I was wondering. Take Mozilla for example. They make web browsers like Firefox and a couple others at least. How do they make money?
or do they make money?

I mean there seems to be this competitive thing going on with something like browsers where they are all trying to become the most widely used browser etc. But what is exactly is thee goal in that? do they make money when their browser is used. I mean I have been using firefox for a long time but it has always been free. How do they make money?
I mean I know that they have to have a team of software writers and so forth to work on and improve things.. and i am sure those software writers need to get paid. How are they generating revenue.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/internet/how-does-the-mozilla-foundation-make-money/

http://www.yalelawtech.org/ip-in-the-digital-age/how-does-firefox-make-money-again/

Easiest answer:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+does+mozilla+make+money

I will have to read through those links more when I get time.
I was hoping somebody could just break it down and give me a
quick simplified answer.

Ok so the answer basically is donations.
they have gotten some big donations from Google and AOL over
the years and individual users sometimes donate money
etc.

Thats interesting. I thought there might be some other trick
they are tapping into.

well so long as they make enough money to continue to make
awesome browsers and keep them updated that is good.
they probably should implore Advertising technics
to make some more revenue

Here is a quote from the makers of proXPN:

GENERAL CONCERNS

Q: What's the catch?
A: This comes up a lot more than we expected, but it makes sense. If you're going to rely on us to protect your privacy online, you probably want to know how we make money doing it. Quite simply, we rely on users who like the service or want extra features (PPTP VPN, servers outside of the USA) to upgrade from a Basic to a Premium Account. It doesn't take many upgrades for this model to work. Only a couple percent and we're profitable. This is based on the same model that you see on lots of online products and services like Skype, Dropbox and Evernote. Free (Basic) gives you a good baseline service and paid (Premium) gives you enhanced features.