund Firefox I shall set up a recurring donation to Servo. The next question is how much is a web browser worth to me? Based on minutes spent using a browser, quite a lot! <!-- more --> Once upon a time you could pay for Netscape. It seems that [in 1996 Netscape 3.0 cost US$49][netscape3]. Adjusting for inflation that's US$97 in 2024. Let's round that up to an even US$100. At the time of writing [Numbat] tells me that's AU$150 or AU$12.50 per month, which seems reasonable. Some other services for comparison (I don't actually have an active YouTube Premium subscription): - Netflix: AU$18.99/m - YouTube Premium: AU$16.99/m - JetBrains Rust Rover: US$129/y (AU$194, AU$16/m) A browser is a least as useful as these, almost certainly more. So, I've set up a US$15/m (AU$22.50) recurring sponsorship on GitHub. I encourage you to [do the same][sponsor-servo]. [netscape3]: https://web.archive.org/web/19961115062838/http://merchant.netscape.com/netstore/NAVIGATORS/STANDARD/STANDARD_ITEMS/leaf/product1.html [sponsor-servo]: https://github.com/sponsors/servo [Servo]: https://servo.org/ [Numbat]: https://numbat.dev/