Aral BalkanDec 21, 2022

#Mozilla is creating a fediverse instance. What is Mozilla?

• A “not-for-profit” that owns multiple for-profit businesses and pays its CEO $5.6M
• Gets ~83% of its revenue (~$500,000,000) every year from surveillance capitalist Google
• Makes a browser that protects your privacy (*some configuration required)
• Is now a VC…

This is the best we can expect from Silicon Valley/capitalism. Question is: can we do better than that?

Sources: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-2021-fs-final-1010.pdf, https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-990-ty21-public-disclosure.pdf

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Show threadAral BalkanDec 21, 2022

… Perhaps the best way to understand Mozilla is in the words of their president on their new VC arm:

“We see a lot of startups who want to tackle things like privacy, trustworthy AI, and alternatives to Twitter… alternatives are not going to emerge unless there’s founders and companies who build them. And the founders are not going to build them unless there’s money aligned with their vision … So I think we need to still be about commerce and creating wealth”

https://www.yahoo.com/video/mozilla-foundation-mark-surman-rethinking-120004066.html

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Yahooist Teil der Yahoo Markenfamilie

Show threadthomkennon
@aral Yeah fuck this valley bro hate cult. Thx for sharing this. Will be ditching his surveillance layer. Recos for comrade-friendly browser alternatives?
Dec 21, 2022 at 11:46amWeb
Show threadSocial Justice Warrior🦍Dec 21, 2022
@thomkennon I personally like gemini, although that might be too radical for most people.
Show threaddatenwolfDec 21, 2022
@thomkennon @aral Ladybird is extremely promisng: https://github.com/SerenityOS/ladybird – and yes, it cross platform and not limited to SerenityOS
GitHub - SerenityOS/ladybird: The Ladybird web browser

The Ladybird web browser. Contribute to SerenityOS/ladybird development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadDarioDec 21, 2022

@aral @thomkennon I’been using Vivaldi for the past month or so (details in screenshot)

More so to support Fediverse projects but must admit that after this thread, I need to reconsider my desire to believe any project's value match my own.

Show threadJamesGeckoDec 22, 2022

@thomkennon @aral Everything outside the super popular browsers is either:
1. Closed source.
2. A build of the open source parts of a super popular browser (good) and perpetually a few steps behind on shipping security patches (oh no).
3. Doesn't yet implement the latest WhatWG specs and will not render the majority of popular websites correctly.
4. Blockchain nonsense.

Also, the majority of alternative browsers use the same Google rendering engine under the hood. It's dire. Pick your poison! 😭