5 ms·

I mentioned it in the @sama thread earlier... but we're also missing Brendan Eich being canned for his views on gay marriage

tachyonbeam 9y ago
To be fair, he's also responsible for JavaScript.
- goatlover 9y ago
  True, but I listened to his podcast on the history of JS, and he was hired to put Scheme in the browser, but then management decided it needed to be something else, which turned into a compromise with Sun because they were wanting Java. And then there was a limited time to make it happen before Netscape shipped. After that time, whenever Brendan wanted to fix things in the language, he couldn't, because you can't break the web for people already using things as they are. This happened several times.
- ihsw2 9y ago
  I'm on the fence about this, especially given that it's my livelihood. Sure, I worked through the bad old days of writing `document.getElementById()` by hand, Scriptaculous vs MooTools, mountainous files of jQuery, Backbone vs Angular, and CoffeeScript when it was cool, but I can't deny that things aren't so bad nowadays. Maybe I'm just naive.
yawn3000 9y ago
Having a homophobic CEO didn't really jive with the Mozilla ethos. He had to go.
wavefunction 9y ago
Not his views, his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. He lost the confidence of the internationally focused diverse organization he was charged with leading due to that financial support.
- pretendscholar 9y ago
  >his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. ...So his political views.
  - cannonedhamster 9y ago
    Political views only matter when your company markets itself on values. Oracle and Google aren't about freedom, Mozilla is, GNU/linux is. When you want to be the rudder for a company based on values your background needs to be unassailable, in other words, boring. You can't be boring when you take an active role in a cause that is directly against your employees.
    - pretendscholar 9y ago
      Which is fine but the parent comment was trying to say he wasn't fired for his views. He was clearly fired for his political views.
      - cannonedhamster 9y ago
        Yes I must not have made my point. His political views matter only because the company is based upon values such as openness and inclusiveness. As the one running the ship his political views would have been antithetical to the company mission based on his current actions, which is why the employees revolted.
        BrendanEich 9y ago
        Fake news. Employees didn’t revolt - it looks as if you may be referring to six Mozilla Foundation employees who tweeted. They worked for a different organization. They almost all left soon after I did anyway.
        9y ago

tachyonbeam 9y ago

To be fair, he's also responsible for JavaScript.

goatlover 9y ago
True, but I listened to his podcast on the history of JS, and he was hired to put Scheme in the browser, but then management decided it needed to be something else, which turned into a compromise with Sun because they were wanting Java. And then there was a limited time to make it happen before Netscape shipped. After that time, whenever Brendan wanted to fix things in the language, he couldn't, because you can't break the web for people already using things as they are. This happened several times.
ihsw2 9y ago
I'm on the fence about this, especially given that it's my livelihood. Sure, I worked through the bad old days of writing `document.getElementById()` by hand, Scriptaculous vs MooTools, mountainous files of jQuery, Backbone vs Angular, and CoffeeScript when it was cool, but I can't deny that things aren't so bad nowadays. Maybe I'm just naive.

yawn3000 9y ago

Having a homophobic CEO didn't really jive with the Mozilla ethos. He had to go.

wavefunction 9y ago

Not his views, his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. He lost the confidence of the internationally focused diverse organization he was charged with leading due to that financial support.

pretendscholar 9y ago
>his financial support of legislative efforts to prohibit the same civil rights enjoyed by some in this country for other fellow Americans depending on their sexual preference. ...So his political views.
- cannonedhamster 9y ago
  Political views only matter when your company markets itself on values. Oracle and Google aren't about freedom, Mozilla is, GNU/linux is. When you want to be the rudder for a company based on values your background needs to be unassailable, in other words, boring. You can't be boring when you take an active role in a cause that is directly against your employees.
  - pretendscholar 9y ago
    Which is fine but the parent comment was trying to say he wasn't fired for his views. He was clearly fired for his political views.
    - cannonedhamster 9y ago
      Yes I must not have made my point. His political views matter only because the company is based upon values such as openness and inclusiveness. As the one running the ship his political views would have been antithetical to the company mission based on his current actions, which is why the employees revolted.
      - BrendanEich 9y ago
        Fake news. Employees didn’t revolt - it looks as if you may be referring to six Mozilla Foundation employees who tweeted. They worked for a different organization. They almost all left soon after I did anyway.
        9y ago