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posted by Fnord666 on Friday January 17 2020, @08:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the Have-to-turn-a-profit dept.

Mozilla Lays Off 70 People as Non-search Revenue Fails to Materialize

Mozilla lays off 70 people as non-search revenue fails to materialize:

Mozilla has laid off 70 people, TechCrunch reports. It's a significant move for an organization that employs around 1,000 people worldwide.

"You may recall that we expected to be earning revenue in 2019 and 2020 from new subscription products as well as higher revenue from sources outside of search," wrote Mozilla interim CEO Mitchell Baker in a memo to staff obtained by TechCrunch. "This did not happen."

Baker said Mozilla had decided not to shelve Mozilla's $43 million innovation fund, which focuses on creating new Mozilla products. She said Mozilla would provide "generous exit packages and outplacement support" to those who were let go.

Mozilla Lays Off 70 Employees

Mozilla lays off 70 employees:

Mozilla laid off about 70 employees Wednesday as part of an effort to preserve funding for its top new priorities like protecting privacy and fighting surveillance online. The nonprofit is best known for creating the Firefox web browser, but it also is expanding into new areas including password management, file sharing and private network connections while doubling down on its longstanding push to improve online privacy.

"We're making a significant investment to fund innovation. In order to do that responsibly, we've also had to make some difficult choices which led to the elimination of roles at Mozilla which we announced internally today," Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker said of the layoffs in a blog post.

And Mozilla is being more cautious with revenue and expenses. "We are taking a more conservative approach to our finances. This will enable us to pivot as needed to respond to market threats to internet health, and champion user privacy and agency," Mozilla said in a statement.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Friday January 17 2020, @08:52AM (4 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Friday January 17 2020, @08:52AM (#944459) Journal

    The world: let's do everything in the browser
    Mozilla: let's diversify from the browser

    IMHO it's clear that having been financed by google has steered mozilla away from being a danger for google's browser. In fact mozilla snuffed the only two differentiating factors from chrome, the extensions ecosystem and a sane version numbering.
    The way forward would be, do as the folks at blender do. A truly free browser is as important as a free software OS. If Firefox does not provide this, somebody else will eventually take their place.

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday January 17 2020, @10:25AM (1 child)

      by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday January 17 2020, @10:25AM (#944481) Journal

      I hope you're right, but I'm not in an optimistic mood right now. Open source doesn't magically materialize everyday-needed-programs.

      For instance, I haven't been happy with any backup program. Almost every one I've tried has been really crappy. I haven't tried it yet, but the best features I've seen in a backup program has been in BorgBackup and they do get very good reviews. Unfortunately, it is only command line driven. There are GUIs out there for it, but they are incomplete at best.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Friday January 17 2020, @11:10AM

        by Bot (3902) on Friday January 17 2020, @11:10AM (#944489) Journal

        Attic is good. git annex is good once you figure it out (tried scripted, the assistant I did not try), freefilesync is good.

        --
        Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @12:10PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @12:10PM (#944504)

      She said Mozilla would provide "generous exit packages and outplacement support" to those who were let go.

      So basically the executives will get the golden parachutes and the rest of the company will get left holding the bag?

      #cynicism :)

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday January 17 2020, @01:56PM

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 17 2020, @01:56PM (#944517)

        If it's a big enough bag, you could use it as a parachute.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:11AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:11AM (#944467)

    "We are taking a more conservative approach to our finances."

    No more diversity and inclusion initiatives?

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:28AM (#944471)

      Nah. Devs get the boot, managers will continue their work :]

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Friday January 17 2020, @10:05AM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 17 2020, @10:05AM (#944477) Journal

      No more diversity and inclusion initiatives?

      On the contrary, diversifying the inclusion initiatives.

      Search for "need neurodiversity inclusion"... ummm... (what are the word they use? trending?)... this started trending some time ago, you'll hear it more often. Efforts will be made to bring the pale 4chan-dwelling aspies from their mum's basements into the crude office lights; because pink hair is too normal nowadays.

      (Thanks $DEITY I can decline to manage/lead others without losing my job for it)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:39PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @09:39PM (#944741)

        Mozilla's core problem is that their management drove out the aspies. Nobody left has a clue what they are doing.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @12:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @12:29PM (#944507)

    Hey Dingbat CEO, do you know that transgender washrooms aren't revenue-generating? Why don't you focus on hiring experienced engineers to make a good browser, instead of trying to provide a home for otherwise unemployable pink-hairs?

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Friday January 17 2020, @01:11PM (6 children)

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Friday January 17 2020, @01:11PM (#944511) Journal

    "The [non-specific opaque shadowy frequently deceptive telemetry loving] nonprofit is best known for creating the Firefox web browser, but it also is expanding into new areas including password management, file sharing and private network connections while doubling down on its longstanding push to improve online privacy."

    Headline 2021: 'Sorry, this saturday morning 12:00 UTC we forgot to renew a cert and so the secure link to your password management cloud, file sharing and vpn was lost and all of your traffic will be sent in the clear with several unique identifiers and no add ons until you set automatic updates to random mode.'

    Top comment at mozillla.org: "Why is everyone so butthurt, it's a simple mistake, happens to everybody. All you have to do is go to settings and turn on automatic updates randomness feature and its just fixed, stop whining, it's a free product."

    Top comment at mozillawhistelblower.org: 404 HTTP ERROR

    Erik Brooks: https://archive.is/2MFbn [archive.is]

    Time keeps on slipping, into the future....

    thesesystemsarefailing.net (i mean especially the one where one or more billionaires wants to enslave us/fuck us over/whateveryouwannacallit and so he/she/they/it hires 10 millionaires to run 20 proxy companies to hire 10,000 people to build a mountain of bullshit and throw it on the people trying to actual make things work)

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday January 17 2020, @03:02PM (3 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday January 17 2020, @03:02PM (#944541) Journal

      Check this out lol:

      Why You Shouldn’t Use Firefox Forks Like Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk [howtogeek.com]

      TL;DR: Trust Mozilla to do the right thing forward, and use Firefox or Chrome because they will get security updates faster.

      That article is the second GOOG search result for "mozilla privacy fork".

      thesesystemsarefailing.net (i mean especially the one where one or more billionaires wants to enslave us/fuck us over/whateveryouwannacallit and so he/she/they/it hires 10 millionaires to run 20 proxy companies to hire 10,000 people to build a mountain of bullshit and throw it on the people trying to actual make things work)

      Are these systems failing or succeeding?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @03:52PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @03:52PM (#944564)

        Why You Shouldn’t Use Firefox Forks Like Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk

        The first major version of Pale Moon was based on Firefox 24 ESR, due to a disagreement about where Firefox was headed. But the developer eventually had to switch to Firefox 38 ESR to get more modern features. Now, the developer is doing the same thing again, basing this new version largely on the pre-Quantum Firefox code. We don’t see the point of resisting new features only to make a major leap to them every few years anyway.

        Perhaps you'll excuse me if I ignore this guy's opinion (pretty much entirely "but muh securitay!"), since he apparently doesn't even understand why Pale Moon exists in the first place.

      • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Saturday January 18 2020, @06:17PM

        by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Saturday January 18 2020, @06:17PM (#945024) Journal

        Howto geek is far from canon for me on matters of security. Far.

        I can understand how 'getting updates' can 'make you more secure' but it also cannot, see microsoft update tuesday fiascos.

        I think a company that needs automatic updates on is one who does not understand security and is making a product so complex they cannot be sure it functions when shipped.

        That is a defective product. That is people who have no confidence in their product. That is also a slimy lateral control move, now they can push whatever updates they want and most people won't check. Now they can jigger with settings, which we know they have done.

        The fact we are even having this discussion in 2020 means everything is broken, we can't agree on what a browser is and what a web server is. Pale moon folk seem to have that down, chrome and firefox do not, and at the same time want to take on other projects when their primary one is not even close to being done.

        If you let advertisers have a seat at the browser and webserver and privacy discussion, you will neither get a browser, webserver or privacy, are you still sure you want to ride that horse? From a site that relies on adds and is part of a larger add network?

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @09:24AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @09:24AM (#944932)

      Top comment at mozillla.org: "Why is everyone so butthurt, it's a simple mistake, happens to everybody. All you have to do is go to settings and turn on automatic updates randomness feature and its just fixed, stop whining, it's a free product."

      You jest, but it was worse than that: last time their "solution" was for users to turn on a security hole user-snooping "feature" they'd already abused for advertising purposes once before, so they could use it in a way that directly contravened the procedures they put in place after the earlier incident!.

      That was the day I walked away from Firefox, after using it since the days of Phoenix 0.2.

      • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Saturday January 18 2020, @06:25PM

        by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Saturday January 18 2020, @06:25PM (#945028) Journal

        Thank you for chiming in, sometimes it feels alone out here, standing up for things I saw with my own eyes in a world where this sort of confidence is being gradually outlawed.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @02:56PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @02:56PM (#944535)

    Password Managers and VPN Services are both niche services. People who want them have already found suitable solutions. Mostly these are desired by security conscious and privacy minded individuals. Your earlier inclusion of Pocket directly into the Firefox browser acts counter to privacy as it is provided by a third party company that sells user activity tracking data to fund it's services, much like Google does.

    I applaud your attempt to show that Firefox is, or could be, a privacy first web browser. The first thing you need to do is to remove Pocket from the core of the browser and made it an optional add-on that users who want it choose to install.

    If your goal is to generate revenue, you may want to consider offering more main stream services to either the users of the browser or businesses. I understand that this is much more difficult.

    If your goal is truly to provide a more privacy focused and secure service offering that goes beyond a web browser, step one is to extricate Pocket (as I said early). I would think the next logical step would be to offer popular services with a stronger focus on security. Some examples might include:

    * a secure e-mail service at a reasonable price (such as 99 cents per month per e-mail account with reasonable storage). Secure should include malicious e-mail scanning AND client side encryption for long-term storage messages. I'm not completely sure how to achieve both of these in a service but there are very few secure e-mails service and none are free. This might also work wonders at bringing your log ignored e-mail client back to life.

    * a secure web storage solution with client side encryption to compete with the likes of Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. None of the major players offer built-in client side encryption. 3rd party client-side encryption solutions are awkward (at least the ones I've tried). This could be an extension of the file transfer service you have already hinted at.

    * This is probably a risk but a good quality privacy focused secure real-time chat solution that doesn't come from Facebook might be worth looking at.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @10:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @10:14PM (#944760)

      There are ways to do malicious scanning and encrypted email. In PGP and S/MIME, the subject line and other headers are sent in the clear. This allows for SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNSBLs, greylisting, and more still work on the network side. You could also use LPH, LSH, fuzzy checksums, through things like homomorphic encryption, or almost anything you want done by the client.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @11:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @11:17PM (#945124)

      None of the major players offer built-in client side encryption.

      MEGA [mega.nz] does. Highly recommended.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday January 17 2020, @03:46PM (1 child)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Friday January 17 2020, @03:46PM (#944560)

    Baker said Mozilla had decided not to shelve Mozilla's $43 million innovation fund, which focuses on creating new Mozilla products. She said Mozilla would provide "generous exit packages and outplacement support" to those who were let go.

    You can fit the word "Mozilla" in here a couple more times. Here, let me help:

    Baker said Mozilla had decided not to shelve Mozilla's $43 million innovation fund, which Mozilla says focuses on creating new Mozilla products. She said Mozilla would provide "generous exit packages and outplacement support" to those whom Mozilla let go.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 17 2020, @06:47PM

      by Freeman (732) on Friday January 17 2020, @06:47PM (#944652) Journal

      But, who is Baker? "Baker, from Mozilla, said Mozilla ..."

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @04:52PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @04:52PM (#944588)

    I do not want to take joy in anyone losing their job; but, on the other hand, please please please please fire the User eXperience group.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @05:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @05:22PM (#944606)

      Can't do that as they belong to the protected gender-fluid class of employees, the support of which is Mozilla's core competency.

  • (Score: 1) by jman on Saturday January 18 2020, @02:17PM

    by jman (6085) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 18 2020, @02:17PM (#944969) Homepage

    Wonder how much they'd make and save by selling Thunderbird to LibreOffice?

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