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by blackwater 08/11/2020, 2:13pm PDT |
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Changing world, changing Mozilla
This is a time of change for the internet and for Mozilla. From combatting a lethal virus and battling systemic racism to protecting individual privacy — one thing is clear: an open and accessible internet is essential to the fight.
Apparently, Mozilla will protect us against the evils of racism and COVID-19.
I usually try to write something clever when CEOs say dumb stuff like this, but I just can't here. It's such a breathtakingly dumb statement that any parody falls flat. Yes, a bunch of middle managers, C++ jockeys, and SJWs will save us from the COVID.
They should set up a donation system where COVID-infected peasants can hurl gold over the monastery walls, like in the middle ages during the Black Death. Then some blue-hair who Fucking Loves Science (they're well-supplied with them) can figure out whether the gold is safe to touch. I think that information is on Google somewhere?
Mozilla exists so the internet can help the world collectively meet the range of challenges a moment like this presents. Firefox is a part of this. But we know we also need to go beyond the browser to give people new products and technologies that both excite them and represent their interests. Over the last while, it has been clear that Mozilla is not structured properly to create these new things — and to build the better internet we all deserve.
"Beyond the browser." This is a huge theme of this memo. Mozilla, inc. thinks of Firefox as a secondary goal at best these days.
Today we announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation. This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people
They're firing a quarter of the company (but obviously not the CEO who steered the ship into the rocks in the first place)...
Skipping over a bunch of corporate fluff:
[We will have a] new focus on economics. Recognizing that the old model where everything was free has consequences, means we must explore a range of different business opportunities and alternate value exchanges. How can we lead towards business models that honor and protect people while creating opportunities for our business to thrive? How can we, or others who want a better internet, or those who feel like a different balance should exist between social and public benefit and private profit offer an alternative? We need to identify those people and join them. We must learn and expand different ways to support ourselves and build a business that isn’t what we see today.
Yes, Mozilla, inc. is sick of "everything being free" and is now going to invest in more failed moonshots. Like Pocket (a failed de.li.ci.ous clone that sends your data unencrypted), or FirefoxOS (an also-ran mobile OS that got steamrolled a few years ago along with Meego and Windows Phone).
The thing is, Mozilla is sitting on top of a gusher of advertising revenues. They' sell their default search spot for hundreds of millions of dollars. They sold the search spot for 430 million dollars in 2018.
All they have to do is build a good browser. But they can't even, because their leadership is focused on anything and everything in the world, EXCEPT their actual product (the browser). Imagine if these people had been in charge during the IE hegemony. They would have thrown up their hands and invested in social media or anti-George Bush activism or whatever dumb shit SV groupies were chasing after at that point, and we'd all still be using IE. |
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