The author may be a right-wing fellow. Nonetheless, the data he exposes are taken from official Mozilla docs.

  • thantik@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    With FF being one of the last bastions of actual web-freedom on the internet, it wouldn’t surprise me for people to start digging for things in an effort to get rid of them once and for all. Especially with Google’s new attempt at web-DRM.

    Not many browsers left that aren’t chromium/webkit based. Feels like it’s only a matter of time before Google succeeds where Microsoft failed back in the early 00’s…

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Hell, when they were Netscape they lost to IE. IE became the default that it did because Netscape Navigator would take 5 minutes to boot up, and would load pages slower too.

        • ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes. Because Microsoft lost an entire gigantic anti-trust case over building the Browser into the OS.

          Of course it loaded faster when MS poisoning the well of open web standards with embrace and extend.

          And we have the records to prove this.

          • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You’re merging two different events into one.
            I’m talking about the rise of IE. When it was an outright better browser. You’re talking about events that happened when it was at its peak popularity, but was an outright outdated browser, coincidentally just when Chrome was ramping up.

            Just like Firefox is now over Chrome.

            Except now, with Google doing things MS never even dreamed of, there isn’t whisper of any investigation or sanctions from the EU.

        • SineNomineAnonymous@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Yeah I wonder if something else happened at the exact same time. Something about trust and not being pro it or something like that.

    • Sept@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      In a way I agree with you, but it’s kind of well known that Mozilla depends a lot on Google from earning money. So I’m not sure that if Google pushes the DRM project, Mozilla will bite the hand that feeds it.

      But the good thing is that we will probably see that very soon :)

    • Engywuck@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      With FF being one of the last bastions of actual web-freedom on the internet

      How cute people who sincerely believe the fairy tales Mozilla tells…

  • biscuitsofdeath@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I read through it and I don’t know what the issue is?

    There seems to be an issue with Mozilla supporting diversity and inclusion. Also he has an issue with them having enough money to run the business. I.e. not living paycheck to paycheck.

    This article is nothing.

    • monobot@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Is there any organization with totally claear finances and nothing strange anywhere?

      I haven’t seen one.

      This analysis means nothing since it is only one daya point.

      Like saying “you are worst human being because you are jaywalked yesterday”, there is no comparstion with other companies in smiliar business.

      Those are Google and Microsoft. Are they really better than Mozilla

      • El_Rocha@lm.put.tf
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        1 year ago

        I think a more accurate metaphor would be “you are the worst human being because people gave you money to buy food and you spent it on luxury items”.

        Also, while a lot of organizations have shady balance sheets, that’s not a good thing nor a reason for us to accept it.

  • zephyrvs@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Uhm, aren’t all questions raised in that text completely on point?

    I’m as far left as it gets but none of these expenses make any sense to me. The CEO pay is bonkers. Wtf are they doing? Why does the CEO deserve to basically collect the entirety of donations for… basically just extending a cash cow deal with Google?

    I don’t give a damn if the author is on the right but so far this looks sus as fuck.

    Firefox being as good and fast as it is probably more an accomplishment of individual teams inspite of company leadership and that should be called out.

    Can’t sell yourself as the underdog if you’re got almost half a billion in assets.

      • ThankYouVeryMuch@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This ‘related organization’ is Mozilla Corp, for-profit owned by the Mozilla Foundation that has Baker as its CEO as well.

        I’m a lifelong Mozilla user, but these things stink a bit. I find even more concerning the dependency from google

        • AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I am not a fan of high compensation overall on the C-Level. What I’m worried about most with these types of companies is being destroyed from within. That’s generally heralded by bringing in high cost outside consultancy firms.

          I don’t see that yet on their balance sheet. No idea what Mozilla Corp. does, but the Mozilla Foundation is still doing things I am aligned with.

          But as with all things, constant vigilence is key. More and more it feels like there’s barely anywhere left to invest time or money in. Fediverse is truly a ray of sunshine at the moment. But I wonder how long that’ll last until it’s been subverted by commercial interests.

          • ThankYouVeryMuch@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            A CEO that brings lots of money and consistently gets to lower the share of your flagship browser seems like a good candidate to destroyed from within. How can Mozilla stay independent when most of their money comes from these ‘royalties’ and most of it is from Google? We’re talking hundreds of millions agains 7 mil in donations that barely pay for the CEO. How are they gonna push back against this webDRM shit google is trying to pull (or any other thing)?

            I feel the same as you, I’ve been using Mozilla/Firefox since forever, because I felt they were doing things I’m aligned with. But I don’t know anymore. I don’t know if they are doing it or they have started to become just muppet opposition.

            Enshittification spreads fast, once it takes roots its to late. But it sure seems like, lately, it’s an all out attack on any freedom left on the internet

            • AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              If Google is successful with their garbage webDRM, I feel we might actually get a sort of reset back to the early 2000s internet for those that care to get out of that corporate hell hole the “internet” has become.

              And thanks to the Fediverse we might not even need something like Google ever again. But then they’ll start attacking the infrastructure itself. Make it prohibitively expensive to run such instances, etc. Attack them with content that gets instances banned, etc.

              No matter where one looks, it feels it’s an all out war on any minor comfort or freedom left to the non-ultra-rich-ultra-connected.

              So. As for Firefox. What’s a good alternative? I’m very fond of the container thing they got going, but everything else can be replaced, I believe.

      • zephyrvs@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Thanks for sharing your knowledge and providing new data points instead of just coming up with reasons to assume my questions had malintent. Appreciated!

  • Gargari@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Great post. Does it matter if it’s right or left wing? How did you concluded that

    • peotr26@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Lunduke is known to have been defending quite extremist (on the right side of the political spectrum) view point on certain subjects.

      As such, many people, me included, do not really like him.

        • darq@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Ad hominem applies to arguments. The source of an argument does not affect the soundness of that argument.

          But it’s not a fallacy to question an overarching narrative based on the source. If a person keeps selectively choosing facts and twisting words to forward a specific narrative, it’s not fallacious to view what that person says with skepticism.

          Edit: Typo. Also changed “valid” to “sound”.

          • zephyrvs@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            ad hominem: in a way that is directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.

            If you think his narrative is skewed and based on selectively chosen facts and twisted words, you could correct that.

            • darq@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              And other people are doing that in the comments. I addressed your point about ad-hominem specifically. So your response is kinda irrelevant to what I wrote.

              People are questioning the narrative the author is painting based on their motivations. That’s different to ad-hominem.

    • mplewis@lemmy.globe.pub
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      1 year ago

      It absolutely matters. We need to consider that a right-wing actor is likely to exaggerate claims against an organization that is ostensibly socially-minded and represents anti-corporate interests, like Mozilla.

      • El_Rocha@lm.put.tf
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        1 year ago

        Organization represents anti-corporate interests.

        CEO gets paid almost all donations despite poor performance.

        Seems pretty corporate interests to me.

        • mplewis@lemmy.globe.pub
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          1 year ago

          I’m not denying that Mozilla has a history of poor governance. But they are the competitor to Google here. You need to consider these things in context to understand what anti-corporate means for the internet.

          • El_Rocha@lm.put.tf
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            1 year ago

            The only reason they’re a competitor to Google is because Google allows them to be by giving them money for the default search engine.

            They’re just sailing their boat until it sinks.

    • • milan •@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      The author clearly has an issue with the money going to left-wing orgs specifically. They’re making a big point out of all the antiracism and one of their bullet points asks why Mozilla has no problem alienating their user base.

  • Gargari@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I moved from FF to Vivaldi (couldn’t find better browser, and form that to LibreWolf) due to how shitty the Mozilla Corp is. We need a fair player here but doesn’t seem that we gonna have anything anytime soon

    • Evkob@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Mozilla is shitty, so you’re opting for Google instead? That’s like saying the air quality is bad, and opting to jump in the ocean and drown.

        • Evkob@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Oh sorry, my reading comprehension is clearly lacking :P I’ve been eyeing LibreWolf for a while, but I’m mostly too lazy to switch my addons over.

      • Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        1 year ago

        FWIW, Vivaldi attracts a lot of the FF power users that updates like Quantum abandoned. Vivaldi honestly wipes the floor with Firefox feature-wise especially for tab organisation, but the fact it’s Chromium might push some people away.

        It would’ve been nice if they used Gecko, but eh. I went from FF to Vivaldi to now, the Firefox fork Pulse. It’s a bit janky sometimes, but with native vertical tabs and the Simple Tab Groups add-on I love it enough to use it as my main browser, and there’s little to no bloat. There’s also Floorp, another Firefox fork, this time from a Japanese community, which AFAIK predates Pulse and is inspired by Vivaldi, implementing some of its features like Tab Workspaces. Worth mentioning for those wanting a more Vivaldi-like experience.

      • Catweazle@social.vivaldi.net
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        1 year ago

        @Evkob @Gargari, this is not so clear, Mozilla has made a pact with the devil some years ago and is sponsored by Google, it even employs several Google devs who develop FF, the risk of depending on outside investors. Chromium is certainly from Google, but it is, just like Gecko, FOSS and therefore every browser developer is free to gut it, throwing out any Google API, which they are doing in Vivaldi (leaving some to the user’s choice in settings), no homecalls to Google.
        https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/a-dangerous-conflict-of-interest-between-firefox-and-google/