this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024

679 points (98.6% liked)

Technology

59756 readers

2491 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

679

Mozilla Foundation lays off 30% staff, drops advocacy division | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/technology

116 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46655413

The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a “relentless onslaught of change.”

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 295 points 3 weeks ago (13 children)

Regardless, don’t use chrome.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

We'll go back to gopher if we have to, it's time for burning chrome.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago

Let's just separate GOOG from Chrome / Chromium and Google Search completely. So that the direction of the most used browser, most used search engine and the biggest advertiser don't circle jerk each other.

[–] Gemini24601 15 points 3 weeks ago

Also, Ladybird is looking very promising, so in a few years we should have a true fourth browser engine.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] T156 52 points 3 weeks ago (18 children)

If Mozilla does become defunct, it does raise the question of whether Chrome would be considered a Google monopoly, and therefore subject to antitrust legislation.

I can't imagine any governments would look kindly upon internet access being guarded behind a single company's product.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago

I can’t imagine any governments would look kindly upon internet access being guarded behind a single company’s product.

laughs in 2001

[–] douglasg14b 22 points 3 weeks ago

Google should be subject to antitrust legislation regardless.

Their position as a monopoly is what enables this.

load more comments (16 replies)

load more comments (11 replies)

[–] PetteriPano 256 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Gee, I can't imagine why they chose to drop this bomb today.

It's like they wanted it to be drowned in other news.

[–] NikkiDimes 53 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's Mozilla. No one is going to see this anyway.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] slaacaa 13 points 3 weeks ago

Why, what else happened today?

Tap for spoiler

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] anon_8675309 155 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Did the CEO take a pay cut?

[–] GreenKnight23 78 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

does a bear shit in your mouth?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 45 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay I'll learn how to make better coffee

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Damn bro, you didn't have to roast yourself that hard

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Snapz 38 points 3 weeks ago

Depends... will it generate shareholder value?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you going to tell him "no?"

[–] Makhno 11 points 3 weeks ago

Only if he stops.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] Olap 115 points 3 weeks ago

CEO first please. He's not worth it

[–] linearchaos 110 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I suspect their financial position has changed. Perhaps Google's being found as a monopoly has made them decide not to help fund Mozilla's efforts as substantially.

Ashley Boyd lead the advocacy team, here's the kind of stuff they were doing:

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-welcomes-ashley-boyd-vp-of-advocacy/

In fall of 2016, Mozilla fought for common-sense copyright reform in the EU, creating public education media that engaged over one million citizens and sending hundreds of rebellious selfies to EU Parliament. Earlier in 2016, Mozilla launched a public education campaign around encryption and emerged as a staunch ally of Apple in the company’s clash with the FBI. Mozilla has also fought for mass surveillance reform, net neutrality and data retention reform.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/05/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-staff-drops-advocacy-division/

“The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward,” read the statement shared with TechCrunch.

Reading between the lines, I'd keep an eye on them collecting your data and consider one of the privacy-focused forks.

[–] SendMePhotos 34 points 3 weeks ago

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 83 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

GODDAMMIT MOZILLA. YOU ARE MAKING ADVOCATING FOR BETTER INTERNET HARD

[–] douglasg14b 15 points 3 weeks ago

This is more of a symptom the cause is the monopolization of the internet largely by Google

[–] TheGrandNagus 12 points 3 weeks ago

Unfortunately I don't think there's much Mozilla can do other than cut costs with it seeming like the Google funding will be getting severely hampered.

They can't get money from thin air.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"Give that CEO a raise!"

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 weeks ago

That'll certainly make it easier to pay the CEO.

[+] [email protected] 43 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] PlasticExistence 56 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s looking increasingly likely that the US Department of Justice is going to succeed in their antitrust efforts against Google. Currently, Mozilla gets something like 85% of their funding from Google for being the default search engine in Firefox. That may be deemed anticompetitive behavior by a judge, at which point Mozilla will be left with very little funding compared to their current situation.

I’d bet these actions are in anticipation of that happening.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, and although it will be painful for Mozilla in the short term - it would be a good outcome. It was always bad that Mozilla's main source of funding was from their most powerful competitor. It's an obvious conflict of interest. And obvious way to skew decision making. ... But that money is just so addictive.

There will be some pretty severe withdrawal symptoms if the money gets taken away, but everyone will be healthier in the long run... unless the overpaid CEO continues to suck in all the remaining money and leaves nothing for the people actually doing the work. That would be bad. In that case, if the corporate structure chokes the company to death, I suppose we'd be hoping for Ladybird, or something like it to take Firefox's place.

[–] snowcrushed573 38 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Everytime I see comments regarding Mozilla''s financials,I have the same effing question: How does a company like brave or opera maintain their browser ?? AFAIK both don't have the level of community backing that Mozilla does nor do they have any (again AFAIK) agreement with a company like google for default search engine placement

[–] [email protected] 60 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Brave and Opera are both forks of Chromium that incorporate upstream changes. Firefox is an entire browser.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

those are just rebranded chrome(ium). all browsers except firefox and safari are rebranded chromium or firefox. edit: there are some other projects but none are mature.

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] douglasg14b 39 points 3 weeks ago

They use chromium.

Firefox does not.

The grand majority of software engineering effort goes into the browser development that they never have to work on for the most part.

[–] fatalicus 15 points 3 weeks ago

Brave just tries to scam their users for money.

Like when they added "donate to the content creator" links on YouTube and such, then didn't actually give the money to the content creators.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] nifty 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

God bean counters ruin everything good related to tech

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

wouldn't it be nice if the profit motive wasn't the only driving force of the economy?

[–] Reygle 27 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

All of my favorite browsers are forks of Firefox. Lately it's been Zen browser. Watching Firefox smoulder and collapse over the years has been truly painful and makes me fear a chromium future in hell.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Marthirial 18 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Their question is: how much would you pay for not using a Chromium based browser?

People switching to the browser and zapping all ads, demanding open source and vitriol for any kind of monetization. How can they survive? They would have to become a subsidized utility, which not even the Internet as a whole has achieved.

load more comments (7 replies)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

Wait they still had employees?

[–] just_another_person 14 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

WTF. They had $1b banked a few days ago. This is a bit reactionary perhaps?

load more comments (4 replies)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh geez the leadership is making more mistakes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. If they're low on cash then cutting unnecessary costs is not unreasonable. What is Mozilla's core goal? Perhaps the "advocacy" and "global programs" divisions weren't all that relevant to it, and so their funding is better put elsewhere.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Mozilla keeps digging Firefox's grave, and seeing how other opensource projects like Gimp struggle to even keep up with their own release schedule and very slow development rate. I fear we will be left with only chrome to use.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments