this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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Work Reform

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Link to original post: https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/111932214690841585

Link to news link shown in the photo: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/mozilla-lays-off-60-people-wants-to-build-ai-into-firefox/

Cooperative ownership for all businesses too!

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[–] Vash63 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Firefox is developed in the open and accepts outside contributions already. The only thing this is adding is a paid membership.

[–] Rebels_Droppin 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

A paid membership to vote on changes and additions to the program. I think that would be pretty beneficial honestly.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

So instead of a free vote you only get a paid vote?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is there a free vote now? Have I somehow missed this?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

accepts outside contributions already

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sure but those contributors don’t have a functional role in managing the project. This idea seems clearly distinct from the status quo.

[–] orrk 1 points 11 months ago

They do? in fact they dictate almost the entire project, that's how open source works

[–] surewhynotlem 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Don't need a co-op for that. Just fork it and make the changes.

[–] Rebels_Droppin 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

True, you can. But for people who may not have the skill or time but still value the browser, I think it isn't a bad idea. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX 6 points 11 months ago

Then pay someone who does have the time and skill to fork it and make the change you want.

[–] Nesola 43 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The mass won’t even consider being part of a paid membership of a cooperative that’s only purpose is a web browser. That would be the way to drive them even more into Chrome or Safari.

[–] DARbarian 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well this just sounds like Librewolf with more steps

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

And hopefully Librewolf keeps AI out of their code.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You see cooperation, I see a subscription.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

If there was legal ownership that would be different. But it's open source so cooperative ownership doesn't add much. It's already there for everyone to use and modify as they like

[–] ProvableGecko 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, I remember how the "community" reacted when they made that homophobic asshole quit. They still won't shut the fuck up about it, about how mozilla cares more about wokeness than the browser whenever there's a girls' coding initiative or the like. I don't want those assholes having a say in anything.

[–] LesserAbe 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't see much benefit of a fork being a member coop, since the product is already free. I could potentially see a worker coop - if this fork was intended to make a profit, and the people working on it are then incentivized to improve the product because they'll personally benefit, then maybe we'd see more movement and innovation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The fork is to preserve the core browser experience and provide security updates. If you hate AI jank bloating software, your best options for a browser is ~~Chrome~~ suffering. Certainly, you can refuse updates on Firefox going forward if they commit to this path, but you’re a single missing patch away from being an easier target for bad actors to exploit your security vulnerabilities

[–] orrk 1 points 11 months ago

nothing stops forks from implementing the same security features....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Inb4 Google buys up 51% of memberships and "vote" to move Firefox to Chromium.

[–] dumpsterlid 5 points 11 months ago

Interesting!