Give Me Firefox!

RedHerring (yes, it’s still alive) has a fascinating article about a full-page adveritsement in the New York Times promoting the open-source web browser, Mozilla firefox.

Yes, advertisements in the Times cost real money. In fact, $50,000. So Rob Davis, which Red Herring describes as a Marketing Maverick, put up a web page 10 days ago trying to get 2,500 donors to contribute $20 each. Instead, he got 10,000 people — the extra $200,000 is going to be plowed back into the Mozilla Foundation.

Interestingly, most of the donations come from students, rather than professionals. Frankly, $20 just aint that much — not when lunch costs $10.

We may have finally found the way to pay for Open Source software.