5 ms·

$600 million in revenue (across all subsidiaries), $200 million on software development, $100 million on management, are you upset at Mozilla for running a heal

by chomp 4y ago

$600 million in revenue (across all subsidiaries), $200 million on software development, $100 million on management, are you upset at Mozilla for running a healthy balance sheet? I'm confused about your complaint. Should Mozilla be packing itself to the gills with software developers for Firefox? It seems like they are trying to broaden their holdings and assets to build wealth for the company and Foundation so that they can become less reliant on Google. Eich chose Chromium because Webkit is dominant and was in a better position in 2015. I'm not seeing how this is can be made to an indictment of Mozilla corruption.

roenxi 4y ago
> ...are you upset at Mozilla for running a healthy balance sheet... Charitable foundations aren't supposed to be corporations. If we've got an entity like Mozilla running a healthy balance sheet it should be a public corporation that we can all be shareholders in. So yes, I am upset by that too although that wasn't the point I was trying to make. They've set up a situation where they are going to be corrupted. A billion dollars in assets attracts charlatans and they won't have sufficient defences to stop the money being siphoned off into pet projects and general shenanigans. There will probably turn out to be fraud involved sooner or later. > ... Eich chose Chromium because Webkit is dominant and was in a better position in 2015... As far as I care, their purpose is to make a good web browser. This is absolutely an indictment of Mozilla.
- yoasif_ 4y ago
  >Charitable foundations aren't supposed to be corporations. If we've got an entity like Mozilla running a healthy balance sheet it should be a public corporation that we can all be shareholders in. So yes, I am upset by that too although that wasn't the point I was trying to make. >They've set up a situation where they are going to be corrupted. A billion dollars in assets attracts charlatans and they won't have sufficient defences to stop the money being siphoned off into pet projects and general shenanigans. There will probably turn out to be fraud involved sooner or later. It is very confusing what you want - you want Mozilla to be publicly traded so that you can share in its success (and open itself up to being corrupted), yet have an issue with it not being publicly traded? Do you just want to be upset?
  - roenxi 4y ago
    I don't want anything in particular, I walked away from Firefox a while ago so the failures of the Mozilla corporation don't affect me. Most former Firefox users are in the same boat if the stats are accurate. They could wind the whole foundation up and almost nobody would need to notice. But I don't think you can dispute the basic point here - there is a huge honeypot here to attract people with bad intentions, and they have failed to use it to promote any useful aims given the magnitude of the amount involved. > Do you just want to be upset? You've got me, I was bluffing. I'm not really upset. I just think it is bad form, philosophically. The foundation is failing at its goals, they shouldn't be trying to make a profit. If they want to make money they should start a normal company and have shareholders.
    - yoasif_ 4y ago
      > But I don't think you can dispute the basic point here - there is a huge honeypot here to attract people with bad intentions, and they have failed to use it to promote any useful aims given the magnitude of the amount involved. They may attract people with good intentions as well - or do you have to be starving to be pure of heart? PS: I don't see how they haven't promoted "any useful aims" - Firefox continues to exist, Rust exists, Let's Encrypt exists, and they are healthy. Those seem like promotions of useful aims. >The foundation is failing at its goals, they shouldn't be trying to make a profit. Profit is just what is left over after what needs to be paid for is spent. Would you rather they have no money left at the end of every day? How do you imagine that that works?
      - iceburgcrm 4y ago
        That's exactly what the government wants a charity to do not create reserves. It would make sense to spend that money on increasing market share through advertising.
        yoasif_ 4y ago
        Do you have any guidance on this? The UK seems to disagree, for example: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-reserves-cc19 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-res...
rascul 4y ago
> Eich chose Chromium because Webkit is dominant and was in a better position in 2015. Actually they chose Gecko in 2015. Chromium came later on. https://brave.com/the-road-to-brave-one-dot-zero/ https://brave.com/the-road-to-brave-one-dot-zero/

by chomp 4y ago

roenxi 4y ago

> ...are you upset at Mozilla for running a healthy balance sheet... Charitable foundations aren't supposed to be corporations. If we've got an entity like Mozilla running a healthy balance sheet it should be a public corporation that we can all be shareholders in. So yes, I am upset by that too although that wasn't the point I was trying to make. They've set up a situation where they are going to be corrupted. A billion dollars in assets attracts charlatans and they won't have sufficient defences to stop the money being siphoned off into pet projects and general shenanigans. There will probably turn out to be fraud involved sooner or later. > ... Eich chose Chromium because Webkit is dominant and was in a better position in 2015... As far as I care, their purpose is to make a good web browser. This is absolutely an indictment of Mozilla.

yoasif_ 4y ago
>Charitable foundations aren't supposed to be corporations. If we've got an entity like Mozilla running a healthy balance sheet it should be a public corporation that we can all be shareholders in. So yes, I am upset by that too although that wasn't the point I was trying to make. >They've set up a situation where they are going to be corrupted. A billion dollars in assets attracts charlatans and they won't have sufficient defences to stop the money being siphoned off into pet projects and general shenanigans. There will probably turn out to be fraud involved sooner or later. It is very confusing what you want - you want Mozilla to be publicly traded so that you can share in its success (and open itself up to being corrupted), yet have an issue with it not being publicly traded? Do you just want to be upset?
- roenxi 4y ago
  I don't want anything in particular, I walked away from Firefox a while ago so the failures of the Mozilla corporation don't affect me. Most former Firefox users are in the same boat if the stats are accurate. They could wind the whole foundation up and almost nobody would need to notice. But I don't think you can dispute the basic point here - there is a huge honeypot here to attract people with bad intentions, and they have failed to use it to promote any useful aims given the magnitude of the amount involved. > Do you just want to be upset? You've got me, I was bluffing. I'm not really upset. I just think it is bad form, philosophically. The foundation is failing at its goals, they shouldn't be trying to make a profit. If they want to make money they should start a normal company and have shareholders.
  - yoasif_ 4y ago
    > But I don't think you can dispute the basic point here - there is a huge honeypot here to attract people with bad intentions, and they have failed to use it to promote any useful aims given the magnitude of the amount involved. They may attract people with good intentions as well - or do you have to be starving to be pure of heart? PS: I don't see how they haven't promoted "any useful aims" - Firefox continues to exist, Rust exists, Let's Encrypt exists, and they are healthy. Those seem like promotions of useful aims. >The foundation is failing at its goals, they shouldn't be trying to make a profit. Profit is just what is left over after what needs to be paid for is spent. Would you rather they have no money left at the end of every day? How do you imagine that that works?
    - iceburgcrm 4y ago
      That's exactly what the government wants a charity to do not create reserves. It would make sense to spend that money on increasing market share through advertising.
      - yoasif_ 4y ago
        Do you have any guidance on this? The UK seems to disagree, for example: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-reserves-cc19 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-res...

rascul 4y ago

> Eich chose Chromium because Webkit is dominant and was in a better position in 2015. Actually they chose Gecko in 2015. Chromium came later on. https://brave.com/the-road-to-brave-one-dot-zero/ https://brave.com/the-road-to-brave-one-dot-zero/