jwzOct 4, 2024

Mozilla's CEO doubles down on them being an advertising company now.

tl;dr: "LOL get fucked"

They've decided who their customers are, and it's not you, it's people who build and invest in surveillance advertising networks. But in a "respectful" way....
https://jwz.org/b/ykaO

Mozilla's CEO doubles down on them being an advertising company now

tl;dr: "LOL get fucked" They've decided who their customers are, and it's not you, it's people who build and invest in surveillance advertising networks. But in a "respectful" way. "Improving online advertising through product and infrastructure." We know that not everyone in our community will embrace our entrance into this market. Gee, ya think? In parallel to our existing consumer ...

Show threadMorten Juhl-Johansen
@jwz It is a frustrating affair.
I have been thinking a lot about how Thunderbird is reconquering mind- and marketshare with the desktop version and the K-9 Mail-based Thunderbird for Android.
I can hope it will not be polluted with AI, but that seems unlikely in the long run.
Oct 4, 2024 at 7:41amWeb
Show threadjwzOct 4, 2024

@mjj I don't know anything about what's going on technically with Thunderbird these days, but for years they've been playing word-games where they pretend to be a "Mozilla" project when it suits them and utterly independent when the press is going the other way.

"We're a part of Mozilla, not Mozilla or Mozilla or Mozilla" is a thing that they say and it does not inspire confidence, because either it's intentionally deceptive or it's just comically bad messaging, and neither are great.

Show threadGlitch (over count 1999)Oct 4, 2024
@jwz @mjj as far as I understand it, Thunderbird just is completely deprioritized after 2020 (minus them buying out K-9 Mail to turn it into Thunderbird for Android), with Mozilla basically trying to handle it like the Apache Foundation, where they're "just the stewards", which is just code language for "we can't be arsed to keep developing it".
Show threadMorten Juhl-JohansenOct 4, 2024
@glitch @jwz It was like that until recently. The Thunderbird 115 Supernova release was quite a change - a year ago, I think? That is when I started using it again.
Show threadRyan Lee Sipes ⚡🦅Oct 5, 2024

@jwz @mjj Thunderbird has a community Council that approves the budget and product roadmap. The entity that manages the money, hiring, etc - is distinct. Not MoCo or the Foundation. Because of that we are Mozilla, but we don't follow any marching orders besides those that are set in concert with the community.

It is not disingenuous to call out that we have a different way of doing things. Part of the Mozilla family, but different in some key ways.

That is the truth.