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Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#321

Post by barrkel »

DCKing wrote: post #249
jacquesm wrote: post #95

Mozilla management has me puzzled. They have a position that is incredibly strong, lots of dedicated users that would rather quit the web than switch to Chrome or Edge. "But we know we also need to go beyond the browser to give people new products and technologies that both excite them and represent their interests" Is exactly what they should stay away from. Work on the bloody browser, forget about the rest. There a…

> Is exactly what they should stay away from. Work on the bloody browser, forget about the rest. This is short term thinking. A slightly better Firefox tomorrow is nice I guess, buy I care way more about being able to use Firefox in 2030, or 2040. Making a browser is not looking like a business model that is going to make you last forever - not when Google is your competition. Their business model already depends on…

As soon as their revenue isn't dependent on Firefox, why would they continue to develop it?

If they found a different cash cow with their wild bets, why would they cross-subsidize Firefox with it?

Not focusing on Firefox makes Firefox less likely to thrive, no matter which way you look at it.

It's quite hard to turn that kind of ship around, though, psychologically, when you've been fighting rearguard for so long, and mentally are in a place of prestige while the halo of lights imperceptibly fades. Mozilla's shadow is its own worst enemy.

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#323

Post by mxuribe »

frabbit wrote: post #229
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #121

I wish they would get their "Send" feature up & running again. It's so simple for one-off's, better than DropBox. https://send.firefox.com/

/That/ I would pay for. Add in Matrix server(s) , email hosting and I'm a subscriber.

Pay Mozilla for email hosting and matrix homeserver hosting!?! YES, PLEASE! Oh, and in my monthly fees, i can simply add $1 or $2 per month to donate directly to the browser team s well? YES, PLEASE, where do i sign up!?!?!?!?!

While I'm serious about the above, forgive my capitalization and excessive punctuation...but this is honestly a great idea. For Mozilla - which is a company that i trust - to offer a paid service for 3 of the most essential internet services - web browsing, email, and chat (via matrix) - would be a great product offering. They could even offer other additional stuff like the VPN service i heard about...which generates so much value for users, and by making it a paid service, makes it sustainable. I'll add the caveat that none of these would be amazing money-makers, and stuff like managing email is hard, but it is a start, and at least brings in revenue. Maybe not so revolutionary (as a set of offerings), but sometimes foundational things provide the platform for future awesomeness.

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#324

Post by Chirael »

jacquesm wrote: post #192
gfodor wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A common refrain, but is anything but obvious. Focusing on the browser could be a losing strategy. I'd argue it probably is. The trajectory is terrible: the tech is being commoditized (WebKit, Chromium) and the market share picture is bleak. The opportunity cost is huge: maintaining a web engine, one which basically just tries to keep up with the others put out by Google et al, takes armies of people that could perha…

Yes, it is a losing strategy because this is a rearguard action. There are only losing strategies, nothing will turn Mozilla around to be some kind of powerhouse besides what it already is. And that's fine . It doesn't need to be the next singing, dancing platform with bells and whistles. It's a tool. It should do one thing and do that one thing well. FireFox is not a failing product, it is the only product they have…

I loved Firefox Send and really hope they can find a way to address the malware problem [1]. It was the only large file sharing service I fully trusted both because of the encrypted zero-knowledge aspect of the system and the organization behind it; I used it several times a month personally and told others about it. To me it was a "win" under the Mozilla/FF brand.

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-suspends-firefox-send-...

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#325

Post by barrkel »

gfodor wrote: post #176
jacquesm wrote: post #95

Mozilla management has me puzzled. They have a position that is incredibly strong, lots of dedicated users that would rather quit the web than switch to Chrome or Edge. "But we know we also need to go beyond the browser to give people new products and technologies that both excite them and represent their interests" Is exactly what they should stay away from. Work on the bloody browser, forget about the rest. There a…

A common refrain, but is anything but obvious. Focusing on the browser could be a losing strategy. I'd argue it probably is. The trajectory is terrible: the tech is being commoditized (WebKit, Chromium) and the market share picture is bleak. The opportunity cost is huge: maintaining a web engine, one which basically just tries to keep up with the others put out by Google et al, takes armies of people that could perha…

Counterpoint: Apple when Jobs came back.

Sometimes the answer to a company which is trying too many things at random is to drastically reduce the dispersion of effort, and focus ruthlessly.

It's very hard to do psychologically, though.

IMO Mozilla would probably be better served, business-wise, as being "the customizable Chrome". It would be a much smaller business (i.e. less IP under development), but it could be profitable and it leverages their USP in a way that Chrome doesn't seem able or willing to follow.

Finding different products to sell simply leads to Firefox going away, IMO. I don't care about Mozilla; I care about what Firefox does that Chrome does not. And at the end of the day, that's mostly Tree Style Tabs, uBlock and a menu bar.

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#326

Post by marcinzm »

staktrace wrote: post #270
ac29 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the donations, I think the way they are structured with donations going to the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, and development of Firefox being done by the for-profit Mozilla Corporation means that donations cant be used to support Firefox development. Its unfortunate, because I would happily donate to fund Firefox, but I'm not terribly interested in funding Mozilla's non-profit activities (at least not more…

This is a bit of a silly argument, because money is fungible and dollars are dollars. Donating money to the Foundation means less of the Corporation's dollars have to go to supporting the Foundation, and so more of the Corporation's dollars go to Firefox.

That's not how entities managed by humans function. If you give the Mozilla foundation $1, they now have $1 + their previous money. The people running the org have no incentive to lower their other revenue sources. They want to manage as large of an org as possible and you do that by not leaving money on the table.

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#327

Post by tmp0192847475 »

rswail wrote: post #5

"Focusing Firefox On Users In order to refocus the Firefox organization on core browser growth through differentiated user experiences, we are reducing investment in some areas such as developer tools, internal tooling, and platform feature development, and transitioning adjacent security/privacy products to our New Products and Operations team." So what is the impact on things like Servo/Rust, and the core browser?…

Most of the Servo team got fired :(

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#328

Post by gnusty_gnurc »

shock wrote: post #78
fsflover wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, please make a monthly donation to Mozilla if you can. You will contribute to saving the world. https://donate.mozilla.org/

I wonder how many more people would donate if they knew the donation would be spent on making Firefox better and not on political activism.

I don't particularly care for the CEO, seems like an activist weirdo if I'm being honest(embodies idealism in an unproductive way).

Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

#329

Post by goalieca »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #194

> Economic conditions resulting from the global pandemic have significantly impacted our revenue This is baffling. How? You make a web technology and everyone is stuck at home.

The economy is a ecosystem. If one species goes extinct it can destroy the balance and throw everything into chaos.

My company and most of my friends at other tech companies have had paycuts, layoffs, or furloughs.

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