this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46655413

The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a “relentless onslaught of change.”

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[–] [email protected] 297 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

Regardless, don’t use chrome.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

We'll go back to gopher if we have to, it's time for burning chrome.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago

Let's just separate GOOG from Chrome / Chromium and Google Search completely. So that the direction of the most used browser, most used search engine and the biggest advertiser don't circle jerk each other.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Also, Ladybird is looking very promising, so in a few years we should have a true fourth browser engine.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 weeks ago (17 children)

If Mozilla does become defunct, it does raise the question of whether Chrome would be considered a Google monopoly, and therefore subject to antitrust legislation.

I can't imagine any governments would look kindly upon internet access being guarded behind a single company's product.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago

Google should be subject to antitrust legislation regardless.

Their position as a monopoly is what enables this.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

The firefox browser could exist without quite a lot Mozilla does. A large chunk of its cash isn’t spent on the browser.

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[–] [email protected] 254 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Gee, I can't imagine why they chose to drop this bomb today.

It's like they wanted it to be drowned in other news.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's Mozilla. No one is going to see this anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Why, what else happened today?

Tap for spoiler/s

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[–] [email protected] 154 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Did the CEO take a pay cut?

[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

does a bear shit in your mouth?

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay I'll learn how to make better coffee

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Damn bro, you didn't have to roast yourself that hard

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago

Depends... will it generate shareholder value?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you going to tell him "no?"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Only if he stops.

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 2 weeks ago

CEO first please. He's not worth it

[–] [email protected] 109 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I suspect their financial position has changed. Perhaps Google's being found as a monopoly has made them decide not to help fund Mozilla's efforts as substantially.

Ashley Boyd lead the advocacy team, here's the kind of stuff they were doing:

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-welcomes-ashley-boyd-vp-of-advocacy/

In fall of 2016, Mozilla fought for common-sense copyright reform in the EU, creating public education media that engaged over one million citizens and sending hundreds of rebellious selfies to EU Parliament. Earlier in 2016, Mozilla launched a public education campaign around encryption and emerged as a staunch ally of Apple in the company’s clash with the FBI. Mozilla has also fought for mass surveillance reform, net neutrality and data retention reform.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/05/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-staff-drops-advocacy-division/

“The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward,” read the statement shared with TechCrunch.

Reading between the lines, I'd keep an eye on them collecting your data and consider one of the privacy-focused forks.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

consider one of the privacy-focused forks

The Foundation is not linked to Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

If by not linked you mean wholly owned by...

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/organizations/

The Mozilla Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, works with the community to develop software that advances Mozilla’s principles. This includes the Firefox browser, which is well recognized as a market leader in security, privacy and language localization. These features make the Internet safer and more accessible.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

GODDAMMIT MOZILLA. YOU ARE MAKING ADVOCATING FOR BETTER INTERNET HARD

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

This is more of a symptom the cause is the monopolization of the internet largely by Google

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

Unfortunately I don't think there's much Mozilla can do other than cut costs with it seeming like the Google funding will be getting severely hampered.

They can't get money from thin air.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 weeks ago

That'll certainly make it easier to pay the CEO.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Everytime I see comments regarding Mozilla''s financials,I have the same effing question: How does a company like brave or opera maintain their browser ?? AFAIK both don't have the level of community backing that Mozilla does nor do they have any (again AFAIK) agreement with a company like google for default search engine placement

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Brave and Opera are both forks of Chromium that incorporate upstream changes. Firefox is an entire browser.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

those are just rebranded chrome(ium). all browsers except firefox and safari are rebranded chromium or firefox. edit: there are some other projects but none are mature.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 weeks ago

They use chromium.

Firefox does not.

The grand majority of software engineering effort goes into the browser development that they never have to work on for the most part.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Brave just tries to scam their users for money.

Like when they added "donate to the content creator" links on YouTube and such, then didn't actually give the money to the content creators.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

God bean counters ruin everything good related to tech

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

wouldn't it be nice if the profit motive wasn't the only driving force of the economy?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

All of my favorite browsers are forks of Firefox. Lately it's been Zen browser. Watching Firefox smoulder and collapse over the years has been truly painful and makes me fear a chromium future in hell.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Their question is: how much would you pay for not using a Chromium based browser?

People switching to the browser and zapping all ads, demanding open source and vitriol for any kind of monetization. How can they survive? They would have to become a subsidized utility, which not even the Internet as a whole has achieved.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

WTF. They had $1b banked a few days ago. This is a bit reactionary perhaps?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Wait they still had employees?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh geez the leadership is making more mistakes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. If they're low on cash then cutting unnecessary costs is not unreasonable. What is Mozilla's core goal? Perhaps the "advocacy" and "global programs" divisions weren't all that relevant to it, and so their funding is better put elsewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Mozilla keeps digging Firefox's grave, and seeing how other opensource projects like Gimp struggle to even keep up with their own release schedule and very slow development rate. I fear we will be left with only chrome to use.

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