Has Mozilla ever made any serious attempt at technical contributions to crypto?
Tangentially related: after they canned Brendan Eich he started Brave.
Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
51–60 of 106 posts
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote... has been built-in for nearly two years, and new privacy-protecting features are frequently being added. (Disclosure: I work for Mozilla but not on this)
This is nowhere near enough though, and it used to be even worse. Basic spyware such as Google Analytics could be blocked by uBlock for ages and yet it's only recently that the built-in Firefox solution started blocking it (by replacing it with a neutered shim). Furthermore, considering uBlock Origin and the underlying filter lists are available under a permissive license, what's the point behind developing & maintai…
So which browser do you prefer?
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's weirder is Firefox should be rising in popularity. The world in general has been getting more interested in privacy and data breaches and it's the only modern unaffiliated browser that doesn't have an advertising and telemetry motivation.
The newer Firefox quantum has become my goto browser since it was released. Slower than Chrome but less memory hungry. Unfortunately anytime I hear about Firefox it's often "Firefox removes features" or worse "Firefox disables feature for your good". I literally couldn't log into some old wifi router at an airbnb because Firefox refused to let me visit a non-standard port, with no way to override it. It's not adtech…
That's interesting because I feel it's the opposite. Chrome ends up being the one that I have the most trouble with when it comes to usage nannying without providing overrides and removing features without thought. I don't think I've heard of a feature that was in core Firefox that was removed since quantum. Do you have a good example?
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#54Firefox market share down 85%, during the same period the executives get a 400% raise. Then 250 employees are fired. It feels like it's just the top brass getting as much money they can before the ship sinks at this point.
Not only that, they do have their other priorities figured out also: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2021/01/08/we-need-more-than-d... I am actually glad that they came out and put that in black and white. Got me to move to another browser. (I do miss Firefox's multi-container tabs and account containers however but I will survive).
IMO the title of this blog post was way to strong to even misleading.
They're not asking for deplatforming, they're asking for more transparency:
Reveal who is paying for advertisements, how much they are paying and who is being targeted.
Commit to meaningful transparency of platform algorithms so we know how and what content is being amplified, to whom, and the associated impact.
Turn on by default the tools to amplify factual voices over disinformation.
Work with independent researchers to facilitate in-depth studies of the platforms’ impact on people and our societies, and what we can do to improve things.
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#55I thought there was going to be some hint on their plan for independence from Google's annual $400mm injection. Alas not today.
No, and given this article I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have an independence plan.
It's a shame, really - Firefox is still the best alternative to Chrome IMO, Mozilla just has no idea how to grow or maintain themselves. My biggest worry is that they'll either get acquired by some shady company or just fade into irrelevance.
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is nowhere near enough though, and it used to be even worse. Basic spyware such as Google Analytics could be blocked by uBlock for ages and yet it's only recently that the built-in Firefox solution started blocking it (by replacing it with a neutered shim). Furthermore, considering uBlock Origin and the underlying filter lists are available under a permissive license, what's the point behind developing & maintai…
So which browser do you prefer?
I run Safari & Firefox.
FF is still the "least bad" choice but I'm still not happy that I have to fix it by installing an add-on where that add-on (or at least the core parts of it such as filter lists) are licensed in a way that would allow the browser to have this fix out of the box.
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#57I was prepared to take a somewhat neutral stance on the post despite the negativity in other comments. It's a CEO reflection post, what should you expect?
But this is indeed completely empty PR fluff.
Vague rambling about data.
Lot's of justification for how awesome she is.
No mention of of an event that shook the company to it's core - laying off a quarter of employees.
Not even a hint of any vision, prospects for a future direction or how to save Mozilla from impending doom.
Why even write a post like this if you have nothing to say?
I do believe Mozilla will be fine for while. Google will keep paying well as a hedge against further anti trust concerns.
To be fair, Mozilla is in a tough position that can't be easily fixed. But this doesn't inspire confidence that they have the right leadership to get there.
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote... has been built-in for nearly two years, and new privacy-protecting features are frequently being added. (Disclosure: I work for Mozilla but not on this)
This is nowhere near enough though, and it used to be even worse. Basic spyware such as Google Analytics could be blocked by uBlock for ages and yet it's only recently that the built-in Firefox solution started blocking it (by replacing it with a neutered shim). Furthermore, considering uBlock Origin and the underlying filter lists are available under a permissive license, what's the point behind developing & maintai…
You have to realize Mozilla does not have the marketshare to do this. Most of the web relies on ads, and since uBlock Origin blocks them, there would be no incentive for those sites to support Firefox.
Even if you just blocked trackers (as does ETP Strict Mode), many ads get blocked because those ads bundle tracking code within them. This, again, would cause there to be little to no incentive for most website owners to support Firefox.
What Mozilla is currently doing makes sense. They are being lax on the standard setting so that websites can still make ad revenue and have an incentive to support the browser.
If Firefox had a lot more marketshare, it might have been possible that this could slide.
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#59Firefox market share down 85%, during the same period the executives get a 400% raise. Then 250 employees are fired. It feels like it's just the top brass getting as much money they can before the ship sinks at this point.
Not only that, they do have their other priorities figured out also: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2021/01/08/we-need-more-than-d... I am actually glad that they came out and put that in black and white. Got me to move to another browser. (I do miss Firefox's multi-container tabs and account containers however but I will survive).
with chromium/ungoogled chromium/maybe other derivatives, you can put multiple browser profiles to ~/.config/chromium and add --profile-directory="xxx" to exec path
Re: Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
The newer Firefox quantum has become my goto browser since it was released. Slower than Chrome but less memory hungry. Unfortunately anytime I hear about Firefox it's often "Firefox removes features" or worse "Firefox disables feature for your good". I literally couldn't log into some old wifi router at an airbnb because Firefox refused to let me visit a non-standard port, with no way to override it. It's not adtech…
That's interesting because I feel it's the opposite. Chrome ends up being the one that I have the most trouble with when it comes to usage nannying without providing overrides and removing features without thought. I don't think I've heard of a feature that was in core Firefox that was removed since quantum. Do you have a good example?
On Android at least: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/09/03/firefox-update-face...