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.

  • LWD
    83·
    7 months ago

    Criticizing this video for emotional arguments doesn’t make sense. It lays down statistics, quotes privacy policies, and chips at the way Mozilla uses emotional arguments in its marketing. And I’ve seen many Firefox people simply argue “the CEO deserves to be paid well” and “Firefox is the last bastion of the open web” - arguments that I myself have at least semi agreed with, which means I might have proclivity to emotion myself.

    So if there’s a problem… Can you cite specific examples in the video?

    • kbal@fedia.io
      52·
      7 months ago

      I criticized the video last time it turned up in my feed. I don’t feel it’s worth doing again. The former over-paid CEO has since departed from that post, FYI.

      • LWD
        62·
        7 months ago

        She switched places with another CEO that promptly fired even more workers, yes.

        Can you link to your critiques? I looked for them on your behalf and found three other posts of this video, but no comments from you on them.

        • kbal@fedia.io
          12·
          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
            51·
            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
              32·
              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
                31·
                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.