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Orbit by Mozilla

orbitbymozilla.com

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Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#101

Post by mdaniel »

Qem wrote: post #82
janice1999 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood why Mozilla doesn't offer paid privacy respecting services (outside basic sync that already exists) like email, cross platform password storage etc.

I think password storage is covered by Firefox sync.

Only within the confines of web usage, unless you know something about Firefox Sync injecting passwords into Android apps or environment variables

Also, like it or not, I think Passkeys/WebAuthn is going to be pushed more and more, so without a user focused way to own them, that's another reason not to try and use a browser (any of them!) as a password store

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#102

Post by batata_frita »

reissbaker wrote: post #32

Why does Mozilla always spin their wheels releasing random side projects? Cloud-hosting an outdated tiny LLM that you can't swap out or run locally, to do basic summarization? This just doesn't feel like an area of strategic focus that makes sense for Mozilla. GPUs are expensive, talent to do inference well is expensive, and the actual product they're shipping seems pretty marginally useful at best. If they shipped v…

Looks like money washing lol

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#103

Post by skeeter2020 »

brokencode wrote: post #67
reissbaker wrote: post #32

Why does Mozilla always spin their wheels releasing random side projects? Cloud-hosting an outdated tiny LLM that you can't swap out or run locally, to do basic summarization? This just doesn't feel like an area of strategic focus that makes sense for Mozilla. GPUs are expensive, talent to do inference well is expensive, and the actual product they're shipping seems pretty marginally useful at best. If they shipped v…

Mozilla is almost totally dependent on payments from Google to survive. If Google stops the payments, Mozilla probably goes out of business. I think it’s pretty clear why they keep on doing this type of side project. They are trying anything they can think of to diversify revenue.

For some of the stated reasons this seems like a terrible way to diversify and add any revenue. What if they take a page from Silicon Valley? If the US Government makes Hooli, I mean Google, divest Chrome could Mozilla acquire it?

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#104

Post by sidibe »

sitkack wrote: post #75
BadHumans wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any revelation that Google is siphoning data out of other companies GCP instances would be so earth-shattering I don't think it is happening.

If you aren't running an encrypted disk on any cloud provider you should absolutely fundamentally understand that your data has been scanned and that your VM data is "business data" so a copy gets sent to whomever wants it, in bulk.

Maybe it's good to assume that but at this point that is not going to purposely happen at a company like Google or Amazon. The risk, which is a near certainty to bear out if they have any decent employees among the tens of thousands (esp. with the weekly "I'm leaving because I hate this company" screeds these companies yield), isn't worth whatever little reward they might find in your data.

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#105

Post by dralley »

teruakohatu wrote: post #72
brokencode wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla is almost totally dependent on payments from Google to survive. If Google stops the payments, Mozilla probably goes out of business. I think it’s pretty clear why they keep on doing this type of side project. They are trying anything they can think of to diversify revenue.

> from Google to survive. If Google stops the payments, Mozilla probably goes out of business. > I think it’s pretty clear why they keep on doing this type of side project. It’s not clear to me. I agree they would have some problems if Google declined to pay them because the next best offer would be lower. But the best way to keep these payments, or to increase them, is by making a better browser and giving people a…

Most non-tech "normies", which is to say 95% of the population, barely know what a browser is. They couldn't describe the function of one, or discriminate what makes one better than another. They certainly won't give a crap about Servo, or extremely marginal improvements in page load time (at best).

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#106

Post by _heimdall »

teruakohatu wrote: post #72
brokencode wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla is almost totally dependent on payments from Google to survive. If Google stops the payments, Mozilla probably goes out of business. I think it’s pretty clear why they keep on doing this type of side project. They are trying anything they can think of to diversify revenue.

> from Google to survive. If Google stops the payments, Mozilla probably goes out of business. > I think it’s pretty clear why they keep on doing this type of side project. It’s not clear to me. I agree they would have some problems if Google declined to pay them because the next best offer would be lower. But the best way to keep these payments, or to increase them, is by making a better browser and giving people a…

The least cynical view, in my opinion, is that Google is an ad company, which ultimately means they are a data company. They don't need Mozilla to build a better browser, they need Mozilla to increase the amount of user data Google can collect and ad spots Google can sell.

The more cynical view is that Google doesn't care at all about Mozilla because the investment is nothing more than a hedge against regulatory pressure.

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#107

Post by mrec »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #88
reissbaker wrote: post #32

Why does Mozilla always spin their wheels releasing random side projects? Cloud-hosting an outdated tiny LLM that you can't swap out or run locally, to do basic summarization? This just doesn't feel like an area of strategic focus that makes sense for Mozilla. GPUs are expensive, talent to do inference well is expensive, and the actual product they're shipping seems pretty marginally useful at best. If they shipped v…

For me, the product differentiation of Firefox is a bunch of small convenience features which Chrome in its monolithism refuses to provide, such as: Allowing Backspace to go back a page. The built-in screenshot tool. Being able to turn off smooth scrolling. Support for a menubar, so that I can navigate the features I want quickly. Being able to choose page encodings (I use a non-Latin charset language). A usable/usef…

Out of curiosity, what "obvious reasons" issues have you had with Docs and YouTube. I use Firefox for everything, including those, without problems. (Though not in any kind of advanced way.)

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#109

Post by scq »

likeabatterycar wrote: post #68
reissbaker wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Google need Mozilla at this point? Firefox has 2.6% market share. Sure, I imagine the cost/benefit ratio is slightly positive for Google, but Mozilla needs Google since that's the majority of their revenue; the reverse is definitely not true.

Mozilla is like the legit side business the Mafia uses for taxes, group health benefits, etc. and to give an air of legitimacy to their operation. Google needs Mozilla to exist to prove on paper they don't hold a monopoly with Chrome.

Safari and Edge have larger market shares, they don't need Firefox for that.

Re: Orbit by Mozilla

#110

Post by dralley »

afavour wrote: post #84
reissbaker wrote: post #32

Why does Mozilla always spin their wheels releasing random side projects? Cloud-hosting an outdated tiny LLM that you can't swap out or run locally, to do basic summarization? This just doesn't feel like an area of strategic focus that makes sense for Mozilla. GPUs are expensive, talent to do inference well is expensive, and the actual product they're shipping seems pretty marginally useful at best. If they shipped v…

I'm sympathetic to the viewpoint but the idea that Mozilla would attract more users via vertical tabs than by an AI assistant strikes me as flat out wrong. Mozilla's brand is "pro privacy", it does make sense for them to launch an AI product with that brand position. I doubt it'll be successful because I don't think enough people actually care about privacy, but still. I feel like it's a common HN sentiment to say "w…

Depends. If they start with this and then use it as iterative development before going local-only as the models and hardware improve, that could be a good move.
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