this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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115
Mozilla 2023 Annual Report: CEO pay skyrockets, while Firefox Marketshare nosedives (lunduke.locals.com)
submitted 10 months ago by redcalcium@lemmy.institute to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 206 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

A significant portion of this blog post is complaining about Mozilla's repeated attempts to find new revenue streams that aren't Firefox. It's a sentiment I see a lot and I just don't get it.

They complain about Google paying to be the default search provider being a bad thing, and yet when Mozilla says "yeah, we hear ya, that's why we're trying to find stuff to diversify into so we can become less reliant on Google" people cry and shout "you should be sticking to Firefox, why aren't you focussing on Firefox??"

Like, which is it? Do you want Mozilla to diversify and have a more sustainable revenue stream, or do you want them to focus on Firefox and commit to reliance on Google? Because maintaining a project as big as Firefox without any funding simply isn't possible, and people aren't going back to paying for web browsers.

What these people want is not at all realistic. Devs want to be paid for their work. They can't have that if Mozilla follows idiots like Lunduke's "don't take money from Google, but also don't do anything that will make money. Only do Firefox."

I've yet to see a single one of these people offer any alternative that comes even remotely close to being feasible.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 77 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'm okay with Mozilla trying to diversify their source of incomes, as long as it's focused on privacy. Firefox Relay is a great example of a paid service that helps preserving some privacy and I gladly pay for it.

I hope they'll make more privacy-focused optional services like that. If it helps paying for Firefox continued development while detaching from Google then it's a good idea.

[–] lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago

They've got some pretty interesting stuff in the pipeline, like container tabs optionally being hooked up to their own independent Mozilla VPN connection.

IMO I think they're going to go all in eventually offering a kind of "privacy ecosystem" similar to Proton

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

The privacy of.... checks notes

Category of Personal Information Collected Third Parties to Whom Personal Information is Sold/Shared
browsing history Advertising partners, Service providers
search history Advertising partners, Service providers
your device's precise location Advertising partners, Service providers
a profile about a consumer Advertising partners, Service providers
records of personal property, products or services purchased Advertising partners, Service providers

Source: Mozilla

[–] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago

Good comment. I like the fact that Mozilla is branching out into Relay and VPN as subscription services. I've got to pay someone for VPN, after all, and email masking looks interesting. If the revenue from those kinds of useful subscriptions helps to sustain Firefox and it's derivatives, so much the better.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 9 points 10 months ago

Like, which is it? Do you want Mozilla to diversify and have a more sustainable revenue stream, or do you want them to focus on Firefox

Presumably these are different people.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Devs want to be paid for their work.

WTF does that have to do with bloating salaries for CEOs while devs get laid off? They're doing their damnedest to put less budget towards paying devs (for Firefox or otherwise, by the way), not more!

Mozilla's CEO is failing no matter how you look at it, including even through your own rose-colored glasses.

[–] gens@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They get roughly as much in donations as they spend on ff dev. They get a LOT more from google, that they spend on... bs.

https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4387539/firefox-money-investigating-the-bizarre-finances-of-mozilla

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Of course they spend it on more than just Firefox. What part of "we're trying to diversify" don't you understand?

And I'm sorry, Lunduke is not a trustable source. He went seriously off the deep end years ago.

From a great Linux content creator to a crazed Qanon, COVID conspiracy anti-vaxx nut trying to pedal all kinds of nonsense, who loves to shit on LGBT Linux devs. I really don't know what the hell happened to him.

[–] gens@programming.dev 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It is hard to draw conclusions without knowing much facts. How much is needed and how much is got.

And i don't care about wings.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

It depends what "diversify" hides.

Do you mean:

  • Work on ethical projects that don't scrape user data
  • Stay away from trendy buzzwords like VR and AI

Or do you mean

  • Buy a data-harvesting company along with all the private data it harvested
  • Inject the data-harvesting company's code into your browser, along with some extra ads
  • Create a website content generator that'll create soulless slop for SEO spammers?

Because right now, Mozilla has chosen the second route. The anti-privacy, anti-ethical route.

If Mozilla reaches the logical end state, will it even matter if they still exist? They'll be soulless corporate trash too. There won't be anything worth preserving.

[–] hoot@lemmy.ca 95 points 10 months ago (2 children)

How do rambling blog articles full of terrible assumptions and analysis like this get posted? Is there an alternative technology community I could sub to that cares about quality content?

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago

Amen. It would be nice to have posts on actual technology instead of business/financial news about technology companies, or what shitty CEOs are doing in their personal lives.

[–] LifeInOregon@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

This is why I block users who share garbage after the first few times I notice it. For example, this will be the last post I see from OP.

[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 40 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Firefox Marketshare nosedives

That can’t be true, literally everyone on the Fediverse uses Firefox.

[–] runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is for the year 2022. The reddit migration was 2023.

Also the fediverse is less than 0.1% of social media market share.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The fediverse is not anywhere near large enough to stabilize those numbers.

[–] Gigan@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think they were being sarcastic.

[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 6 points 10 months ago

No no, the internet is serious business, so I’m always 100% sincere at all times.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Fair enough. I wasn't sure since people had the mindset that the number of users moving to Lemmy were enough to take down reddit.

[–] R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 10 months ago

I think the joke is that not many people use the fediverse.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

There are dozens of us! DOZENS!

[–] psychothumbs@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

This is the real problem with these Silicon Valley fads like crypto and AI - they cause idiot tech executives to disinvest in their worthwhile products in an attempt to get on the bandwagon.

[–] flumph@programming.dev 5 points 10 months ago

You mean you don't see the synergy between Firefox and an AI landing page generator? /s

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to have the same kind of bonuses when I don't meet my KPIs

[–] alexdeathway@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's KPIs?

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

Key Performance Indexes, used mainly in performance reviews.

[–] Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’ll never understand how someone can get paid like that. If Mozilla was destroying the opposition, I’d get it though.

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

They have to pay that much to attract talent! The same talent that destroyed the other companies they worked for.

[–] Ganbat@lemmyonline.com 9 points 10 months ago

Okay, so, good news for the CEO, but terrible news for the Internet as a whole. Awesome.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Brian Lunduke is one of the sketchiest, chuddiest, bottom-feeding troglodytes in the technology "news" sphere. I doubt he wants Mozilla to do anything but crash and burn.

But he's also right, and the fact he's stuck his ugly pixelated avatar on top of publicly available Mozilla records does not make them any less correct.