This is the second layoff at Mozilla this year, the first affecting dozens of staff on the side of the organization that builds the popular Firefox browser.
This is sad, not just because it’s a trend on Mozilla, but because it shows how mozilla has embraced the corporative kind of mindset. The advocacy team was fundamental for net free principles.
Mozilla based browsers keep being the only practical alternative to web browser dominance, but it itself has degrading its status of resisting bad practices against users and the web in general. And emerging alternatives are also technical alternatives only, with no intention of net freedom advocacy, GPL sort of principles to protect the user and so on.
Neither servo rendering engine (like gecko), nor verso (an actual rust based web browser based on servo) are quite ready for prime time. But I’m hoping they will be there sooner rather than later. I don’t use Firefox directly, but rather wrappers based on it, Librewolf for the desktop and Mull in part because I’m lazy (I prefer the ankerfox stuff and other to be done for me), and if I want to avoid chromium based browsers, dominating big time (MS browser edge is as well chromium base, electron is chromium in disguise, and now a days QT web engine underneath is chromium as well) well there’s no option yet.
On the other side, nothing guarantees servo and verso (or whatever other servo based browsers in the future) will care about net free advocacy, neither user freedoms, just be concerned about being better technical solutions, :( But I still have high hopes as you might…
Just being a good technical alternative is not good enough now days, :(
This is sad, not just because it’s a trend on Mozilla, but because it shows how mozilla has embraced the corporative kind of mindset. The advocacy team was fundamental for net free principles.
Mozilla based browsers keep being the only practical alternative to web browser dominance, but it itself has degrading its status of resisting bad practices against users and the web in general. And emerging alternatives are also technical alternatives only, with no intention of net freedom advocacy, GPL sort of principles to protect the user and so on.
Sad days indeed, :/
there’s nothing stopping the mozilla project from going closed source at this point, i hope Servo replaces it
I hope that LadyBird could become a viable alternative as well.
what’s servo?
It is a Browser Engine. This: https://servo.org/
There is also Ladybird: https://ladybird.org/
servo has a browser built on it called Verso
Exactly.
I mean, that all depends on what the MPL allows.
Neither servo rendering engine (like gecko), nor verso (an actual rust based web browser based on servo) are quite ready for prime time. But I’m hoping they will be there sooner rather than later. I don’t use Firefox directly, but rather wrappers based on it, Librewolf for the desktop and Mull in part because I’m lazy (I prefer the ankerfox stuff and other to be done for me), and if I want to avoid chromium based browsers, dominating big time (MS browser edge is as well chromium base, electron is chromium in disguise, and now a days QT web engine underneath is chromium as well) well there’s no option yet.
On the other side, nothing guarantees servo and verso (or whatever other servo based browsers in the future) will care about net free advocacy, neither user freedoms, just be concerned about being better technical solutions, :( But I still have high hopes as you might…
Just being a good technical alternative is not good enough now days, :(