Mozilla Names New CEO as It Pivots To Data Privacy (fortune.com) 57
Mozilla, which manages the open-source Firefox browser, announced today that Mitchell Baker is stepping down as CEO to focus on AI and internet safety as chair of the nonprofit foundation. Laura Chambers, a Mozilla board member and entrepreneur with experience at Airbnb, PayPal, and eBay, will step in as interim CEO to run operations until a permanent replacement is found. Fortune: Baker, a Silicon Valley pioneer who co-founded the Mozilla Project, says it was her decision to step down as CEO, adding that the move is motivated by a sense of urgency over the current state of the internet and public trust. "We want to offer an alternative for people to have better products," says Baker, who wants to draw more attention to policies, products and processes to challenge business models built on fueling outrage. "What are the connections between this global malaise and how humans are engaging with each other and technology?"
Chambers says she plans to focus on building out new products that address growing privacy concerns while actively looking for a full-time CEO. Prior to being recruited to the Mozilla board three years ago, Chambers says she was feeling "pretty disillusioned" about society because of the influence of money in politics and the growing power of the tech giants. "I was confused about what to do and this felt like a genuine way to make an impact." Chambers says she won't be seeking a permanent CEO role because she plans to move back to Australia later this year for family reasons. "I think this is an example of Mozilla doing the right role modelling in how to manage a succession," says Chambers.
Chambers says she plans to focus on building out new products that address growing privacy concerns while actively looking for a full-time CEO. Prior to being recruited to the Mozilla board three years ago, Chambers says she was feeling "pretty disillusioned" about society because of the influence of money in politics and the growing power of the tech giants. "I was confused about what to do and this felt like a genuine way to make an impact." Chambers says she won't be seeking a permanent CEO role because she plans to move back to Australia later this year for family reasons. "I think this is an example of Mozilla doing the right role modelling in how to manage a succession," says Chambers.
Please (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: Recall Brendan Eich NOW!!! (Score:2)
Can the dead be woke too?
https://www.washingtontimes.co... [washingtontimes.com]
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pivot to developing good software. Prune the different side projects and focus on Firefox and Thunderbird.
Mozilla is no longer in charge of Thunderbird [wikipedia.org].
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let me quote from your Wikipedia link "Developer(s) Mozilla Foundation (formerly Mozilla Messaging) MZLA Technologies Corporation"
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"Thunderbird is an independent, community-driven project that is managed and overseen by the Thunderbird Council, which is elected by the Thunderbird Community."
Well, if "privacy" is the goal... (Score:1)
The choice of someone involved in "Airbnb, PayPal, and eBay" is the second-best choice.
The first tier obviously being someone from google or facebook.
Soo (Score:4, Insightful)
Will they find somebody that does an even worse job than Baker? Although that would need some real doing.
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Will they find somebody that does an even worse job than Baker? Although that would need some real doing.
Lennart Poettering ?
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That is true. and funny, and sad but true.....
I am actually surprised that pottering hasn't forked a version of chrome that's integrated as a core library for his systemd suit.
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I think there is at least a web-server in systemd now. Maybe he can add a browser and then he can suck his own?
Re:Soo (Score:5, Insightful)
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adding Pocket rather than increasing stability
That doesn't make any sense. Why would the team that added pocket be the same as the team responsible for improving stability?
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Indeed.
Disable data collection, features get removed (Score:1)
Everyone involved in the decision to remove FTP needs to be removed.
Feedback loop: Techies disable analytics, metrics show nobody uses FTP, FTP gets removed.
Pivot to privacy my ass. Give me sandboxing. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pivot to privacy my ass. Give me sandboxing. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still waiting for them to undo the nagging about a new update being available. I don't give a shit if there's an update. I'll update when I feel like and don't need to be reminded every few minutes.
In the past, Mozilla was (relatively) responsive to the end user. Not any more. Shove everything down your throat and you'll like it.
Re:Pivot to privacy my ass. Give me sandboxing. (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's a terrible policy. A web browser downloads software, in the form of HTML, CSS, SVG, and JavaScript, from every website you visit. It then executes that code on your local machine.
If they find an issue with one of the many layers of protection that enable the browser to do all that safely, you really want to be installing that update ASAP.
Re:Pivot to privacy my ass. Give me sandboxing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would they remove update notifications by default? Keeping your browser up-to-date is important for security and privacy.
If you don't want to be informed about updates, turn off notifications.
In the past, Mozilla was (relatively) responsive to the end user.
They still are. They're just not interested in catering specifically to you. I can't blame then when your biggest issue is the existence of update notifications!
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It's a little green dot on the hamburger menu. If you think that's too much, the problem is you.
I'm busy. My priorities are
... replying to week-old posts on Slahsdot?
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Wow, that that is an absolutely ancient screenshot! Is that the best you can do? Also, by default, updates download in the background. If you're getting any notifcations like that, which I doubt, then it's because you changed some settings.
So, you're either lying, which seems likely, or you brought this "problem" on yourself.
1/6th of the screen real estate
1/6? You must have a lot of trouble with basic math.
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Screenshots speak for themselves
Yes, they do. In this case, it proves that you're a lying piece of shit that doesn't understand fractions. Pathetic.
I'll let the readers judge for themselves
What readers? No one is reading a discussion this old.
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Lose an argument? Where? Everything I've said is provably true.
This is the problem with the right-wing infestation on this site. Apparently, none of you morons can read.
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Apparently, none of you morons can read.
Yeah, here's me, not reading. Replying to what you wrote, but I'm sure the irony is lost on you. Your statement is about as "provably" true as everything else you claimed.
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So you don't have any actual example of me being wrong here? Color me surprised...
How pathetic.
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You can pry it from my dead cold hard disk.
Tor Browser (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't depend on it but I suspect others do.
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More than that, FireFox is important to the health of the web. Remember IE6? Without FireFox, that's exactly what we'll have again.
Some direction is better than none (Score:5, Interesting)
I love Firefox. Most configurable browser (through about:config). Great extensions. Independent rendering engine. And... horrible, meandering big-picture strategy. I hate that. I'm never sure when I'll read some bad news about a takeover or some other catastrophic consequence of corporate neglects. So, with that said, I can only say: GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
Because a privacy-first strategy, or ANY strategy, is far better than the no strategy right now. Here's to hoping that eventually it finds a dedicated and loyal niche.
Re:Some direction is better than none (Score:5, Insightful)
This. Firefox the browser, remains very, very good. Quantum was years ago, and it has been excellent since, it just isn't well known, and too many users see no reason to switch.
I know a *lot* of people who are just sort of impotently frustrated with the state of their privacy on the web. If Mozilla wants to scream privacy first and get users to switch, I will at least be cautiously optimistic.
If the "why should I switch?" conversation becomes "because it's tightly integrated with Monitor" and similar services that you can trust and are worth paying for gets people to pay, great. We (people who care about a healthy web and free software) still need Firefox to be healthy.
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The best way to get people to switch is to make it painless.
I used Chrome for a decade straight. The past two years though, I switched to Edge, across all platforms. Why? Microsoft made it easy to try - everything imported, *including* all my saved passwords and form fields, and all of the extensions just keep working.
The same is simply not true of Firefox. It imports your bookmarks and expects that to be enough as if it is 1998. There is no effort to import all of my saved settings, tabs, and profiles, and
Re:Some direction is better than none (Score:5, Interesting)
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I didn't switch for privacy, I've got enough ad-blockers, etc at my home network for that, I switched (from Chrome) because it was taking forever to open 20 tabs.
I imported everything to FF, and opened the same 20 tabs, and poof, right there, no delay.
Re:Some direction is better than none (Score:5, Interesting)
I love Firefox. Most configurable browser (through about:config).
Unless you use Firefox for Android, where they disabled about:config because "not many people use it" and "it can become unstable" . Yes, Firefox Nightly for Android still has it, but I don't think disabling it in the main release bodes well.
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Firefox for Android has much bigger problems. I run nightly, and after slowly improving energy consumption, in the last week it's regressed and is now back to being a battery killer.
The worst part is I can't even tell where the problem is, to even begin thinking about a bug report. Is it the core browser, is it an extension, is it the website? Hopefully not the latter, Firefox should be aggressively throttling websites like Chrome does.
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Ah... so the "Lightspeed" project goals are alive and well, I see.
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Most configurable browser (through about:config)
Even excluding about:config it is by far the most configurable web browser even before we get into extensions.
Want a title bar back? got it. (sure linux has that, but google made sure that doesn't 'pollute' the windows even with sync settings).
I bet there are 2x+ more settings (under settings) between the browsers in FF.
success (Score:2)
I really want Mozilla to succeed. Wish I knew how that could work.
They can stop force bundling pocket (Score:3)
background (Score:4, Informative)
Let's take a look at this engineering CEO's background:
BA: Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Commerce; History and Philosophy
MBA: Business Administraton and Management, General.
Her Salary Skyrocketed While Firefox Tanked (Score:5, Informative)
She was raked over the coals recently for her salary, specifically how rapidly it increased while Firefox was losing market share:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
> In 2018 she received a total of $2,458,350 in compensation from Mozilla, which represents a 400% payrise since 2008.[17] On the same period, Firefox marketshare was down 85%. When asked about her salary she stated "I learned that my pay was about an 80% discount to market. Meaning that competitive roles elsewhere were paying about 5 times as much. That's too big a discount to ask people and their families to commit to."[citation needed]
> In 2020, after returning to the position of CEO, her salary had risen to over $3 million (in 2021, her salary rose again to over $5 million,[18] and again to nearly $7 million in 2022[19]). In August of the same year the Mozilla Corporation laid off approximately 250 employees due to shrinking revenues, after previously laying off roughly 70 in January (prior to the pandemic). Baker blamed this on the COVID-19 pandemic, despite revenue rising to record highs in 2019, and market share shrinking.[20]