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

calpaterson.com

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

#291
My case might be somewhat niche, but as a developer, I find myself really struggling to use Firefox for development, due to the awkwardness of the developer tools (or perhaps a lack of familiarity)

This makes it annoying to go from work mode to personal browsing mode, and so every time I try to make the switch to Firefox, I eventually revert back.

Then I discovered Brave, and was immediately familiar. Haven't used Chrome since.

Anyone else have this experience with Firefox?

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

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And why should anyone contribute to an open source project of a for-profit company without being compensated?

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

#294

If you use DDG with Firefox does that mean that the Mozilla pay for search goes down? on edit: removed extra what

I believe so, yes. I use FF with DDG and when I need to Google something I do it via the omnibar (alt-down, Google is second choice search engine) rather than adding !g in DDG, because AFAIU it kicks them a few pennies.

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

#295

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…

Well web browsers are to complex to maintain by part time Dev unless you have an upstream to rebase on or do not mind in implementing new stuff. You need at least 10 to 20 full time Devs at the minimum and that's if you libaries for all web APIs which clearly Firefox and Chrome are not doing. I wish there was a way to browser modular frankly.

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

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I use FF on mobile and it works perfectly. Not anymore! To be consistent with their business screw ups, they addressed this with the latest updates. Now the mobile app a mess like the rest of Mozilla.

This, I have been a long time FF on Android user, mostly due to the ability to run add-ons (ublock etc). Latest update complete botched it. Couple of hnags/restarts every day, jittery UI, unintuitive button placement (e.g. new tab)... I want to use Firefox (or any decent browser not based on chrome), for several reasons, but this way it gets harder and harder to justify to myself. What alternatives do we have for non…

New FF also feels significantly slower. Can't really put my finger on anything specific but it is no longer fluid.

Even Edge is now chromium based, I think it's a lost battle.

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

#297

> 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...

We see Eich with his own browser vision and executive style over at Brave, where he is unencumbered by legacy bureaucracy or codebases. He wouldn’t have been as free if he were at Mozilla.

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

#298

At the end of the day, they failed at their original mission: "It was intended to harness the creative power of thousands of programmers on the Internet and fuel unprecedented levels of innovation in the browser market. " All of the innovation on web standards, web frameworks, etc. has been coming from FAANG and Mozilla is funded by them. They defocused and have been messing around with all kinds of other stuff.

Not all of the change on web standards has been good or appropriate innovation perhaps exactly because of Firefox smaller clout nowadays. Look at the story of Mozilla's H264 implementation and you'll see it's clearly Google that has managed to throw it's weight around and decide what would become the standard whether it was good or not.

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

#299
post #253

> Mobile browsing numbers are bleak: Firefox barely exists on phones, with a market share of less than half a percent. 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. This is true, and indeed very strange. I use FF on mobile and it works perfectly. So Mozilla's problems aren't only technical, there's also a question of market aw…

> I use FF on mobile and it works perfectly. Not anymore! To be consistent with their business screw ups, they addressed this with the latest updates. Now the mobile app a mess like the rest of Mozilla.

I don't see this, how is it a mess exactly?

On the parent issue, Firefox on mobile is great because of the same reason Firefox on Desktop is great. Power over your browser. Which is important since browser exploits are using Javascript to compromise phones.

Of course regular people don't know this and will probably never care. But it's the reason Firefox probably won't die. Because the people who know tech know its strength and will want to use it.

It's shameful for a CEO to get a 400% pay increase, regardless of any other circumstances. But it matters less to me because I'm sure Firefox will always attract enthusiasts who care about their online security.

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

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repeat after me: saying "correlation is not causation" "slippery slope fallacy" or "survivorship bias" doesn't amount to an argument. They are thought-stopping words primarily used by midwits who think it makes them sound smart. I see this all the time on HN and it's annoying. Furnish evidence or a solid argument for why he is wrong, otherwise you're no better than him.

The point is to get the person to actually supply real evidence instead of unfounded associations. If someone can't come up with a feasible way they actually are, or even could be causal in nature to discuss, then they probably should be shut down. If someone can't muster up the barest excuse for how their argument makes sense, then I won't be sad to see them stop talking about it. If someone tried to shut down my ar…

If: “The point is to get the person to actually supply real evidence instead of unfounded associations.” then say “That’s an assertion that you provided no evidence for. Do you have any evidence?” - writing “correlation is not causation” is to make yourself sound smart, not to ask for evidence, which can be done in a much clearer and less passive aggressive way by just straight up asking for it.
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