How Mozilla Ruined Firefox
www.youtube.com
Firefox used to be on top of the world with almost a third of all internet users using Firefox. These days, they make up a pitiful 2.7% of the market share. ...

Actually pretty good video.

  • Search engine
  • Google location service instead of their own (which they quit)
  • FakeSpot & Pocket collecting crazy personalized data

Also info about difference between Mozilla Corporation and MZLA Nonprofit.

If you donate to Mozilla, nothing goes to Firefox. Instead they host petitions and beg big tech companies to be more transparent.

They dont focus on old users at all, and it seems they are unable to implement basic stuff.

I still recommend using Firefox, but with the Arkenfox userJS.

Or just use Librewolf.

Firefox is not usable. And dont donate to Mozilla I guess.

  • kbal@fedia.io
    1·
    7 months ago

    I dunno, it might’ve been on mastodon. It’s not as if I said anything that’s likely to change your mind if you think this video is interesting and insightful. I’m not going to watch it again, but I remember it well enough to say that the only real questions it raises are that of how it got so many views and why it is still doing the rounds so many months later. It misses the mark. Stop to consider it carefully and I’ve no doubt you’ll find for yourself much better things to say about the real problems at Mozilla.

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      5·
      7 months ago

      I have carefully considered the arguments. Perhaps I have even contributed to them indirectly. I find them to be incredibly legitimate and in dire need of Mozilla’s action.

      I’m kind of surprised your comment on this post got so much attention because it says so little; it should be dismissed out of hand as purely rhetorical IMO.

      • kbal@fedia.io
        2·
        7 months ago

        Indeed my comment seems unworthy of as much attention as you’ve given it. But you obviously care a great deal about the subject, so I suppose you must’ve noticed that in general much of the rhetorical abuse directed at Mozilla is even more unfair. I suppose it’s because people like to look for easy targets.

        • LWD@lemm.ee
          3·
          7 months ago

          There are definitely bad actors who have “Mozilla must fall” ideology, like Brian Lunduke (who gets one hell of a shout-out in this video despite doing nothing but reposting already publicly accessible documents and speculating about them). Lunduke is clearly ideologically biased and doesn’t care about whether things are true or false as long as his statements back up his personal agenda.

          But the flip side to this is the “Mozilla mustn’t fall” arguments that dismiss all criticism of Mozilla and insist that continued compromise (throwing money at every shiny new object, overpaying the CEO, cutting jobs, ignoring their officially stated principles) is necessary for Mozilla to survive, as if survival in itself is a valuable end goal.

          And I don’t think it is. A Mozilla that abandons its founding principles would be about as bad as a Mozilla that has ceased to exist entirely. We aren’t there yet, but it’s a death by a thousand cuts.

          • kbal@fedia.io
            2·
            7 months ago

            Ah I see, you mistook me for one of those “Mozilla can do no wrong” people. Yeah they’re pretty annoying too.

            • kbal@fedia.io
              3·
              7 months ago

              My own explanation for why Firefox market share is down would primarily consist of two things: 1. Abuse by Google and Microsoft of their monopoly power in other markets to push their browsers, and 2. A long list of individually small product design decisions that slowly eroded its reputation over the years.

              • LWD@lemm.ee
                1·
                7 months ago

                Google’s influence on all web browsers (including Firefox) would definitely remain a constant even if Mozilla wasn’t accepting money from them. Which is also why I have no problem with Mozilla accepting money from them. It’s not the first time a company in fear of becoming a monopoly just threw money at a competitor; Microsoft did it with Apple.

                The whole FakeSpot thing to me reads like a company pursuing new things on multiple levels. Back in 2022, FakeSpot was trying to get into NFT verification, and they only added the “with AI” label onto their product recently (with no changes I could detect). And given Mozilla’s willingness to shift from random project to random project, I’m not excited about what this AI shift is going to do by early 2025.

                Related: Mozilla’s Biggest AI moments, published January 31 2024, may not age well