4 ms·

Mozilla has transformed into an activist organization over the last ~decade, with predictable consequences for their actual products and engineering.

uniqueuid 5y ago
Tongue in cheek but: I really like their activist products such as container tabs, privacy enhancing technologies and reduced tracking (compared to Chrome, Safari etc).
- nateabele 5y ago
  Fair, but there's a difference between creating tools that one may choose to opt into on an individual basis, and attempting to arbitrate truth on a societal level.
  - justaman 5y ago
    Without this activism, they could not compete with the big players in tech. At its essence, this activism is advocating for an alternative to the privacy unfriendly or in this case disinformation that is largely driven by "rage-clicks". It creates a conversation about the future of the information age outside of the business centric motive actions shown by say google.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- modo_mario 5y ago
  I think he might be talking about other kinds of activism They also do things like give a quarter million to black artists to make art about the effects of AI on systems of oppression. Half a million to broadband towers in the american south. Money for wetland restoration. This may all seem neat and fine to do if they have that kind of money to hand out but these things come around the same time of having had a large swat of firings of people working on their projects like the Servo team, people working on firefox, etc. (The board also expanded and mitchell baker notably had her compensation increased by quite a lot)
  - volta83 5y ago
    Right. I sponsor Rust through patreon. I asked many times how can I donate money to mozilla with the guarantee that the money is used for Rust / servo ? The answer was that this was not possible, so I never could donate through any official channel. TBH, mozilla does too much random stuff for it to be attractive as a donor.
  - the_why_of_y 5y ago
    These 2 points are quite unrelated. The developers were laid off by Mozilla Corporation, while the projects you find questionable were funded by Mozilla Foundation, and for tax reasons it's very difficult for Mozilla Foundation to give money to Mozilla Corporation.
    - modo_mario 5y ago
      >and for tax reasons it's very difficult for Mozilla Foundation to give money to Mozilla Corporation. I'm aware but as far as I know it's the other way around. The foundation extracts revenue from it's subsidiary the Mozilla Corporation. When in a state of decline and faced with the option of axing development that might hamper or reverse this decline i'd expect there to be an option for the foundation to reduce the amount of revenue it extracts. Especially since what it actually gives away seems so little when compared (which makes me look weird at the mentioned compensation again)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
the_why_of_y 5y ago
Mozilla Foundation has always been an activist organization. They started by writing an entire manifesto about it, and it's by no means limited to developing a web browser product. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/details/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/details/

uniqueuid 5y ago

Tongue in cheek but: I really like their activist products such as container tabs, privacy enhancing technologies and reduced tracking (compared to Chrome, Safari etc).

nateabele 5y ago
Fair, but there's a difference between creating tools that one may choose to opt into on an individual basis, and attempting to arbitrate truth on a societal level.
- justaman 5y ago
  Without this activism, they could not compete with the big players in tech. At its essence, this activism is advocating for an alternative to the privacy unfriendly or in this case disinformation that is largely driven by "rage-clicks". It creates a conversation about the future of the information age outside of the business centric motive actions shown by say google.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
modo_mario 5y ago
I think he might be talking about other kinds of activism They also do things like give a quarter million to black artists to make art about the effects of AI on systems of oppression. Half a million to broadband towers in the american south. Money for wetland restoration. This may all seem neat and fine to do if they have that kind of money to hand out but these things come around the same time of having had a large swat of firings of people working on their projects like the Servo team, people working on firefox, etc. (The board also expanded and mitchell baker notably had her compensation increased by quite a lot)
- volta83 5y ago
  Right. I sponsor Rust through patreon. I asked many times how can I donate money to mozilla with the guarantee that the money is used for Rust / servo ? The answer was that this was not possible, so I never could donate through any official channel. TBH, mozilla does too much random stuff for it to be attractive as a donor.
- the_why_of_y 5y ago
  These 2 points are quite unrelated. The developers were laid off by Mozilla Corporation, while the projects you find questionable were funded by Mozilla Foundation, and for tax reasons it's very difficult for Mozilla Foundation to give money to Mozilla Corporation.
  - modo_mario 5y ago
    >and for tax reasons it's very difficult for Mozilla Foundation to give money to Mozilla Corporation. I'm aware but as far as I know it's the other way around. The foundation extracts revenue from it's subsidiary the Mozilla Corporation. When in a state of decline and faced with the option of axing development that might hamper or reverse this decline i'd expect there to be an option for the foundation to reduce the amount of revenue it extracts. Especially since what it actually gives away seems so little when compared (which makes me look weird at the mentioned compensation again)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

the_why_of_y 5y ago

Mozilla Foundation has always been an activist organization. They started by writing an entire manifesto about it, and it's by no means limited to developing a web browser product. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/details/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/details/