I like your take. An optimistic me would be fully onboard with it. But this isn’t a single change in a vacuum. I think the reason people aren hating is because they’re seeing it as yet another symptom of enshitification, and I don’t disagree.
There are rare examples of outstanding companies like Steam that talk the talk and walk the walk. But with Firefox, they’re headed the wrong direction. They cut 30% of their staff this time last year, cut their internet freedom advacacy group, and I think that was the point where they started a hard shift away from who they were. They’re harvesting and selling user data now (removed the old “Nope. Never have, never will” [sell user data] from their FAQ), they’ve got a CEO that’s taking an absolute fortune off the top of a struggling company, and they’re steadily removing long time features like pocket integration and compact mode.
The last straw will be if Google ever pulls their deal as Firefox’s default search engine… Mozilla will very likely pivot hard to nasty, modern money making practices to keep themselves alive if they lose 80% of their revenue all at once like that.
I like your take. An optimistic me would be fully onboard with it. But this isn’t a single change in a vacuum. I think the reason people aren hating is because they’re seeing it as yet another symptom of enshitification, and I don’t disagree.
There are rare examples of outstanding companies like Steam that talk the talk and walk the walk. But with Firefox, they’re headed the wrong direction. They cut 30% of their staff this time last year, cut their internet freedom advacacy group, and I think that was the point where they started a hard shift away from who they were. They’re harvesting and selling user data now (removed the old “Nope. Never have, never will” [sell user data] from their FAQ), they’ve got a CEO that’s taking an absolute fortune off the top of a struggling company, and they’re steadily removing long time features like pocket integration and compact mode.
The last straw will be if Google ever pulls their deal as Firefox’s default search engine… Mozilla will very likely pivot hard to nasty, modern money making practices to keep themselves alive if they lose 80% of their revenue all at once like that.