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Though this may sound harsh, the fact is Mozilla is abandoning projects left, right and center. From Thunderbird to Firefox OS and now Persona. So why should

Though this may sound harsh, the fact is Mozilla is abandoning projects left, right and center. From Thunderbird to Firefox OS and now Persona. So why should anyone in their right senses bet on a Mozilla project in a serious way? They have put themselves in a catch 22 situation. Abandoning projects because "people are not using them" and people will not use them because Mozilla abandons projects. Interestingly, most of these abandoned projects were promising but I cannot recollect Mozilla ever changing course as a result of feedback given when they launched a project. This is quite unfortunate.

davedx 11y ago
All companies do this. Google does it too. Facebook abandoned their login system for embedded systems, leaving some of us working in the digital TV sector up shit creek without a paddle. Look at what happened to the Twitter ecosystem as it locked its API down. Bet on any third party service in a serious way and you are taking on risk that you cannot control. That's a fact of life.
- Chris2048 11y ago
  I can't help feel glad some embedded systems lost the requirement for a FB account... But in any case - Does google abandon projects with the same frequency?
  - minikites 11y ago
    Wave, Reader, Knol, etc: http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/visuel/2015/03/06/google-memorial-le-petit-musee-des-projets-google-abandonnes_4588392_4408996.html http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/visuel/2015/03/06/google-memori...
    - Chris2048 11y ago
      frequency would be number of projects (with a certain amount of uptake) started divided by number abandoned. That list isn't so simple. Accelerator isn't software/service, refine became open-refine, and wasn't a service. Wave didn't seem to get a great deal of uptake (I think), and is somewhat superseded by google+ in-chat. I'm not sure how checkout differs from wallet. etc. So in those case, there is a marked difference as compared to, for example, when google discontinued reader. I also wonder how many of these projects are abandoned in name, but not in copebase? Google+ probably rebrands some of those, with a slightly different mission statement (new feature, rather than standalone product). That said, I do dislike some of the focus on social-media. The facebook effect, I guess... We probably need more protection from it...
- fuck_google 11y ago
  It seems like Google is setting the standard for clueless management and other poorly managed companies are following it.
rlpb 11y ago
I think the problem is that when a big brand like Mozilla back a project, everyone else in the community not directly involved with Mozilla sits back and waits for something to happen. Everyone assumes that "Mozilla" will do the work and that a project will magically appear, be maintained and continue to grow needed features, except for perhaps the odd drive-by contribution. In fact, the opposite needs to happen. For a project to grow, it needs to attract core contributors, not repel them. This is especially true if the project's core contributors don't have an obvious business model to help pay for their time.
callahad 11y ago
There's always a risk of abandonment, no matter the vendor. A more important question is what sort of lock-in you're facing. What are you left with if the project fails? Mozilla tries its damnedest to avoid locking people in, and promoting open, standardized solutions. Persona provided verified email addresses for your users, so there was no intrinsic barrier to migrating off of Persona and to, say, a traditional email + password login scheme. With Firefox OS, building an awesome FxOS experience was synonymous with building a great mobile web experience, because the foundation was in open, standard technologies. Even if FxOS went away, you're left with something great that works in other browsers.

davedx 11y ago

All companies do this. Google does it too. Facebook abandoned their login system for embedded systems, leaving some of us working in the digital TV sector up shit creek without a paddle. Look at what happened to the Twitter ecosystem as it locked its API down. Bet on any third party service in a serious way and you are taking on risk that you cannot control. That's a fact of life.

Chris2048 11y ago
I can't help feel glad some embedded systems lost the requirement for a FB account... But in any case - Does google abandon projects with the same frequency?
- minikites 11y ago
  Wave, Reader, Knol, etc: http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/visuel/2015/03/06/google-memorial-le-petit-musee-des-projets-google-abandonnes_4588392_4408996.html http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/visuel/2015/03/06/google-memori...
  - Chris2048 11y ago
    frequency would be number of projects (with a certain amount of uptake) started divided by number abandoned. That list isn't so simple. Accelerator isn't software/service, refine became open-refine, and wasn't a service. Wave didn't seem to get a great deal of uptake (I think), and is somewhat superseded by google+ in-chat. I'm not sure how checkout differs from wallet. etc. So in those case, there is a marked difference as compared to, for example, when google discontinued reader. I also wonder how many of these projects are abandoned in name, but not in copebase? Google+ probably rebrands some of those, with a slightly different mission statement (new feature, rather than standalone product). That said, I do dislike some of the focus on social-media. The facebook effect, I guess... We probably need more protection from it...
fuck_google 11y ago
It seems like Google is setting the standard for clueless management and other poorly managed companies are following it.

rlpb 11y ago

I think the problem is that when a big brand like Mozilla back a project, everyone else in the community not directly involved with Mozilla sits back and waits for something to happen. Everyone assumes that "Mozilla" will do the work and that a project will magically appear, be maintained and continue to grow needed features, except for perhaps the odd drive-by contribution. In fact, the opposite needs to happen. For a project to grow, it needs to attract core contributors, not repel them. This is especially true if the project's core contributors don't have an obvious business model to help pay for their time.

callahad 11y ago

There's always a risk of abandonment, no matter the vendor. A more important question is what sort of lock-in you're facing. What are you left with if the project fails? Mozilla tries its damnedest to avoid locking people in, and promoting open, standardized solutions. Persona provided verified email addresses for your users, so there was no intrinsic barrier to migrating off of Persona and to, say, a traditional email + password login scheme. With Firefox OS, building an awesome FxOS experience was synonymous with building a great mobile web experience, because the foundation was in open, standard technologies. Even if FxOS went away, you're left with something great that works in other browsers.