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My standards for Mozilla are: 1) Make a good browser. Get market share. Use it to push the envelope for what can be done on the web. 2) Respect user privacy.
by strken 6y ago
My standards for Mozilla are:
1) Make a good browser. Get market share. Use it to push the envelope for what can be done on the web.
2) Respect user privacy.
3) Don't spam me with push notifications, in-browser advertising, or any other marketing communications unless it helps goals 1 or 2.
4) Don't spend most of your money on projects that aren't your browser.
Mozilla keeps getting into partnerships that send data to third parties, advocating for things that have nothing to do with browsers or the internet, investing money into every new trend[0][1], and not focusing on their core selling point: a browser that's fast, safe, privacy-focused, extensible, standards-compliant, and stops Google from acquiring a total monopoly over browsers so they can remove adblockers.
This press release hints that they're going to continue tilting at windmills: their new direction is "diverse, representative, focused on people outside of our walls, solving problems, building new products, engaging with users and doing the magic of mixing tech with our values." They're "a technical powerhouse of the internet activist movement", and rather than donors who support their browser, there are "hundreds of thousands of people who donate to and participate in Mozilla Foundation’s advocacy work". I read this as "we're going to spend time and money on things that are not Firefox".
I haven't donated to them for years, because I'm sick of seeing their money go to projects that don't integrate with Firefox and won't ever reach a significant number of consumers while they bleed market share, or to American-centric policy advocacy that also doesn't relate to the internet. I don't think this is an unrealistic expectation, because there's no way in hell I'd donate to Google or any of their competitors in the first place. Hopefully their lay-offs are an opportunity to focus their efforts on providing a browser across all platforms and adding features to that browser.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mozilla_products#Abandoned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mozilla_products#Aband...
[1] everything involving VR on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products
- akerro 6y ago>4) Don't spend most of your money on projects that aren't your browser. Web browsing is much more than a browser now, it's outside of browser tracking, like Facebook and Google pinging your ip address. It's hiding your email from spammers and email traders. Sharing links outside of browser and being able to read them offline. Controlling browser habits with voice. Mozilla offers paid service that do such things. It all works towards your second goal - respecting your privacy.
- SilasX 6y agoOkay, I've changed my mind [1]. Your comment is the one I give 1000x endorsement to. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24127377 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24127377