Genuinely, it's nice that Mozilla's user base is so passionate! There's three multi-hundred-comment submissions in the top 50 posts of HN in just the last 24 hours.
I just wish some of the conversation wasn't so hyperbolic. For anyone not as passionate who may have been on the fence about Firefox before reading all of the blogs, news articles, comments, tweets, etc., they sure as hell aren't going to make the switch now. Ironically, the death knell for Firefox might not be from the new CEO, but from the users convincing everyone to stay on Chrome.
Mozilla makes user agents that serve the user instead of an app store, advertisers, or crypto scams. As long as they do that well, I will use their software. The real difficulty is finding a business model that works for this at a scale that allows them to keep up with competitors. Wikipedia does this successfully.
The new CEO's big three statements are anything but focused on Firefox the browser and I agree with everything in this silly "Make Me CEO..." post like,
First: All this AI stuff should be opt-in not opt-out and purely local.
Second: There is no good monetization model and the current status quo is anything but entirely transparent given one doesn't bite the hand that feeds it.
Third: No one wants anything except the browser. Mozilla keeps trying to do anything except make Firefox and it keeps backfiring.
Attempts to characterize the above as hyperbolic probably stem from a mismatch in culture. Perhaps some are expecting to read corporate blandness while this was written by a human person who happens to use occasional swear words and suggestive metaphors. That doesn't invalidate the above sensible points in the rant.
> Make me CEO of Mozilla instead of Anthony Enzor-DeMeo [...] I would start by acknowledging the problems Mozilla is facing: [...], a lack of revenue generating ideas
Yet in his whole post there is not even a single idea about a new 'revenue generating idea' just criticism that AI is bad direction.
Edit: In my opinion focusing on AI and privacy for mozilla is a good direction. They don't have to make some expensive model training just make a good integration. They don't have to focus even only on desktop and browsers.
I wish mozilla would team up with Raspberry Pi / OpenWRT / Home Assistant / UmbrelOS and make a nice affordable devices that is:
- smart router
- start tv box / streamer
- smart speaker with on device TTS / STT
- smart tv cast (airplay / miracast / chromecast)
- home backup / cloud
- home adblock / vpn
All in one device that can be easily fixed and updates (like framework laptop) with user friendly interface.
9 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 32.7 ms ] threadI just wish some of the conversation wasn't so hyperbolic. For anyone not as passionate who may have been on the fence about Firefox before reading all of the blogs, news articles, comments, tweets, etc., they sure as hell aren't going to make the switch now. Ironically, the death knell for Firefox might not be from the new CEO, but from the users convincing everyone to stay on Chrome.
Without being dependent or taking Google's money?
Any takers? Any Solutions?
Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46288491
Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299934
No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295268*
First: All this AI stuff should be opt-in not opt-out and purely local.
Second: There is no good monetization model and the current status quo is anything but entirely transparent given one doesn't bite the hand that feeds it.
Third: No one wants anything except the browser. Mozilla keeps trying to do anything except make Firefox and it keeps backfiring.
Attempts to characterize the above as hyperbolic probably stem from a mismatch in culture. Perhaps some are expecting to read corporate blandness while this was written by a human person who happens to use occasional swear words and suggestive metaphors. That doesn't invalidate the above sensible points in the rant.
Yet in his whole post there is not even a single idea about a new 'revenue generating idea' just criticism that AI is bad direction.
Edit: In my opinion focusing on AI and privacy for mozilla is a good direction. They don't have to make some expensive model training just make a good integration. They don't have to focus even only on desktop and browsers.
I wish mozilla would team up with Raspberry Pi / OpenWRT / Home Assistant / UmbrelOS and make a nice affordable devices that is:
- smart router
- start tv box / streamer
- smart speaker with on device TTS / STT
- smart tv cast (airplay / miracast / chromecast)
- home backup / cloud
- home adblock / vpn
All in one device that can be easily fixed and updates (like framework laptop) with user friendly interface.