Not only that, they had goals beyond just a browser. They wanted to create a whole OS ecosystem integrated with the browser. They released Firefox as a side project to just get a browser in everyone’s hands while they worked on Mozilla. Turns out the OS ecosystem in a browser was a bust, and Firefox was a winner. Just the Mozilla devs haven’t stopped being bitter about it. The old Netscape motivations around the project have been a boat anchor.

Normies (also me) use Gmail, it’s easy when you login to your browser and you’re partially already authenticated everywhere else.

Same goes for android.

You’re always both. With Apple, it doesn’t sell your data, but it does sell curated ad space where they use your data to power their tools. While this is less of an invasion of privacy than Google or the atrocity of Meta’s privacy policy, it still exists on a spectrum of how much companies are willing to use your data for extra profit. I’m not saying to not use Apple, hell I’m currently using Microsoft Edge, but I think it’s important to understand that literally every profit-driven company is subject to the same systemic flaws and none of them can be completely trusted.