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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

#871

Post by mantap »

warbaker wrote: post #813
indymike wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best and hardest things to do for anything with a board of directors is to establish that EVERY BOARD MEETING starts with a vote on one simple question: "Shall the CEO/Executive Director be retained?" Every company, not for profit or even tiny club that makes this the big question performs it's mission well. Those that don't, well, you get a lot more politics.

Imagine if, every quarter, a committee voted on whether you keep your job. Does this make you more or less willing to take risks? More or less focused? Does this decrease or increase the amount of attention you give to "optics" and politics?

Perhaps if you can't deal with that small pressure you shouldn't be a CEO. When things get bad it's going to be a lot more pressure than that.

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

#872

Post by libeclipse »

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…

> And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families.

That's fucking bullshit. They make millions.

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

#873

Post by anigbrowl »

untog wrote: post #534
twelvechairs wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they left, it would probably be pretty hard to replace them with anyone capable of saving Firefox who would settle for less. Its an open source project people believe in. Reduce the pay and you are probably actually more likely to cut out the worst execs and focus only on smart people who want to contribute.

Open source projects are full of smart people who want to contribute and are still often organisational clusterfucks. Unfortunately being smart and passionate alone doesn’t necessarily make you an effective leader.

True, but why is leadership at such an economic premium to development? It's not like the CEO writes a pile of code for 40 hours a week and then puts in another 30 hours on top doing all the corporate administration. It's an necessary but distinct job that complements the technical one but isn't so superior to it.

Yes, indeed a good CEO has offers from elsewhere. But...why isn't the business and governance open-sourced like the codebase?

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

#875

Post by dang »

syshum wrote: post #614
patrec wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you see any realistic chance of this happening? Generally if a company is captured by a parasitic leadership sucking it dry, that's it, right? Is there anyone on the board whose interests are more aligned with keeping Mozilla alive (probably hard to do at this point) than feasting on it whilst there is still something left to feast on? Presumably you'd need a few such people.

Well if she were to post any kind of Right Leaning political views they would get rid of her pretty quick.... They have a history of that

Please don't take HN threads into ideological flamewar. We've had to ask you this multiple times. This kind of provocation leads to discussion that is equal parts nasty and brain dead.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#876

Post by untog »

anigbrowl wrote: post #873
untog wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open source projects are full of smart people who want to contribute and are still often organisational clusterfucks. Unfortunately being smart and passionate alone doesn’t necessarily make you an effective leader.

True, but why is leadership at such an economic premium to development? It's not like the CEO writes a pile of code for 40 hours a week and then puts in another 30 hours on top doing all the corporate administration. It's an necessary but distinct job that complements the technical one but isn't so superior to it. Yes, indeed a good CEO has offers from elsewhere. But...why isn't the business and governance open-sourc…

At the most basic level leadership is at a premium because there are fewer truly good leaders than there are developers.

Now, is every well paid CEO a truly good leader? No. But I’d argue it’s a lot more difficult to assess a good leader than a good developer. There’s a lot more people management, marketing and other soft skills involved. Not to mention the time scales for success are much larger.

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

#877

Post by smsm42 »

josalhor wrote: post #759
findthewords wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm from Spain, so my knowledge may not be translatable, but I will give it a crack. A business that is set up as a "non-profit" means that it can't pay dividends. If the business earns one million dollars, I can't profit from it. This does not mean there aren't people in the organization with salaries. Sometimes big salaries. You can have a "for-profit" company owned by a "non-profit" one. The dividends paid by the…

As far as I know (not a lawyer or CPA) the US non-profits are absolutely the same, your description is accurate.

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

#878

Post by antman »

conradfr wrote: post #736
unhammer wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the very latest release (81). I wrote earlier[0] that FF79 was too slow to start, buggy on tab switches, and missing most recent sites on the new tab. That's all been fixed as of FF81 as far as I can see. I also really like the new swipe-url-to-switch-tabs feature =D [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24280554

The last update seems to have added yet another unnecessary click to access a pinned site (whatever it's called). It used to be "click on the url bar -> click big site preview", now it's "click on the tab counter -> click the plus icon -> click to dismiss some overlay -> click small site icon". Thanks Mozilla, I hate it.

Same think with sharing button, also added a significant delay to the sharing menu for good measure.

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

#879

Post by ssivark »

findthewords wrote: post #280
fierarul wrote: post #184

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.

It’s the converse that is not possible. A non-profit could reasonably have an investment arm that tries to maximize return on endowment (or likewise a for-profit subsidiary, by analogy) and various projects which are funded from the generated surplus.

A for-profit entity owning/operating a non-profit entity would be more difficult to justify without calling on other goals.

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

#880

Post by bdcravens »

jbay808 wrote: post #817
bdcravens wrote: post #725

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many jobs? I agree they are overpaid, but that salary covers maybe 10% of those job cuts.

That's quite a lot, though!

Sure - 20-40 jobs are absolutely valuable. The bigger point is that the indignation towards this CEO is a bit of a strawman, since it's easier to be angry at a greedy CEO than accept the idea that Mozilla may not be viable.
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