It really stinks that 250 people lost their jobs, I don't want to downplay that. But I think overall this is a good move for Mozilla. For them to be product-oriented will allow them to uphold their own privacy advocacy ideals. Most notably, they may eventually be able to remove Google as Firefox's default search engine.
Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
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Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#362That's sad, many of them would have joined Mozilla not just for money but genuinely believing they are working for social good and they did. I understood how bad Mozilla, for lack of a better term 'sucked' at making money when I saw how the small team of KaiOS picked up the remains of Firefox OS and not only turned it to be a viable business but did so in the ruthless, hyper-competitive market of Smartphone OS ecosys…
> I understood how bad Mozilla, for lack of a better term 'sucked' at making money when I saw how the small team of KaiOS picked up the remains of Firefox OS and not only turned it to be a viable business but did so in the ruthless, hyper-competitive market of Smartphone OS ecosystem where even Microsoft had failed.
KaiOS is in the ultra-low-end smartphone/feature-phone market that Microsoft/Google/Apple don't care about at all.
What's remarkable is that something ill-conceived like "web technology on ultra-low-end devices" actually gained enough traction to get devices on the market.
Like Firefox OS before it, actual KaiOS devices were not well-received, because of poor performance and lack of apps. It's just that nobody really notices because all the buzz is around "real" smartphones.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#363It really stinks that 250 people lost their jobs, I don't want to downplay that. But I think overall this is a good move for Mozilla. For them to be product-oriented will allow them to uphold their own privacy advocacy ideals. Most notably, they may eventually be able to remove Google as Firefox's default search engine.
> they may eventually be able to remove Google as Firefox's default search engine
IIRC the financial woes are precisely because the contract with Google is running out. Aren't they?
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#364I worked at Mozilla from 2013-2017, then moved into clean tech. I currently manage software engineers for a technically-not-cleantech company that is extremely effective at selling life-changing products, especially solar energy, in the global South. While I don't have open slots on my team, I'm happy to chat about software job hunts in general, and the amazing opportunities available right now to fight climate change in particular. There are dozens of legit companies that can use your skills—you just have to find them. If you need a #mozillalifeboat, feel free to get in touch. "sampenrose" on Google's email service.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#365Why not make a commercial pro version of the developer edition with Webflow like design features?
Because most devs are allergic to pay for stuff, unless they happen to work for big corp. This is how the bazaar generation has pushed all good tools for those of us that happen to work for the man.
FF developer attracts a different audience I think, more designers and frontend people. Designers usually spend a lot more and don't insist on foss.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#366That's sad, many of them would have joined Mozilla not just for money but genuinely believing they are working for social good and they did. I understood how bad Mozilla, for lack of a better term 'sucked' at making money when I saw how the small team of KaiOS picked up the remains of Firefox OS and not only turned it to be a viable business but did so in the ruthless, hyper-competitive market of Smartphone OS ecosys…
I could have seen Mozilla build an enhanced email service like Hey! Actually, they could still probably do it, it would align with their focus on privacy and experience with email reader.
True, email requires more players to stay federated and would have reflected well with Mozilla's supposed ethos. But, I seriously doubt whether Mozilla would have pulled off what Hey did in terms of marketing.
Mozilla's marketing for the hypothetical email service would have been like ProtonMail without the advantage of 'Switzerland/CERN' brand. Also, ProtonMail has now gone all guns on Apple following Hey, which I don't think Mozilla would do.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
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-f…
Wow, that’s a bummer. I used Send semi-regularly over the past year, and recommended it to colleagues. By coincidence, I haven’t needed it since early summer.
How are they supposed to address the malware problem without making significant changes to the system? “Just add abuse reporting” sounds expensive, in terms of moderation. And there’s still the reputational risk of having God-knows-what encrypted content served through a subdomain of firefox.com. While I liked being able to share trusted URLs, something tells me that ain’t coming back.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#368[I am a Mozilla employee, and yes, I do recognize how my position influences my perspective.] One thing that always frustrates me a bit whenever Mozilla comes up on HN or elsewhere is that we are always held to impossibly high standards. Yes, as a non-profit, we should be held to higher standards, but not impossible standards. OTOH, sometimes it just seems unreasonable and absurd. Stuff like, to paraphrase, "Look at…
Yeah, the loudest voice goes to the complainers. Most people are NOT sitting around demanding apologies from a non-profit that makes browsers... that's not normal.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#369I like the new focus on how they will make money. While it's nice to be a mission-driven org they always straddled that line of being aspirational and being "for profit." It makes the value proposition tough to define. Putting an emphasis on revenue will better define the business without needing to sell their souls.
Re: Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
#370'The coronavirus pandemic “significantly impacted our revenue,”' -
Most of their revenue comes from search engines paying to be the default. Are there any details on why the pandemic would have a significant impact on that?