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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

#511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, man. It's easy to get all abstract with phrases like "support a cause" but we live in a concrete world. Mozilla employs a lot of gay people. Prop 8 was viciously homophobic, both in concept and especially in execution of its campaign. How would you feel going to work knowing your boss's boss thinks you don't deserve rights?

Proposition 8 just confirmed 1000s maybe 10s of 1000s of years of conventional thinking about marriage. If that's "viciously" anything, you're going to have to get used to some degree of viciousness. Gay marriage is quite an anomaly.

Marriage as an institution is about 4500 years old. The tax advantages and other advantages conferred on married people are much more recent.

So this was far more about withholding something from a group than it was of granting something to that group.

Either way, on the total age of humanity that is an eyeblink and fortunately we are not above progressing. At least, not all of us.

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

#512
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does Pocket do? And how is it different from synchronizing favorites/tab between two browsers?

Pocket is like a mix between Bookmarks and a TODO list. I don't bookmark random articles I want to read later. I add them to Pocket.

Only thing i like about Pocket is it's integration with Kobo eReaders

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

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a problem that she is both on the board and CEO, which effectively makes her impossible to hold to account unless the board members that want her out would resign if she does not want to make way. That would be a major statement and would put the remaining board members on notice. The board typically does not get compensated the way the CEO does so they are usually not in a position to 'suck it dry', on top of…

> It is a problem that she is both on the board and CEO, which effectively makes her impossible to hold to account Is this really a problem? The CEO is often a director, and even as chairwoman I doubt anything in the bylaws prevents the board at large from removing her if they wanted to. Instead, it seems like the board itself is the issue, since they allowed Mozilla to stray so far from its core mission.

Is that common in the US? Because here in Sweden it is regarded as bad practice for medium sized companies and up. The CEO is almost never part of the board here except for in tiny companies.

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

#514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you'll be able to attribute that quote to me. Eich fucked up, and should have realized that you can't be leading a flagship of diversity on the one hand and be a bigot on the other Who asked Mozilla to be a "flagship of diversity"? What we wanted off them, and what their mission statement was, is a FOSS browser that supported the open web. Plus, one can be/believe whatever on their personal life, as l…

Nobody asked, but Mozilla took (and still takes) that role. Witness plenty of comments on HN from Mozilla employees reinforcing that. I'm all for the FOSS browser company, the 'support for the open web' is already a step in the direction of losing focus. Just keeping up and having a viable alternative browser out there keeping Chrome at bay is a major job (and one they are currently miserably failing at). > Not to me…

I've broadly agreed with you in this thread, mostly, but I have to say that last year one of the interview questions I was asked in a Mozilla interview was "What are you personally doing to encourage diversity?"

I felt that that was just a bit hamfisted. All my adult life I've been a feminist [insomuch as a man can be one] and supported this cause. But I had no idea how to answer that question, or I'm pretty sure my answer wasn't satisfactory to the person asking.

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

#515
post #346

So I think we can all agree that Mozilla's path to success is not obvious and running it is strategically harder than running most companies. You have to find a way to make your free product compete with Google / Microsoft without compromising your core values and also paying your bills. I am not defending this CEO's pay but I am just curious: how much do people on HN think the CEO of Mozilla should be paid? It's got…

Actually I think Mozillas path to success is quite obvious, but they never bothered to follow it seriously because of their own hubris. > how much do people on HN think the CEO of Mozilla should be paid? It's got to be enough to attract someone with extensive management experience at a high-functioning tech company $20k. And give him a bonus depending on the companies performance. Works in other countries and compani…

> $20k. And give him a bonus depending on the companies performance.

How do you define company performance?

For a non-public corporation like Mozilla, you'd have to use a metric like market share. Okay well in the first year, how can you earn enough to pay for your kids college or whatever? You'll have to really get those numbers up _fast_.

Things like this is where we get shitty growth tactics like spamming everyone in your contacts or auto installing and preventing uninstall.

Instead I'd much rather have bold investment in long term growth. Innovative initiatives that may take years to pan out.

Very hard stuff.

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

#518

Turns out about two days ago I moved the Chrome icon back to my Android home screen. The latest Firefox Android version (80.1.3) had a catastrophic UI facelift. The top bar moved to the bottom. The colors are ugly. And there is a race condition between the address/search bar and your finger: suggested items appears at the top of the list with a timing such that it is very likely you hit them instead of the recently v…

>The top bar moved to the bottom. There's an option to restore its rightful position at the top.

Thanks for the info. Since the capability is still there, maybe they could ask after the update: "would you like to give a try to our new UI?". A reminder a few days later would give the opportunity to commit to the new UI or revert to the old one. That would be IMO classier.

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

#519

I'm two fences on Firefox doing "too many unrelated things" as the article suggests. Firefox OS has been pretty much unsuccessful, but it sort of made sense? It started to be made when Firefox was still on top on desktop, but mobile started eating its lunch; and it was clear that Firefox need to do something about it, or the future will be all Chrome and Safari, on the two locked-down platforms. Which eventually happ…

While back Twitter recommended me a tweet from one of Firefox female engineers saying that she was responsible for pocket and updating pocket. many people complain that pocket sucked she claimed them all being misogynists so there's clearly cultural issues at Mozilla.

That's a really big leap you're making there, going from a context free anecdote about someone who got wound up on Twitter to that. And she was claiming that everyone complaining about Pocket was misogynistic? I'm not convinced that's completely true

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

#520
post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a problem that she is both on the board and CEO, which effectively makes her impossible to hold to account Is this really a problem? The CEO is often a director, and even as chairwoman I doubt anything in the bylaws prevents the board at large from removing her if they wanted to. Instead, it seems like the board itself is the issue, since they allowed Mozilla to stray so far from its core mission.

Is that common in the US? Because here in Sweden it is regarded as bad practice for medium sized companies and up. The CEO is almost never part of the board here except for in tiny companies.

Extremely common, not frowned upon at all here
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