Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#101

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:24 AM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #12

jameskraus wrote: post #2

Devils advocate: you have to pay a top exec more if the company looks like its main product is in decline. Plus 2.4m/year isn't crazy in the scheme of tech salaries - that exec could potentially take other roles that pay even more.

Alternative: move the HQ and most development to Europe, where these ridiculous salaries are not common (see the example in the article of The Guardian boss), but there is still a strong privacy culture.

That might work but how often does that happen really?

SV companies relocate development but never the top brass to Europe as they would lose their pay, status and network.

Believe it or not, just like with dating and real estate, your monetary value is more dependent on where you are rather than how good you are. Shocking, I know.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#102

Post by zgiber » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:24 AM UTC

Jonnax wrote: post #13

There's a quote from the CEO saying that they looked at the market and felt like they were being underpaid. And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. Firefox has a problem. It gets most of its revenue from Google. They need a different revenue stream but their ideas haven't worked. Their executives are clearly failures. But with such high pay, they're cashing out. Buying themsel…

I agree to me it seems like they're admitting that the ship is sinking. The CEO is over 60yo, unlikely to take on another gig after this. The simplest explanation is often the correct one, she's lost her way and needs a nice cushion before retirement. Greed is s very human thing.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#103

Post by scoutt » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

martin_a wrote: post #72

enriquto wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. This kind of bullshit infuriates me to no end.

How can you even spend around 2.5 million A YEAR (okay, before taxes, whatever) if you're not BURNING the cash? I don't get it.

Let's says it's the half after taxes: 1.25M. Spending 3424 a day for 365 days should get you there. You have to realize it's our fault to not understand these poor people.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#104

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #94

Jonnax wrote: post #13

There's a quote from the CEO saying that they looked at the market and felt like they were being underpaid. And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. Firefox has a problem. It gets most of its revenue from Google. They need a different revenue stream but their ideas haven't worked. Their executives are clearly failures. But with such high pay, they're cashing out. Buying themsel…

The Mozilla execs could all make more money at FAANG companies just down the road from Mozilla HQ. If they left, it would probably be pretty hard to replace them with anyone capable of saving Firefox who would settle for less. The same is true for most of the engineers at Mozilla. They could go to FAANGs and increase their compensation quite a bit. So while I agree that the leadership has been bad, executive pay was…

Nothing will kill morale as much as executive pay going up while your colleagues are being given their pink slips. That is an executive decision making problem but it directly impacts morale.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#105

Post by yourapostasy » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

deanclatworthy wrote: post #8

I really want Mozilla to succeed. But I just can't bring myself to use Firefox as a daily driver. Just open a few tabs on a top of the line macbook, and a twitch stream and things get very laggy. I've seen numerous people craving for better container support, which is definitely a killer feature for people going forward towards a more private web. Why isn't Mozilla more actively developing this? Developers were the p…

What version of Firefox are you running, and what Add-Ons do you have installed? n=1 anecdote: I'm on a 2016-vintage Macbook Pro, Firefox 81.0, 64-bit, with >1100 tabs spread across 6 windows. I'm pushing the limits trying to establish whether to commit to Firefox or Chrome, and so far while lots of people seem to like Chrome, I'm strongly preferring Firefox.

I could not get Chrome to stay stable enough with that much resource utilization, and the most important part I've learned is that Firefox's profiles storage formats are open enough that I've been able to recover from some pretty bad kernel panics (due to the graphics card switching on my laptop; disabling that fixed the panics).

Probably next Macbook Pro refresh cycle from Apple I'll upgrade to the latest they introduce, but Firefox-as-daily-driver has been able to take a lot of abuse from me.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#106

Post by philjohn » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

danielEM wrote: post #88

From my perspective - first and foremost question is - why the usage is going down so much? What makes people pick Chrome?

It's bundled with lots of program installers, and Google push it heavily.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#107

Post by ionforce » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:26 AM UTC

drenvuk wrote: post #15

Shit like this pisses me off. I care for Firefox and the team behind it but how do you get rid of these vampires sucking the company dry? You've got executive pay going up, usage going down. Pivotal leaders being ousted, good workers being released, good features being removed and shit features being added. It's like managers and executives somehow dig their bureaucratic teeth into a successful company/project and th…

No incentive, I guess, is the explanation for any stagnant system.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#108

Post by Rebelgecko » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:26 AM UTC

>This is baffling given that mobile Firefox has a rare feature for a mobile browser: it's able to install extensions and so can block ads.

I'm not sure about the extent to which this is true? I dont think Firefox has extensions on iOS (probably not up to Mozilla). Meanwhile, the extension experience on Android is "bumpy" to put it lightly. Just a few weeks ago, FF mobile broke nearly every single extension (apparently this was intentional, but it makes for a bad user experience)

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#109

Post by imtringued » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

The web is canceled. It's now Google's chrome network.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#110

Post by nicolas_t » Wed, Sep 23, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

deanclatworthy wrote: post #8

I really want Mozilla to succeed. But I just can't bring myself to use Firefox as a daily driver. Just open a few tabs on a top of the line macbook, and a twitch stream and things get very laggy. I've seen numerous people craving for better container support, which is definitely a killer feature for people going forward towards a more private web. Why isn't Mozilla more actively developing this? Developers were the p…

Weird, in my experience on my mbp, Firefox handles the average 120 tabs I have opened much better than Safari. It didn't use to be that way, but they have improved a lot in the past 2-3 years.