4 ms·

Mozilla is a weird organization. Thunderbird makes client-side PGP encryption a little easier at a time in the world where not only governments are harvesting

Mozilla is a weird organization. Thunderbird makes client-side PGP encryption a little easier at a time in the world where not only governments are harvesting every cat-gif email we send, but also those Valley companies who harvest and analyze practically everything we do, just to send us "better ads". I do commend those volunteers who didn't sit on the internet and makes comments like the rest of us, but took charge and kept Thunderbird alive.

darkclarity 10y ago
Mozilla lives on money from the ad industry, so in a way they are all part of the same system.
- stinkytaco 10y ago
  It seems like the whole modern connected infrastructure we rely on relies on money from the ad industry. Google, webmail services, free websites, all of them rely on a small subset of companies that buy eyeballs. From an outsider, it certainly seems like Mozilla is the only company in the space that's trying to make the Internet better, rather than making the browser a path into their own ecosystem of services (and consequently ads).
  - yeukhon 10y ago
    Firefox was created to be a browser in which the developers and the community can have a voice, rather than having all decisions made by the enterprise. I know there are many heroic stories and tales, but after all those are the two goals. Why are there laundromat, 99 cent store, Deli place and a bus stop next to a street full of homes? Next to a college campus you'd find Deli and street food vendors? Of course one can give out free food and you can always choose to work from home so you never have to deal with pedestrian jam or the smoke coming from the grill. For example I can skip WSJ paywall by not registering any account and not reading any WSJ online articles. That's fine and the anology of this is finding a suburban home. The public Internet is like New York City, so many people, so many business, so much to navigate (but of course as a NY resident I can get tired of the city myself). If you want no ads, you have to lobby a group of politicians (actually companies) and convenience them your plan is better and is more profitable. The thing is that once there is a collation of business opportunity, uniting that knot is very difficult because everyone has a piece in it. Few people want to bet on new plan.
    - hackuser 10y ago
      > Firefox was created to be a browser in which the developers and the community can have a voice, rather than having all decisions made by the enterprise. I know there are many heroic stories and tales, but after all those are the two goals. While I like these ideas, this isn't quite accurate. That may describe Mozilla Application Suite (now Seamonkey) to some extent, but not Firefox. Mozilla's mission is to promote the open Internet, as opposed to the proprietary one (originally represented by IE's market dominance): https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/

darkclarity 10y ago

Mozilla lives on money from the ad industry, so in a way they are all part of the same system.

stinkytaco 10y ago
It seems like the whole modern connected infrastructure we rely on relies on money from the ad industry. Google, webmail services, free websites, all of them rely on a small subset of companies that buy eyeballs. From an outsider, it certainly seems like Mozilla is the only company in the space that's trying to make the Internet better, rather than making the browser a path into their own ecosystem of services (and consequently ads).
- yeukhon 10y ago
  Firefox was created to be a browser in which the developers and the community can have a voice, rather than having all decisions made by the enterprise. I know there are many heroic stories and tales, but after all those are the two goals. Why are there laundromat, 99 cent store, Deli place and a bus stop next to a street full of homes? Next to a college campus you'd find Deli and street food vendors? Of course one can give out free food and you can always choose to work from home so you never have to deal with pedestrian jam or the smoke coming from the grill. For example I can skip WSJ paywall by not registering any account and not reading any WSJ online articles. That's fine and the anology of this is finding a suburban home. The public Internet is like New York City, so many people, so many business, so much to navigate (but of course as a NY resident I can get tired of the city myself). If you want no ads, you have to lobby a group of politicians (actually companies) and convenience them your plan is better and is more profitable. The thing is that once there is a collation of business opportunity, uniting that knot is very difficult because everyone has a piece in it. Few people want to bet on new plan.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    > Firefox was created to be a browser in which the developers and the community can have a voice, rather than having all decisions made by the enterprise. I know there are many heroic stories and tales, but after all those are the two goals. While I like these ideas, this isn't quite accurate. That may describe Mozilla Application Suite (now Seamonkey) to some extent, but not Firefox. Mozilla's mission is to promote the open Internet, as opposed to the proprietary one (originally represented by IE's market dominance): https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/