"For Mozilla folks looking for a landing spot, Safari and WebKit teams have a number of openings. DM if interested in any of the below: - HTTP stack - Web dev tools - 3D/AR/VR - Mac app - iOS app - Web Extensions - Any web platform area (layout, web APIs, ...) " https://twitter.com/othermaciej/status/1293252487021916161
Is there any support for XR on the open web in that team? Genuinely interested if some of the spirit of Mozilla could be preserved in that transition.
Mozilla Lifeboat
141–150 of 336 posts
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC Facebook has more than 100 privacy engineers (it's been a few years since I spoke to recruiters there). Facebook has challenges, but it also presents an opportunity to work on security and privacy challenges in way that doesn't exist in many places in the world. Interpretations of other peoples values is largely skewed by their perception, and rarely takes into account the practical realities of working on priva…
Considering Facebook's business model, I would guess that these engineers are there for privacywashing (like greenwashing).
That's one interpretation, and I am by no means trying to defend Facebok, or their privacy team, but it is an extremely uncharitable interpretation.
There are many, many, many folks who work in positions that allow them to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities while working for objectionable organizations.
Look at all of the public servants who are keeping the lights on and trying to keep the US government running. I guarantee you there are folks who absolutely abhor how the system is run, and despise the leadership and politicians (regardless of which leader is in power), but they show up every day and do their job, and try to help people.
It's not ideal, but when you get a burger it wasn't made from a spherical cow of uniform density either...
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
>'revenue' from Firefox was never enough I mean I'm looking at the leadership page and all I can ask myself is do you need to pay that many executives just to build a web browser? I'd be fascinated to know how much it costs Apple to develop Safari, a browser multiple times more successful than Firefox judging by Wikipedia. Just a hunch but I'd bet money it's a fraction of the cost of running this bloated pseudo-chari…
If Mozilla sold devices bundled with Firefox as the default browser, Firefox would also be "multiple times more successful".
They did do that; see the Alcatel Pixi 3. Firefox OS is regarded as one of Mozilla's failures.
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know the details, but the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation have different budgets and legally have to spend the money on different things (since the Foundation is a non-profit). They can't just move money around like a normal company can.
The corporation can spend money on whatever the hell. That's why they set it up. You can infer from the foundation tax returns that most of the assets are held by the corporation: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-2018-fo... It's the assets held directly by the foundation that have implications for their tax status, and they only move assets to that status as necessary.
"The corporation can spend money on whatever the hell. That's why they set it up." oh that is not true at all ... fiduciary duty doesn't work like that.
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#145Thank you to the MDN and Servo teams for all their hard work. I wish you well for the future and hope you find a new gig soon.
Thank you to the MDN and Servo teams for all their hard work. Gutting the Servo team makes me wonder if management is going to move the rendering engine from Gecko to Blink. Perhaps the "Foxium" browser is "coming soon."
Had the same thought and it felt terrible. Couldn't they at least try what almost all other advanced open source organisations seem to do? Branch out a consultancy in their field of expertise that maintains an incredibly famous piece of open source code on the side to show off?
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought that people working at Mozilla were passionate about privacy, open-source, trust, and were working at Mozilla for the values. But you say many of them would work to the company with opposite values.
Like any company's employees: they're all different people! They each have their own reasons for where they work and their own goals and ambitions. Any job you take is going to be a blend and balance across your personal passions, values, talents, desire for impact, financial goals and responsibilities, risk tolerance, and alternative available opportunities. Is it so surprising that one of the largest employers in t…
Employee motivations have zero relevance when discussing corporate actions where those actions are contrary to those motivations.
The reverse is not true.
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
The CTO of FB is an ex-Mozillian. There are quite a few ex-Mozillians here, including myself. Despite Mozilla's public posture that FB is enemy #1, the internal technical culture is more similar than different.
Enemy #1? I hear more about Facebook in the Firefox default startpage than _everywhere else I look_. Today, in fact, there is a huge pseudo-advertisiment (at least in fr_FR) about "how I should not feel guilty about browsing Facebook [through Firefox]" , which almost made me puke. As a person who doesn't care about Facebook whatsoever, I didn't get the impression that FB was enemy #1, but rather I assumed FB was payi…
I believe what you saw was a promotion of https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...
That extension is described as:
"Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your web activity from Facebook."
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#148Seeing this list makes me wonder: is Mozilla the only major software development nonprofit? (Feel free to interpret "major" however you want if you answer the question.) Regardless of one's feelings about Mozilla, the layoffs are really disheartening. And - sorry for the spicy take - I'm bummed to see Facebook and Amazon on this list. It would be nice to see other nonprofits on the list, but it's doubly disappointing…
They are not, but they are perhaps the most consumer visible (because web is eating everything). For less "sexy" non-porfits, there's Apache Software Foundation ("where software goes to die"), and of course Free Software Foundation (gcc, nano, etc.).
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#149"For Mozilla folks looking for a landing spot, Safari and WebKit teams have a number of openings. DM if interested in any of the below: - HTTP stack - Web dev tools - 3D/AR/VR - Mac app - iOS app - Web Extensions - Any web platform area (layout, web APIs, ...) " https://twitter.com/othermaciej/status/1293252487021916161
Looking at the Twitter responses, I don’t know why people assume that every single Mozilla employee would put “being part of the open web and contributing to open source” above people’s crazy obsession with having a job and being able to afford food and shelter.
Re: Mozilla Lifeboat
#150I know it's almost a meme at this point, but maybe Apple should buy Mozilla (or financially support them in some way)? The enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of way. Surely Apple don't want to cede more control over web standards to Google? They both promote valuing user privacy, so it's not like they don't have some common ground.
If Apple really wants to stick it to Google, they could make an iOS App Store policy exception for Firefox / Gecko engine. Heck, that alone may be enough to buoy Mozilla, w/o paying a cent.