Erin Kissane

Venn diagram of what indie tech people think Mozilla wants to be/should be and what Moz actually wants to be: OO

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Mozilla.social
Sep 17, 2024 at 5:22pmWeb
Show threadErin KissaneSep 17, 2024

My tepid take is that this gap is only partly Mozilla's fault—the rest is a combination of projection and the ol' "using the same terms to mean different things" problem.

We sure could use a big institution to be what, say, nerds like me would prefer Mozilla to be, though. (The reason we don't have one is funding.)

Show threadLes OrchardSep 17, 2024

@kissane I would say there are nerds inside Mozilla who are baffled by the whole thing, too

But, that funding thing turns out to be a real lynchpin and a dilemma all at the same time

Show threadErin KissaneSep 17, 2024

@lmorchard For sure! And Mozilla has done some great things, especially but not only on the foundation side. (Our little Knight-funded team there got so much done, lots of the fellows have been amazing.)

But the good things seem to have been sort of to one side of what leadership ultimately wanted, and Baker's bets didn't really pay off.

Show threadVolineSep 17, 2024
@kissane
How are things going with the @servo project these days? Could a proper non-profit organized with them be a kernel of a Mozilla without the Silicon Valley surveillance capitalist crap?
Show threadJPSep 17, 2024
@kissane the most disappointing thing to me is that the people pushing the current vision there don't see how they're on the path to getting crushed and buried, the open web hollowed out and privatized, by companies with 1000x more money than them. why aspire to be such pathetic also-rans? i can only conclude they naively believe they're on the "same team" as google et al.
Show threadUncalibratedSep 17, 2024
@kissane Google pays Mozilla leadership's salaries, and they have been running Mozilla as controlled opposition to defend Google against monopoly claims.
Show threadUncalibratedSep 17, 2024
@kissane Mozilla's strategy: be a mediocre imitation of Chrome to show a token effort while alienating long-time users.
Show threadEric A. MeyerSep 17, 2024
@kissane Feels like the gap between those two should be wider, some days.