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cm0002 @lemmy.world

3mo ago

Mozilla Announce Leadership Changes, Plans to 'Diversify' - OMG! Ubuntu

www.omgubuntu.co.uk

Mozilla Announce Leadership Changes, Plans to 'Diversify' - OMG! Ubuntu

38 comments

“How? It will continue to invest in privacy-respecting advertising; fund, develop and push open-source AI features”
🤮
- Privacy-respecting advertising seems like some devil's deal to make money, not a fan.
  Open source AI is cool though. Not sure how they'll make money from that.
  
  I'm not sure what AI would be good for in Firefox, beyond local translation which is already in place. Web browsers and email clients are there to display content made by humans, not generate content for humans to consume.
- Note that this “privacy respecting advertising” is not the same as Google’s or Facebook’s “privacy respecting advertising” technology, but a novel form of adtech which claims to preserve* privacy**.

I guess that's what happens when the last competitor in a space is being funded by the monopolistic option and you threaten to cut that off.
Two things I think are interesting here:
This is in line with every other minority browser out there. It's not working for them, either.
There is a remarkable lack of projects to create alternatives getting traction. Nobody is even repackaging Gecko into a different browser. I don't have the knowledge to tell if making and maintaining a browser is just that expenive and hard, but it sure seems like a reasonable explanation.
- https://zen-browser.app/
  There is this one, it has a lot of momentum and it's been pleasant to use so far. Firefox + fancy features
  
  Firefox + fancy features
  Means that it completely relies on Mozilla's development work for the actual engine.
  
  Yeah, I had given it a try a while back, I forget why I stopped. It seems like they fixed some of the annoyances I remembere maybe I'll give it another go.
  
  Lots of traction is a stretch.

The company doesn't need to grow. It needs to roll back its original sin and become a user advocacy organization.
- Unfortunately that doesn't pay the bills. The development is costly

privacy-respecting advertising
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 sure, sure
- I mean... Yeah. I'd much rather Mozilla serve me ads that help them fund Firefox and be less reliant on Google while also being less evil than Google. If I have to choose I'll take ads that don't use as much data from me even if a little bit, as long as it's not Google or meta levels
- At this point if you still belive the Internet can survive without ads, you're just being naïve.
  
  Survive
  Meaning what?
  I look at the Open-Source/Foss ecosystem and see amazing projects being built, tested, and utilized. All the while lacking the advertisements that some people seem to think are pivotal.

The modern web is bloated. We need to cut it down so that there can be more viable alternatives. This space is too important to only allow monopolies control of it bcz they can throw money at it building a browser.

Finally real diversity. Diversity of opinion and direction.

38 comments