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Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

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Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#471

Post by snovymgodym »

izzylan wrote: post #465
miroljub wrote: post #457

The day Mozilla fired Brendan Eich for political reasons, Firefox died. It just took a while for everyone to realise that. That was when they collectively decided that other things are more important to them than the quality and usability of Firefox. The new CEO is just the final nail in their coffin.

Firing someone for being opposed to same-sex marriage is political in the same way firing someone for robbing a bank is.

Really? Having an opinion endorsed by the mainstream doctrine of several world religions with billions of adherents is the same as robbing a bank?

That being said, I disagree with Eich and it probably made sense for the org to let him go given how his views might impact public perception of Mozilla.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#472

Post by KurSix »

CamouflagedKiwi wrote: post #42

Amazing how they continue not to cater to their core audience. They literally have lost 90% of their market share from their peak, I guess I can see the temptation to try to regain it by reaching out to others, but doing that at the expense of your core is a terrible business strategy. It's not like those users are all that sticky, they're leaving as Mozilla pisses them off, and likely Mozilla are going to be left wi…

When you've already lost most of your mass-market appeal, the only defensible strategy left is to double down on the people who still care

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#473

Post by jajuuka »

chillfox wrote: post #132
bjord wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

last I checked, firefox doesn't download AI models unless you try to use a (clearly-labeled) feature that requires them. you can also manage/uninstall them at about:addons https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/on-device-models totally uncharitable interpretation of the quote linked here aside, how is providing an interface for using fully local models not user first software?

If the users don't want the feature, then pushing it on them is not user first. It's that simple.

That's an impossible bar to clear though. Because there are ALWAYS features that some users doesn't want.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#474

Post by rchaud »

Disabling ad blocking goes hand in hand with an "AI Browser" strategy.

Ad blocking relies on the ability to use filters to block network requests at the browser level, and visual elements at the DOM level. "AI Browsers" are designed to add bloat to the browsing experience, by offering to summarize something, or providing contextual information like say, a product recommendation that pulls data from a third party site. Network request and DOM element blocking would instantly negate that.

I've moved to Librewolf myself.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#475

Post by Lord-Jobo »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #470

I think people are wildly overreacting. There is a new CEO and he wants to make a splash so the throws around "AI" that's it. Of course there will be AI related features in firefox, there already are! Wait and see what the actual specifics are before reacting? Also, a small minor detail here: We're not paying for firefox! why are so many people feeling entitled? Mozilla has to do something other than beg Google to su…

Because the AI implementations they’ve already done are shit? Buttons on by default, features that are annoying to remove for normal users (the context menu ‘search with chatbot’). It’s just garbage, get this shit out of here. Stop adding things to my window without permission and stop with the popups announcing them to me. Anyone who seriously wants this will seek it out. Leave the rest of us alone.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#476

Post by KurSix »

Iolaum wrote: post #114

The web without ublock origin is a hellscape. Whenever I try another browser, I immediately go back to firefox. Do these people even know their users? For example: Fedora Silverblue default Firefox install had an issue with some Youtube videos due to codecs. So I tried watching youtube on Chromium. Ads were so annoying I stopped watching by the second time I tried to watch a video. Stopped watching youtube until I un…

That's not a niche power-user concern anymore, it's basic UX and safety

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#478

Post by rchaud »

lxgr wrote: post #41

>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…

How would it bring in $150m? Is that some tranche of funding Google is witholding from them until they disable extensions?

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#479

Post by duped »

miroljub wrote: post #457

The day Mozilla fired Brendan Eich for political reasons, Firefox died. It just took a while for everyone to realise that. That was when they collectively decided that other things are more important to them than the quality and usability of Firefox. The new CEO is just the final nail in their coffin.

Civil rights are more important than the quality and usability of _any software_.

Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

#480

Post by dweinus »

miroljub wrote: post #457

The day Mozilla fired Brendan Eich for political reasons, Firefox died. It just took a while for everyone to realise that. That was when they collectively decided that other things are more important to them than the quality and usability of Firefox. The new CEO is just the final nail in their coffin.

A) Firing a CEO because there is an immediate, massive public shaming of them is entirely rational from a business perspective B) This is the hill you want to die on? That being a bigot should be a protected status for CEOs?
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