Comment by ecmascript | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ecmascript | Hacker News Reader

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Yes but before the tech community was all fire for Firefox. IT-guys installed it on work computers, school computers etc. We would recommend it to our families and install it for our less techy family when they would need our assistance.

Firefox had the IT-sector with them. I think this does a lot for spreading the usage. Even just one IT-guy can probably give Firefox hundreds of users. Now, this is no longer the case and increasingly they have not only just been just as good or worse than chromium but they have gone out and actively angered a lot of their core user base with political things.

It is a fine browser, I haven't said anything else. It is the leadership that is bad. I would definitely be one of their strongest promoters if Brendan Eich were CEO.

But no, they kicked him out for a bs reason and employed a PC-dictator that fires most of the company and gives herself a promotion even though the usage is falling drastically.

Then they post shit like this:

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat...

https://book.mozillafestival.org/10-years-of-activism-commun...

and fund people like:

https://www.mozillapulse.org/profile/3116

If you consistently support specific political views it's not strange that the people who do not support these views will stop seeking them out and start recommending other browsers, how good Firefox may be doesn't really matter. They have turned Mozilla from a tech company to an activist company and now they will have to reap what they have sowed.

All this talk about Mozilla's political views, what about the political views of the Google leadership? Why do they get a free pass? I think blaming the politics is a just-so story. I saw everyone adopt Chrome over the years since it came out, and it had nothing to do with the leadership of the Mozilla foundation, or Google for that matter.

What happened is much simpler: Chrome worked better than Firefox, most of the tech people switched to recommending Chrome, and it was bundled with a lot of software and advertised on the Google homepage. And nobody ever switched back, and they started justifying why in various ways.

Having to use and help family with Android phones. Just get Firefox mobile and install ad blocker. PiHole is good and dandy, but won't work on mobile net or public wifi.

Yes I agree that is probably a big cause for it as well.

Given the direction Brendan Eich has pursued at Brave, I'm personally very glad he didn't remain as Mozilla's CEO, regardless of political views.

Edit: Also, I don't think it's particularly reasonable to single out an individual being funded by Mozilla without a very good explanation as to why. Is there something that Leil Zahra has done which makes you think they are inappropriate to be associated with Mozilla? Or are you just upset by their identity as a queer person?

> Is there something that Leil Zahra has done which makes you think they are inappropriate to be associated with Mozilla?

No I just don't think Mozilla should fund political projects at all. I know that if I donate to Mozilla, my money will go to activists and not to the continued development of Firefox.

The reason why I singled out one individual was because it shows that they support specific political agendas (and was the one I found after a quick search to give a sourced example). There is a pattern in the type of activists they support. I welcome you to find someone who would represent the opposite political side, you probably won't because they wouldn't.

> Or are you just upset by their identity as a queer person?

I don't care, people can have whatever views or identities they want.

Just based on the linked bio, it seems like this person’s actual work is focused on addressing mass-surveillance, cooperation between governments and social media to restrict free speech, and differences in moderation in different regions. These are certainly political causes, but I think they are the kind of things Mozilla have always supported? I don’t think Mozilla supporting this kind of work is an indication of some massive change in the company.

All that you say may be true, but if that stops the vast majority of tech community from using FF and installing it for their user support base, then we must be prepared for a Blink/Webkit only future, and maybe even Blink only in the worst case.

What will the tech community do if Google starts promoting a certain political direction, if they haven't already? Will they stop seeking employment at Google, or stop using/developing for Chromium in protest?

Sometimes the larger goals should outweigh the immediate disappointments.

You're preaching to the choir here. I don't like Google either and I avoid Google products as much as I can in my daily life. I agree with you that the future looks rather bleak and I put my hopes in that some new browser engine will be developed or that other browsers will start using the engine that's powering Firefox.

If there will be a Blink only future I hope that regulators will force Google to invite others to decide what to do with it.

> Sometimes the larger goals should outweigh the immediate disappointments.

I agree and that's what make me feel bad, like there is no good choice available to me. I don't know what to do. It's just like the phone OS market, I dislike both realistic options (ios, android) but since my state and banks require me to use one of these I have to make a choice even if I rather use a linux based phone.

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