this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
316 points (97.9% liked)

Technology

59675 readers
3147 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Mitchelle Baker, CEO of Mozilla since 2020, will transition back to executive chairwoman role. Baker had been executive chairwoman for several decades. Board member Laura Chambers is taking over as interim CEO. Second source; The Verge

all 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] [email protected] 113 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Rooting for a Firefox focused 2024! ๐ŸฆŠ

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I read few weeks ago that firefox wasn't the priority anymore, but the services.

[โ€“] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

First good news from Mozilla since at least a couple of years.

[โ€“] [email protected] 70 points 9 months ago (4 children)

the thunderbird rewrite, the acquisition of k-9, the integration of outlook, the launch of mozilla.social, and saving thunderbird settings on the cloud (formerly firefox account, now mozilla account) are all things happening in the last year.

i think mozilla has been kickin ass.

[โ€“] [email protected] 61 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Commitment to Manifest V2

Opening up the Android app to support all desktop extensions

Working on local 'AI' integration that doesn't send data to Mozilla

Sure, some people are against that last one, but I'm of the opinion that if AI does exist in a browser (and the market seems to be deciding that it should be) then this is how it should be done.

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

wanna be friends?

[โ€“] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Mozilla isn't committing to manifest V2, they're just making changes to V3 that are different than what's specified for the sake of compatibility with what people want. They still intend on migration.

Also, microsoft edge is getting extensions as well real soon

Finally, while this is a more personal opinion, the AI integrations that Mozilla has been working on (including some of the work on large language models) is isn't particularly contributive to the Mozilla manifesto and doesn't have much to do with the web itself. It's simply seeking something out because of hype

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Also, microsoft edge is getting extensions as well real soon

What's your point?

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You're talking about Thunderbird, a project they basically abandoned to the community. Thunderbird survives in spite of Mozilla, not because of it. Meanwhile their main product Firefox is still bleeding users down into the single digit percentages while receiving half a billion a year from Google. It takes a lot of skill to run such a company so deep into the ground.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

abandoned?

the podcast and blog indicate you are mistaken.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Mozilla has a podcast?

Edit: Yes they have! https://irlpodcast.org/

Assuming you meant that they talked about this topic in one of their podcasts? Would you mind sharing which episode they did that in?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

there is a thunderbird specific one, too

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They also bought Fakespot.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

i just dont understand people who only have criticisms of them. no one is perfect but its not as though they only do bad things.

[โ€“] Good_Idea_Poorly_Realized 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

This feels like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic.

A board member and the CEO swap roles.... The core leadership group remains intact

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

She presided over a massively shrinking market share of Firefox, adding proprietary bloat like pocket, wasted huge amounts of effort on weird shit like Mozilla's own half baked metaverse, while quadrupling her own salary. The kind of stuff you expect from a lawyer.

The entire board needs to be replaced with people that actually know how to program.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

thank you. I asked a few people and no one had any answers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Back to the chairman role. She hasn't lost an ounce of power.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I don't know how Mitchelle Baker was so I won't comment on her performance, but I hope this change of direction will lead Mozilla to a brighter future, and a more privacy-focused web for all of us.