ploumFeb 13, 2024

Remember the new @mozilla CEO whose first action was to post a link to her Linkedin profile?

Some said I was harsh that we should let her the benefit of doubt.

So here are the first true actions: firing 60 people working on useless products to focus the company on its true mission.

The useless products?
- Relay (privacy, protection against spam)
- VPN (privacy)
- Mozilla.social (Mastodon)
- Monitor (privacy)

True mission to focus:
- AI (???)

You can’t made that up

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/mozilla-downsizes-as-it-refocuses-on-firefox-and-ai-read-the-memo/

Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI: Read the memo | TechCrunch

After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is making some major changes to its product

TechCrunch
Show threadHypxFeb 14, 2024
@ploum @[email protected] It's time to admit that Firefox is dead or will be soon. It's also important to remember than Google basically bankrolls Mozilla, likely just to push back against monopoly accusations.
Show threadthe esoteric programmerFeb 14, 2024
@Hypx @ploum @mozilla what alternatives are there then? we can't just give up the fight, can we?
Show threadHypxFeb 14, 2024
@esoteric_programmer @ploum @[email protected] It’s seems unavoidable that some kind of open source browser based on Chromium will replace Firefox. Firefox is just too far behind and Mozilla is too poorly ran to make Firefox more competitive.
Show threadthe esoteric programmerFeb 14, 2024
@Hypx @ploum @mozilla firefox is far behind...on what exactly? I dk, but it seemns to work relatively well in my opinion. Sure, it doesn't have automatic image descriptions or proper translation for a lot of languages, but that's for privacy reasons. I'm more afraid of the current trend mozilla seemns to follow, especially the AI stuff. Sure, AI can be ethical and relatively good, but at the same time, no, I absolutely don't want it in my browser. Also, such open source browsers based on chromium probably already exist, but who knows
Show threadHypxFeb 14, 2024

@esoteric_programmer @ploum @[email protected] It is likely that the Gecko engine is seriously deficient in a lot of ways. Things like lack of security, poor mobile support, inferior extension API, bad/inflexible code, etc., undermine the product in a deep way.

As a result, Firefox is never going to be competitive, especially outside of the desktop. And this is before the "switch to AI." So its likely to only get worse.

Show threadthe esoteric programmerFeb 14, 2024
@Hypx @ploum @mozilla hmm, I'm very curious now. Lack of security, bad decisions regarding extensions, bad mobile support? can you give examples or point me to source code where those deficiencies are apparent? and about mobile support, apple allows nothing but web kit on their app store, and the android version never crashed on my end, so yeah, interesting. Also, yeah, it's possible it could get even worse, and for that we gotta prepair indeed
Show threadHypxFeb 14, 2024

@esoteric_programmer @ploum @[email protected] Much of what I know is based on the decisions by Brave Software, which chose Chromium as their core browser engine over Gecko.

The browser market will probably get worse regardless, since Google dominates this market. But the best option all point to something based on Chromium and not Gecko.

Show threadthe esoteric programmer
@Hypx @ploum @mozilla brave chose chromium more or less because everyone chooses chromium, and that's what people should focus on stopping. Such monopolistic behaviour can't be justified in any way, and even if for that alone, I'll keep using firefox till they'd shuv ai into my browser, at which point, I'd probably switch to a fork, or better still, leave the web and go to gemini or something like that, lol
Feb 14, 2024 at 9:15pmWeb
Show threadHypxFeb 14, 2024

@esoteric_programmer @ploum @[email protected] They explained that going with Gecko would've slowed down development significantly. Likely, they couldn't've survived if they kept with Gecko.

For now, Firefox is still a viable browser (I still use it too). But barring a major shift at Mozilla, it will eventually stop being a credible alternative to Chromium-based browsers.

https://brave.com/the-road-to-brave-one-dot-zero/

The road to Brave 1.0 | Brave

Over the past 4 ½ years I've been helping to build a "big" new startup named Brave. It's been a wild ride, far exceeding anything I could have imagined. The company has grown from a team of 2, to over 100 passionate mission-driven teammates. Our user base has grown to 8.7 million monthly active users. Our users help support over 300,000 registered content creators via micropayments. And our community is growing and thriving more every day.

Brave