#Firefox is fine. The people running it are not
#TheRegister article: theregister.com/2025/07/08/fir…
"#Mozilla's management is a #bug, not a #feature"
"#Dominance does not equal #importance, nor is dominance the same as #relevance. The #snag at Mozilla is a #management layer that doesn't appear to understand what works for its #product nor which parts of it matter most to users."
"Don't #blame the #app, and don't even blame the #programmers. That is, the ones who still have #jobs, after years of #engineer #layoffs. Don't even blame the whole #organization – blame the #management. Steven himself has pointed this out before, early in 2024. So have I. In 2023, I said that Mozilla was asleep at the wheel."
Firefox is fine. The people running it are not
Opinion: Mozilla's management is a bug, not a featureLiam Proven (The Register)
ThePfromtheO
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •"#JamieZawinski has #repeatedly said:
Now hear me out, but What If…? #browser #development was in the hands of some kind of #nonprofit #organization?
In my #humble but #correct #opinion, #Mozilla should be doing two things and two things only:
#Building THE #reference #implementation #WebBrowser and
Being a jugular-#snapping #attack #dog on #standards #committees.
There is no 3."
"Perhaps this is the only #viable #resolution."
"#Mozilla, for all its many #failings, has #invented a lot of #amazing #tech, from #Rust to #Servo to the #leading #budget #phone #OS. It shouldn't be trying to #capitalize on this #stuff. Maybe 3encourage it to have semi-independent #spinoffs, such as #Thunderbird, and as #KaiOS ought to be, and as #Rust could have been."
"But #JamieZawinski has the only #clear #vision and #solution we've seen yet. Perhaps he's #right, and #Mozilla #should be a #nonprofit, #working to #fund the one #independent, non-#vendor-driven, #standardscompliant #browserEngine."
Catweazle
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •@ThePfromtheO, Mozilla has made the mistake of his life to sign a contract with the devil, selling it's soul.
A company that depends on the external financing of large corporations, in this case Google and also another advertising company, can be impossiblely independent.
This train has already left for Mozilla, being a mere Google pet which can't survive without the support from these investors.
ThePfromtheO
in reply to Catweazle • • •Fortunately, #VivaldiBrowser isn't in this position at all!
And I hope it will never be.
Catweazle
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •ThePfromtheO
in reply to Catweazle • • •@Catweazle
"without the risk with investors imposing their conditions, here is Vivaldi the one which impose conditions with this system, saving its independence."
I think this is because of @jon's experience with his first #browser, #OperaBrowser.
#privacy #privacyMatters #DataPrivacy #privacyFocused
ThePfromtheO
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •"#Mozilla has missed so many boats that it's not even funny to #catalog them, but sadly, I must."
"Most of the #web runs on #advertising, as it has for 20-plus years. You might think Mozilla would, say, buy and integrate an #adblocker. Acquiring #adblocking #companies has been a thing for a #decade. Other #browsers integrate ad-blocking, and you don't even need something controversial like #Brave – for instance, #VivaldiBrowser has offered it for years. Many of the #team behind #Vivaldi previously made #Opera, and it #blocked #ads too. (Soon afterwards, the company sold it to a #Chinese group.)
But no. Instead, Mozilla goes and buys an #ad firm and then removes its promise not to #sell your #data. Once again, it's as if the #leadership were actively trying to work out the worst direction to turn."
"The #AI trend is a cult now for many.
Whither Mozilla? Oh, it built a #bot into its docs #server in 2023, then promptly had to turn it off again. Its #chief product #officer was quite gung-ho about AI in early 2024. He left the company soon afterwards.
In 2024, Mozilla made more layoffs and announced it would invest in open source #AI. This year, Mozilla finally integrated a #vertical #tab bar into #Firefox and, you guessed it, built an AI #chatbot into it. You can, at least, turn it off."
#browser
ThePfromtheO
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •"#Mozilla can press on with independent subprojects such as #Thunderbird owners #MZLA #Technologies #Corporation. The popular #Electron #framework is based on #Chromium. It's too late to change that, even if maybe #Servo may one day offer an #alternative. But if #Thunderbird sucked in #Libpurple, it wouldn't matter if #Slack and #Teams and so on used #Electron, as Thunderbird could talk to the servers directly."
"But pointing at what we'd like to see is attempting to #treat the #symptoms and not the #disease. Is there a way to #encourage Mozilla to be an #organized, #focused, #professional #business, with #eyes keenly set on a clearly defined #goal? Perhaps that's the wrong #question. Perhaps that shouldn't be the goal at all. For all that the #Linux business is #huge, no #company #develops the #kernel. They all #cooperate on it. The #Linux #Foundation #funds it, but doesn't really #guide it."
"One #observer has been #spectating and #commentating on Mozilla since before it was a foundation – one of its original co-#developers, #JamieZawinksi. He has been accurately #cataloging Mozilla's #failings for #years."
#browser
ThePfromtheO
in reply to ThePfromtheO • • •"#Money is the problem. Not too little, but too much. Where there's #wealth, there's a natural #human desire to make more #wealth. Ever since #Firefox 1.0 in 2004, Firefox has never had to compete. It's been attached like a #mosquito to an #artery to the #Google #cash #firehose. #TheRegister noted it in 2007, and it made more the next year. We were dubious when Firefox turned #five."
"And as for that #money — remember back in 2018? That's when #Google dropped "Don't be evil" as its #motto."
"#Mozilla's #leadership is #directionless and #flailing because it's never had to do, or be, anything else. It's never needed to know how to make a #profit, because it never had to make a #profit. It's no wonder it has no real #direction or #vision or clue: it never needed them. It's role-playing being a #business."
"Like we said, don't #blame the #app. You're still #better off with Firefox or a fork such as #Waterfox. #Chrome even #snoops on you when in #incognito mode, and as we #warned you, Google removed the APIs #adblocker #extensions used. You still get better #adblocking in #Firefox."
#browser