 #Mozilla has announced that they are closing their Mastodon instance. But at least, they are hiring a lot, which is nice. Like: Wait, are they hiring for something else than AI ? Glad you asked: - Senior Staff Software Engineer, Ads 76 comments
 @gdupont @ploum You should read the slides used in MoFo board meetings then: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Board They will tell you what the MoFo board is talking about in its meetings. Spoiler alert: it doesn't involve Firefox or Thunderbird. I guess most of the vision for the software comes from the people directly working on it (developers, project managers etc.). Hard to know, I don't work there, but the MoFo board definitely doesn't have a very good opinion of Firefox. @sirber @bohwaz @ploum This is still relevant today but we also have new technological issues with AI models an conversational assistant and even crypto (if only to avoid the scams). In that sense, Firefox/Thunderbird is not enough.  @sirber @bohwaz @gdupont @ploum What they're going to do is fix all the memory leaks, gigantic allocations, and useless CPU churn and then replace all that with a background process that turns your computer into a processing cell for an AI and bitcoin mining operation. You won't notice. Sort of like SETI@Home except you're actively using your computer at the time thinking your computer is actively working for you. All browser development teams have been secretly working this plan for decades.  @crazyeddie   silicon valley: a rotating door of capitalist bros mozilla isn't immune and hasn't been based in a long time  So mozilla will be customer of both ads & ai companies... The other possibility is Mozilla trying to compete to deliver those to its users Seriousluly in both cases, the managers need to show up and defend their shit beyond the "PowerPoint for kids" level.  @ploum How odd, every time I’ve criticised Mozilla in the past, I’ve had respected members of the web community tell me how wrong I was and what a terrible person I was being. 🤔 @ploum Mozilla had one job. To not be as bad as Google. And they took that as a challenge, but in the wrong way.  @ploum It's sad to see the downfall of Mozilla Firefox. However, there is light on the horizon, Vivaldi is mature enough and resembles what Mozilla used to be.  @martenbjorklund @ploum The problem with Vivaldi is that it's still running on Chromium, so no, it doesn't resemble Mozilla, because it does nothing to the monopoly that Chromium has over browsers. Neither does Arc, Brave, etc. @alextecplayz @ploum Yea, that's just it, it's not only about the tech anymore, the organization behind the project matters even more, as this entire thread displays. I was there when Netscape Navigator started working on Gecko in 1997 and I'm ditching it now. @martenbjorklund @ploum Yes, but again, Vivaldi (as a company) does nothing to move away from depending on Google. We need both, if we want a truly viable alternative to this monopoly. @alextecplayz @ploum True, right now. Chromium is released under the BSD-license and is decoupled from Google. Here is the code if you want to see for yourself: https://source.chromium.org/chromium @alextecplayz @ploum You are correct, what I meant is that it is decoupled from Google services. But again, that's not the point, the point is that the organisation behind a software project is MUCH MUCH more important than the tech right now.  @martenbjorklund @alextecplayz @ploum If you want an ungoogled Chromium ... this is the closest you get these days ... https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ Some might find @Vivaldi a viable alternative as well - but not sure how deep they go into the code to decouple Google.  @martenbjorklund it’s still Chromium under the hood. If all browsers run on Google’s rendering, then de facto Google decides what the web looks like. There need to be alternatives with market share to push back. @martenbjorklund Vivaldi is yet another Blink-/Chromium-based browser. If Firefox dies, it will take Gecko with it, so the only up-to-date browser engine will be under Google's control, and I don't see a replacement for that on the horizon. Also, Vivaldi is only freeware, even though it has open source parts, it is proprietary. Doesn't sound like an alternative to me. 😕 @martenbjorklund Right, the organization behind a software project matters, and the organization behind Blink is Google. What could Vivaldi do to wrestle control over Blink out of Google's hands? @Kev_Prime @bwana @martenbjorklund @ploum It's even more staggering when looking at the absolute numbers. I don't think any other company or institution could possibly maintain _this_ code.  @ploum I don't understand how they can't find the money to keep that instance running. It has a few hundred active users, which is small in the grand scheme of things. Feels like Mozilla is being too corporate about this and someone in control doesn't understand what Mastodon is, doesn't care and has swiped it off the board without a thought. Although saying that, a lot of the decisions at Mozilla recently feel like not a lot of thought went into them :muppets_stalter:  @carbontwelve@notacult.social @ploum@mamot.fr  @carbontwelve @ploum It costs like 0.1% of what they're spending on AI shit with highly negative value. @ploum I don’t think any true Mozilla customers actually care about AI or falsely “privacy preserving” ADs, can we sign a petition to stop this or something? This can’t keep happening :(  @ploum I rang the alarm bells right at the start and was met with really strong pushback. Hopefully with your massive network and a Europe friendly name you can reach more people. @ploum Your post is quite tendentious when you only mention 6 out of 35 job openings ... check the list for yourself. And while we may and should be skeptical about ads in Firefox, they're doing research into privacy-preserving ads. @ploum just reinforces my point that any company aggressively collecting loads of data via telemetry is headed towards ads business sooner or later. Firefox had all the red flags for years, only the withering good will was holding up the facade( LibreWolf/ungoogled-chromium are the only reasonable alternatives nowadays - salvageable bits of bastardised products from rotting corpo husks( Got no solutions of fixing mozilla tho, short of a purge =/ restructuring will only hurt the little guys( @ploum okay... Anyone have a list of suggestion as to alternative browsers? ⏫ @ploum Huh. Well, I never liked Firefox's UI much anyway; it's sole attraction was as another alternative to Google Chrome. So much for that. Fuck 'em.    @ploum @Ursalzona as much as I hate it I kinda understand. Google was deemed a monopoly and that may torch a huge chunk of Firefox cash infusion. They must go for new revenues, and today's world value AI and Ads. Seems like the only way out for them since people won't donate nor adhere for any kind of subscription service. typical no context post @ploum ugh, mozilla is really going downhill. I'd rather work for Canonical than Mozilla. |
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@ploum augh