<story><title>Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy</title><url>https://fortune.com/2024/02/08/mozilla-firefox-ceo-laura-chambers-mitchell-baker-leadership-transition/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gkoberger</author><text>Back when I worked there (2010-2012), a lot of people thought Google wouldn&amp;#x27;t renew the deal. So there was a scramble to figure out how to make enough money to avoid layoffs.&lt;p&gt;Basically, how do you make another ~$100M&amp;#x2F;yr in case Google money goes away?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s 2024, and Google still pays (more like ~$500M&amp;#x2F;yr from Google now) and Mozilla still exists. But it was hovering over people&amp;#x27;s heads back then, and still is.</text></item><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>It is very nice to see your inside view. For me as an outsider: Mozilla &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; FireFox and that that doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to have registered with Mozilla management is irritating me beyond measure because it means that (1) I don&amp;#x27;t have a way to sponsor &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; FF and not the rest of Mozilla and (2) that quite frequently FireFox suffers because of resource depletion or crazy experiments that benefit Mozilla but harm FF.&lt;p&gt;To me that speaks volumes about the quality of management, and much as I&amp;#x27;m sympathetic to your feelings I wonder what FF would have been like today if Mozilla had not been eternally distracted. I suspect that without FF Mozilla funding would dry up overnight and that alone is something they should respect.</text></item><item><author>gkoberger</author><text>I worked at Mozilla back in 2012, as we were pivoting to FirefoxOS (a mobile OS). I was very low in the company, but for some reason sent Mitchell an email detailing why I thought it was a bad idea.&lt;p&gt;She not only responded in a very gracious way, but also followed up months later to check if my feelings had changed. While they had not, she didn&amp;#x27;t owe me anything and I really appreciated her attentiveness. Mitchell really cares about Mozilla and its community.&lt;p&gt;Mitchell was a great community leader. That doesn&amp;#x27;t always translate to being a good CEO or leader of a business, however Mitchell is a huge reason (if not THE reason) why we have Firefox today – and, even if you don&amp;#x27;t currently use Firefox, a huge reason why we have the web we have today.&lt;p&gt;So, while I haven&amp;#x27;t been the biggest fan of Mozilla&amp;#x27;s decisions the past few years, I do want to give credit to Mitchell for everything she did for the open web and open source. She was a supporter before anyone really cared, and played a huge part in getting is to where we are now over the past 20+ years.&lt;p&gt;(I am glad this is the direction they have chosen! Here&amp;#x27;s a 2015 post where I write about how I think Mozilla should focus on data privacy: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10698997&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10698997&lt;/a&gt;)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jacquesm</author><text>I guess that makes sense but for me the equation would be a different one: since Mozilla is for me synonymous with Firefox I&amp;#x27;d allocate all of the resources to FireFox and that would result in (1) a much more secure future for FireFox, (2) reduced loss of marketshare (so a better negotiation position vis-a-vis Google) and (3) a much lower per annum expense to keep that mission alive. By burning a ton of money on unrelated things FireFox is now actively at risk of disappearing. Google can point at Edge now and say they&amp;#x27;re not a monopoly, they may not need FireFox for much longer.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy</title><url>https://fortune.com/2024/02/08/mozilla-firefox-ceo-laura-chambers-mitchell-baker-leadership-transition/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gkoberger</author><text>Back when I worked there (2010-2012), a lot of people thought Google wouldn&amp;#x27;t renew the deal. So there was a scramble to figure out how to make enough money to avoid layoffs.&lt;p&gt;Basically, how do you make another ~$100M&amp;#x2F;yr in case Google money goes away?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s 2024, and Google still pays (more like ~$500M&amp;#x2F;yr from Google now) and Mozilla still exists. But it was hovering over people&amp;#x27;s heads back then, and still is.</text></item><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>It is very nice to see your inside view. For me as an outsider: Mozilla &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; FireFox and that that doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to have registered with Mozilla management is irritating me beyond measure because it means that (1) I don&amp;#x27;t have a way to sponsor &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; FF and not the rest of Mozilla and (2) that quite frequently FireFox suffers because of resource depletion or crazy experiments that benefit Mozilla but harm FF.&lt;p&gt;To me that speaks volumes about the quality of management, and much as I&amp;#x27;m sympathetic to your feelings I wonder what FF would have been like today if Mozilla had not been eternally distracted. I suspect that without FF Mozilla funding would dry up overnight and that alone is something they should respect.</text></item><item><author>gkoberger</author><text>I worked at Mozilla back in 2012, as we were pivoting to FirefoxOS (a mobile OS). I was very low in the company, but for some reason sent Mitchell an email detailing why I thought it was a bad idea.&lt;p&gt;She not only responded in a very gracious way, but also followed up months later to check if my feelings had changed. While they had not, she didn&amp;#x27;t owe me anything and I really appreciated her attentiveness. Mitchell really cares about Mozilla and its community.&lt;p&gt;Mitchell was a great community leader. That doesn&amp;#x27;t always translate to being a good CEO or leader of a business, however Mitchell is a huge reason (if not THE reason) why we have Firefox today – and, even if you don&amp;#x27;t currently use Firefox, a huge reason why we have the web we have today.&lt;p&gt;So, while I haven&amp;#x27;t been the biggest fan of Mozilla&amp;#x27;s decisions the past few years, I do want to give credit to Mitchell for everything she did for the open web and open source. She was a supporter before anyone really cared, and played a huge part in getting is to where we are now over the past 20+ years.&lt;p&gt;(I am glad this is the direction they have chosen! Here&amp;#x27;s a 2015 post where I write about how I think Mozilla should focus on data privacy: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10698997&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=10698997&lt;/a&gt;)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pas</author><text>okay, but did they figure it out? it seems they are stuck between two worlds.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Mozilla_Corporation#Finances&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Mozilla_Corporation#Finances&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;they are spending serious startup money every year on nothing. it&amp;#x27;s as if they got the google disease with the google funds. :&amp;#x2F;</text></comment>