Sorry, I’m failing to really see the point of Spread Firefox (via /.), who want to put a full-page ad in the New York Times (amongst other things) to promote the forthcoming launch of the superior web browsing experience that is (will be) Mozilla Firefox 1.0.

Actually, that’s being too kind, I think’s it’s a fucking stupid waste. I mean, why just give all that money filling the coffers of the mainstream media as part of a single day’s stunt? Mozilla.org, or indeed many other equally high-quality open source projects are in a state of permanent cash-strappedness, the money could be put to far better uses.

For Firefox to seriously challenge IE, a sustained growth in users is required, not some crappy corporate-esque blowout that will be forgotten in 3 minutes. Want to spread Firefox properly? Then find a friend who would have never heard of FF and doesn’t like installing new software or changing from their usual. Tell them there’s a better alternative to IE, help them install it on their computer and show them personally why it’s better (performance, tabbed browsing, ad blocking, no popups, find as you type, etc.) than the status quo. Offer to uninstall it if they don’t find their browsing experience improved. And if they do, then ask them to tell all their friends about how easy it is to switch.