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

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

#271

Post by baq »

jameslk wrote: post #96
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…

While I understand the frustration, it's unclear to me what the expected solution is for Mozilla. Pay the CEO less until the company does better? Ok but the CEO will presumably just find a higher paying job elsewhere. Then what? Find a cheaper CEO? How does that help fix the slipping market share for Firefox?

yes. it helps by reducing burn rate of good money.

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

#272

Post by lotsofpulp »

admg wrote: post #248

Meh pay doesn't bother me - that's an internal problem for them. What does bother me is firefox on a mac (2018 15inch pro), it just trashes the battery life. Too many tabs open and the fans go haywire, energy usage spikes etc. My mac is at 140 cycles with approx 72% of the design capacity of the battery left, I'm convinced this is because of firefox's bad performance. Might not be but it's the biggest suspect. I've b…

Chrome and Firefox use much more energy than Safari on macOS, so I just end up using Safari all the time.

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

#273

Post by panpanna »

mattlondon wrote: post #245

Stupid question perhaps, but I thought Firefox was an open source project? Why does it need a company with highly-paid executives and HR departments and all that to exist? If Firefox/Mozilla the company goes out of business then .... nothing changes? Apart from of course a bunch of people sadly lose their full-time jobs and development speed slows dramatically as people are no longer working on it full-time and only…

The problem is that the modern web is very complicated. Building a modern browser requires a lots of resources and that needs a big team with steady funding.

While the money is available (google) having a team this big requires enterprise level management, which leads to enterprise level shenanigans...

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

#274

Post by noobermin »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #237
jacquesm wrote: post #100

> And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. That must be a real comfort to all the people they laid off. This CEO needs to go, needs to be replaced by someone who is well versed in technology instead of in law.

Maybe we shouldn’t have canceled Eich after all...

Even if you really believe that they are probably people other than Eich and Baker who could do the job.

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

#275

Post by kovac »

Can't speak for others but I stopped using Firefox for the following reasons, pretty much in the order of priority.

1. When I learnt about the corporate structure at Mozilla. I simply don't drust any large corporation with matters related to privacy.

2. What happened with Brendan Eich. That just wasn't cool. What someone does in his personal time is non of my business. Virtue signalling of any sort, to me, is a hallmark of the wrong crowd in power. As far as I could see, Eich refused to bend the knee which is an admirable quality considering the fact that internet privacy is an uphill battle against giants.

3. Lack of innovation and getting in bed with Google. If Firefox needed money, all they had to do was just ask. How can they, when they have to pay a CEO millions of dollars.

Now I'm primarily using Vivaldi. Sometimes Brave. I'd support a small, talented and a focused team anyday.

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

#276

Post by perryizgr8 »

cm2187 wrote: post #187

What triggered this exodus? It's not like firefox is bad or worse in any way. I don't think there is a killer Chrome feature everyone wants either. Or is it just the result of the market share of mobile vs desktop?

> It's not like firefox is bad or worse in any way.

Actually I was a long time user of Firefox and I finally switched to Chrome because Firefox was painfully slow at basic things like scrolling.

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

#277

Post by kwanbix »

twblalock wrote: post #121
kwanbix wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not that they get most of their revenue from Google. The problem is that they have 5% share of the web now.

The Google money is what enabled them to let their core product wither and nearly die without any short-term consequences. They spent a pretty long time with it in that state while pursuing things like a phone OS. Without the Google money they would have had more incentive to keep Firefox competitive.

That does not mean that they problem is the google money. The problem is that they had (have) lots of money that they did not spend smartly.

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

#278

Post by bambax »

jameslk wrote: post #96
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…

While I understand the frustration, it's unclear to me what the expected solution is for Mozilla. Pay the CEO less until the company does better? Ok but the CEO will presumably just find a higher paying job elsewhere. Then what? Find a cheaper CEO? How does that help fix the slipping market share for Firefox?

Modern CEO pay is a cargo-cult. Companies pay CEO insane amounts because "everybody else does it" and "it helps hire the best".

These theories are untested, except that we now know for certain that paying $2.5M doesn't guarantee that the CEO is any good.

I would bet you can hire an excellent, technically competent CEO for Mozilla for $250k a year.

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

#279

Post by ppf »

jacquesm wrote: post #243
fiblye wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't long ago that comments were shouting that this was the absolute most qualified person to lead Mozilla when others were questioning having a lawyer lead a tech company. Someone with at least a little hands-on experience in building a product really should be something companies look for in leadership. I mean, sure, Baker's done plenty for Mozilla, but Mozilla has been absolutely lost as to what they're tryin…

> t wasn't long ago that comments were shouting that this was the absolute most qualified person to lead Mozilla when others were questioning having a lawyer lead a tech company. I don't think you'll be able to attribute that quote to me. Eich fucked up, and should have realized that you can't be leading a flagship of diversity on the one hand and be a bigot on the other. But he resigned (he wasn't forced out, though…

>should have realized that you can't be leading a flagship of diversity

And there was me thinking he was just leading browser development.

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

#280

Post by findthewords »

fierarul wrote: post #184
RobertoG wrote: post #69

This: "Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's top executive, was paid $2.4m in 2018, [..]. Payments to Baker have more than doubled in the last five years." and this at the same time: "Mozilla recently announced that they would be dismissing 250 people." It's shameful. Specially for a "non profit".

Mozilla Inc is not a non-profit. The parent organization is.

How is it possible that non-profitness does not inherit to a child company? Seems like a conflict of interest.
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