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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

#981

Post by gvjddbnvdrbv »

fsflover wrote: post #448
segphault wrote: post #432

Over the past decade, Mozilla has capitulated over and over again on critical issues. They failed their users and the ecosystem by not standing up to industry pressure for h.264 and EME. They also ended up following rather than leading on key privacy issues like third-party cookie behavior. In every case, they defended these decisions by saying that they couldn't risk losing users, arguing that these issues weren't h…

So what are your suggestions? Let Mozilla die and enjoy Google monopoly in the web? No, thanks. I prefer a non-profit organization which " failed their users and the ecosystem by not standing up to industry pressure ". By the way, consider donating to Mozilla if you want them to (be able to) listen to you.

Why would one donate to an organisation the fires workers whilst paying millions to execs?

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

#982

Post by jopsen »

def_true_false wrote: post #948
jopsen wrote: post #918

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument for DRM is that it ships in a sandbox built by Mozilla. But hey, I'm sure that if Mozilla didn't ship DRM, video codecs, etc, the browser would have been more popular. Firefox is actually useful. DNS lookups are safer with a provider vetted by Mozilla. They were able to negotiate a contract you wouldn't have been able to get. Ensuring you more privacy. But sure bash Mozilla for trying to be pragmatic, pr…

Yeah, giving another 3rd party user data ensures the users more privacy. You have some kind of doublethink going on there.

Mozilla can't build every service on the internet. Trying would be futile.

But they can collectively bargain on their users behalf.

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

#983

Post by tzjmetron »

dblohm7 wrote: post #258

[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…

Fuck off, man.

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

#984

Post by tzjmetron »

vages wrote: post #627
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly don't think the corporate doublespeak is reason to switch to Chrome, but I do think the corporate doublespeak in this announcement is just awful. When you're doing a layoff, just announce the layoff, show compassion to the affected employees, and if you want to announce other changes, do it in a separate announcement. Putting stuff about the fight against systemic racism in the opening paragraph of a layo…

I have to respectfully disagree. It is common for leaders to re-state their entity's reason for being as they bring bad news. See Churchill's speeches during the battle of France, for instance. I think this opening was well-written and clearly communicated Mozilla's purpose. You can blame it for being populist, but don't hate the player, hate the game.

You must live in a bubble.

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

#985

Post by nateweiss »

JohnBooty wrote: post #786
dblohm7 wrote: post #258

[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…

I don't mind any of Mozilla's mistakes. Like you say: Mozilla is exemplary when it comes to getting things right when they screw up. What I mind is that I can't take Mozilla seriously at all. They keep trying new projects. I laugh every time because I know it will be gone in six to twelve months. Right now Mozilla is offering VPN service. Theoretically, I am the ideal customer. I care about privacy and security and m…

Personally I’m excited to switch to the Mozilla branded VPN. I expect it will be a good try at a VPN service, and it will hopefully be a way for them to make a bit of extra money. If it fails, it fails and I’ll pick another.

There are companies launching on HN and employing people on HN all the time. Those companies may or may not survive the long haul. I don’t see how I can sensibly demand more of a promise from the software and services that I buy, vs. what we (collectively) promise to our own users or customers.

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

#986

Post by 0xDEEPFAC »

andor wrote: post #620
0xDEEPFAC wrote: post #594

Without Firefox though everything is Chrome. Skype, Zoom, Slack, Discord, Chrome itself, Safari, Edge, Opera, VS Code, Atom... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SCfNhyIo_U We need to encourage competition even if companies continue to spew this kind of cringe. Firefox is the last holdout. Good luck Mozilla, you're our old hope.

Safari is still Webkit. Zoom is a native application.

Zoom is electon based.

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

#987

Post by warmind99 »

ilmiont wrote: post #476

Mozilla needs to stop prattling on about being a "world-class, modern, multi-product internet organisation" and being "diverse" and "inclusive" and "battling systemic racism" and get back to developing its core products which people actually want to use. Stop with the fluff and the airy blog posts and societal ambitions and get back to doing actual engineering which gets people back using your products. You may have…

It'd be really interesting to see how much activist HR employees eat into their revenue.

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

#988

Post by warmind99 »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #345

That'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…

It would be nice if they took over the video call market from Zoom. They definitely have the web expertise to do it, and they could make a lot of money since absolutely no one I know actually wants to use zoom over a competitor.

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

#989

Post by warmind99 »

ecf wrote: post #346
praveenperera wrote: post #127

4.5 months severance for the laid off employees. Doesn't say anything about any cuts to executive compensation however. https://blog.mozilla.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Message-...

Every single C-suite executive should be required to take a (2 * % of employees laid off) pay cut. Lay off 25% of your company? Enjoy your 50% pay cut. Have to lay off 50%? Enjoy working unpaid for a year while you rebuild.

Coming from the finance world, there's a very good reason that doesn't happen. In situations where a company is spiraling, everyone is incentivized to leave for new work. The people who are most competent at work are also most capable of getting new jobs, so what used to happen before it was standard was as a company died, the best people left, and the company died faster.

If you axe the CEO's pay by 50% one year, what reason does he have to stay on and fix things? Why shouldn't he just go to some successful series A startup, get a bunch of equity, and retire in 10 years? He definitely could, if he wanted to.

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

#990

Post by KorematsuFred »

dblohm7 wrote: post #258

[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…

The 'Fuck mozilla' moment for me happened when Mozilla fired Brendan Eich for his personal and political opnions donations. Since then I have bothered very less about Mozilla.
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