6 ms·

Firefox is struggling due to the borderline legally liable gross mismanagement of their executive leadership. How are any of these people allowed to be in contr

Firefox is struggling due to the borderline legally liable gross mismanagement of their executive leadership. How are any of these people allowed to be in control of, sadly what was, such an important piece of the open web? Mind blowing all of them do not resign out of shame and humiliation.

mdoms 6y ago
Can you give some examples of this mismanagement?
- jacquesm 6y ago
  - spending funds donated for browser support on frivolous nonsense that nobody wanted - not allowing for earmarking of donations for specific projects - breaking user trust repeatedly - firing a large fraction of employees the evening prior to picking up funding (or because of, hard to see cause and effect separate here), almost ensuring that everybody else who is capable will jump ship or at a minimum work on polishing up their resume. - moving income derived from one project to support others that can't stand alone - allowing a vast gap to come into existence between how the outside world sees the company vs how the company sees itself - chasing lofty, highbrow future goals and vague missions at the expense of squandering market share and user goodwill for existing products - prioritizing new and shiny (but unproven) stuff over core and mission critical stuff Do you want me to go on?
  - ChrisSD 6y ago
    It would be better to first add evidence to the allegations you made. First of all, Mozilla donations never get used to fund browser development. Instead the browser is in part funded by "frivolous" projects that actually generate an income. The other major source of income is from Google web search. Firefox's dependence on this isn't ideal and has been critcised by many, hence the search for other revenue streams.
    - jacquesm 6y ago
      > It would be better to first add evidence to the allegations you made. Is there anything controversial in what I wrote? If so I am not aware of it, this has all been laid out in some detail by now - repeatedly - so I don't see why the burden of providing evidence should be on me, unless you think one or more of these items are controversial or contradicting evidence already out there. > Mozilla donations never get used to fund browser development. Exactly. But they should be. > Instead the browser is in part funded by "frivolous" projects that actually generate an income. I think the burden of proof is on you now. > The other major source of income is from Google web search. That is income that should 100% go to FireFox development, and never to anything else. > Firefox's dependence on this isn't ideal and has been critcised by many, hence the search for other revenue streams. Donations to the Mozilla foundation are one such stream.
      - ChrisSD 6y ago
        Mozilla (as of 2018-2019[0]) gets millions of dollars from their profitable projects. Yes this pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions from web search partnership but then so does donations. However, significantly growing revenue from paid products and services is very possible. Whereas increasing donations by two orders of magnitude is very very unlikely. > this has all been laid out in some detail by now Providing a link to that would be useful. [0]: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-fdn-2018-short-form-final-0926.pdf https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-fdn-201...
        jacquesm 6y ago
        > However, significantly growing revenue from paid products and services is very possible. Of course it is possible, but that's called 'Accenture', not 'Mozilla'. Really, this all goes directly back to what I wrote above: Mozilla has an entirely different view of what company it wants to be from what the general public thinks it should be based on previous statements and there is no amount of creative redefinition that will solve that. If Mozilla wants to be an ordinary software house then that's fine by me but then stop using funds pulled in through FireFox to support the rest of the org and allow FireFox to be completely independent of the foundation. It is beyond ridiculous that an important resource like FireFox should be milked in order to start a software house that does not seem to be all that dedicated to keeping FF around for the long run. If FF dies then Mozilla has failed, and the income from the search box alone should be enough to ensure FireFox's continued existence for a long time into the future. That won't happen if Mozilla keeps raiding the piggy bank to cover for their mistakes, those 'millions of dollars from their profitable projects' are a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the costs of the whole org. I'll bet you not a single sou of that effectively makes its way to FireFox due to the top heavy org structure.

mdoms 6y ago

Can you give some examples of this mismanagement?

jacquesm 6y ago
- spending funds donated for browser support on frivolous nonsense that nobody wanted - not allowing for earmarking of donations for specific projects - breaking user trust repeatedly - firing a large fraction of employees the evening prior to picking up funding (or because of, hard to see cause and effect separate here), almost ensuring that everybody else who is capable will jump ship or at a minimum work on polishing up their resume. - moving income derived from one project to support others that can't stand alone - allowing a vast gap to come into existence between how the outside world sees the company vs how the company sees itself - chasing lofty, highbrow future goals and vague missions at the expense of squandering market share and user goodwill for existing products - prioritizing new and shiny (but unproven) stuff over core and mission critical stuff Do you want me to go on?
- ChrisSD 6y ago
  It would be better to first add evidence to the allegations you made. First of all, Mozilla donations never get used to fund browser development. Instead the browser is in part funded by "frivolous" projects that actually generate an income. The other major source of income is from Google web search. Firefox's dependence on this isn't ideal and has been critcised by many, hence the search for other revenue streams.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    > It would be better to first add evidence to the allegations you made. Is there anything controversial in what I wrote? If so I am not aware of it, this has all been laid out in some detail by now - repeatedly - so I don't see why the burden of providing evidence should be on me, unless you think one or more of these items are controversial or contradicting evidence already out there. > Mozilla donations never get used to fund browser development. Exactly. But they should be. > Instead the browser is in part funded by "frivolous" projects that actually generate an income. I think the burden of proof is on you now. > The other major source of income is from Google web search. That is income that should 100% go to FireFox development, and never to anything else. > Firefox's dependence on this isn't ideal and has been critcised by many, hence the search for other revenue streams. Donations to the Mozilla foundation are one such stream.
    - ChrisSD 6y ago
      Mozilla (as of 2018-2019[0]) gets millions of dollars from their profitable projects. Yes this pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions from web search partnership but then so does donations. However, significantly growing revenue from paid products and services is very possible. Whereas increasing donations by two orders of magnitude is very very unlikely. > this has all been laid out in some detail by now Providing a link to that would be useful. [0]: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-fdn-2018-short-form-final-0926.pdf https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-fdn-201...
      - jacquesm 6y ago
        > However, significantly growing revenue from paid products and services is very possible. Of course it is possible, but that's called 'Accenture', not 'Mozilla'. Really, this all goes directly back to what I wrote above: Mozilla has an entirely different view of what company it wants to be from what the general public thinks it should be based on previous statements and there is no amount of creative redefinition that will solve that. If Mozilla wants to be an ordinary software house then that's fine by me but then stop using funds pulled in through FireFox to support the rest of the org and allow FireFox to be completely independent of the foundation. It is beyond ridiculous that an important resource like FireFox should be milked in order to start a software house that does not seem to be all that dedicated to keeping FF around for the long run. If FF dies then Mozilla has failed, and the income from the search box alone should be enough to ensure FireFox's continued existence for a long time into the future. That won't happen if Mozilla keeps raiding the piggy bank to cover for their mistakes, those 'millions of dollars from their profitable projects' are a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the costs of the whole org. I'll bet you not a single sou of that effectively makes its way to FireFox due to the top heavy org structure.