Mozilla, makers of the Firefox web browser, is the latest tech company to announce layoffs. The non-profit says it is scaling back development on a number
  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Having a separate, open source JavaScript engine is in everyone’s interests even if they don’t know what they’d lose without the Mozilla Foundation and Firefox. I’m a web developer and Mozilla has protected the open web for all of us and if people understood what they’ve done, they’d all donate.

    Google and Microsoft cannot and should not control standards. Mozilla is the conscience of the industry. Support it or you won’t know what you lost.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      They actually have money in the bank, they just aren’t profitable on their own in any way, and rely on search partnerships for yearly funds. I think they are just being responsible here and cutting people who aren’t working on relevant projects going forward.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        I’m not saying they are the right size. Just that if we lose Mozilla and Firefox, it’ll be almost as bad as losing Wikimedia for certain things. We need to protect the open web.

    • AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social
      0·
      1 year ago

      I was donating until I got an email telling me to donate more signed by their CEO or something who earns a couple hundred thousand a year.

      Mind, I wasn’t opted into communcation like that. Only updates and news this was neither. If their new CEO cleans house and refocuses as they said they will, I will consider renewing my donations again.

      • Orbituary@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        A couple hundred thousand is a pittance if he’s keeping shit together. When CEOs push 500 to over a million at a nonprofit, that’s absurdity.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          When CEOs push 500 to over a million at a nonprofit, that’s absurdity.

          If any CEO should make this much, I think it’s the one helping to keep browser choice a thing

        • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          She.

          And how are they keeping anything together. Market share isn’t substantially better than before and rather than focusing on the product mozilla was created for they keep pivoting to weird BS like this AI grab. I actually think market shares gone up recently… cause google pushed through manifestv3. That would’ve happened even if mozilla did nothing. I think mozillq is still the better browser but that sure as hell doesn’t seem to be because of whose in charge.

        • Deceptichum@kbin.social
          0·
          1 year ago

          She received 6.9 million dollars in 2022 and 5 million in 2021, 3 million in 2020.

          CEOs are scum who do not earn anywhere near close to that. They should be lucky to get a couple hundred thousand.

          And fuck Firefox having the nerve to ask for donations.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        0·
        1 year ago

        The CEO of the Mozilla Corporation shouldn’t be asking for donations. It’s the non-profit Mozilla Foundation which collects donations (and owns the Mozilla Corporation). It is a bit confusing, yes…

        • Amju Wolf@pawb.socialEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          …and, more importantly, none of the donations go towards Firefox development. Instead they go towards “causes” that Mozilla Foundation finds worthy, and usually they have nothing to do with the open web.

    • Vincent@feddit.nl
      0·
      1 year ago

      Support it or you won’t know what you lost.

      Note that the best way to support it is to actually use its products, Firefox in particular. That’s what gives Mozilla the ability to influence the direction of the web and web standards.

  • 0xtero@beehaw.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    In a memo sent to employees Mozilla says it wants to bring “trustworthy AI into Firefox”. To help it do this sooner it’s merging its Pocket, content, and AI/Ml teams.

    Yeah, I’m not sure this is the “renewed focus” we’re looking for, chief

    • Christopher Goss@aus.social
      0·
      1 year ago

      @0xtero @petsoi Firing staff, studiously ignoring _long standing_ complaints by end users and jumping like a meth addict on the latest tech craze whilst continuing to blow the rivers of gold from Google on far left political causes … the future looks dim.

    • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’d never heard of Servo before this, but judging from the website it’s nowhere near a GUI offering. The work they’re doing on the engine looks solid (to me as not-a-developer) but it’s a telltale sign that there are no UI screenshots on their landing page. So, not an alternative to Firefox yet.

      • Mechanize@feddit.it
        0·
        1 year ago

        Because, as pointed in the page, Servo is being developed as a(n embeddable) Rendering Engine, not as a full blown end user Browser.
        Its alternatives are not Chrome, Safari or Firefox, but Webkit, Blink and Gecko

        There’s an example GUI called Servoshell, but it is more of a testing ground and example on how to embed the engine in an app than a serious alternative to anything currently in the market.

        Already this kind of work is difficult and daunting. Adding to it a full GUI would make it completely impossible for the current size and financial backing Servo has.

        Big words aside it just means that Servo wants to be only one of the parts that compose a real browser: the one that takes HTML, Javascript, WASM and translates them into the things you see on your monitor. All the user facing functionality are left to the devs of the app that embed it.