Mozilla is unhappy because the use of browser engines other than WebKit will be restricted to the EU, forcing them to develop two different apps.
For an independent browser like Firefox, managing two browsers is not easy, so it can be forgiven that this could be seen as almost harassment.
Also, the fact that the use of browser engines other than WebKit is limited to iOS means that the use of WebKit is still forced on iPadOS, which also increases the effort for Mozilla.
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So hear me out. What if we took $6.9M out of the CEO bonus and dropped the Mozilla AI project?
Maybe that would be enough to hire a maintainer or two for Firefox iOS port?
Maybe that could work?
I don’t know, just an idea. Crazy.
i used to think that, but I cringe at myself. I’m not sure what other managers there are being paid, and in the CEO’s defence, she was at Mozilla since the beginning, even through their bad times, pre-firefox days, and through their chrome days.
That being said, if its 6.9m dollars though, that is getting a bit high…
Mozilla has a budget of around 200 mil for software development, so the 7 mil are probably not enough. Not defending the high pay though.
Also, AI Integration into browsers could very well be a deciding factor for mainstream users when choosing a browser. So having some expertise around e.g. running LLMs privacy preserving on client hardware for page summarisation could pay off. Llamafile for example, is something cool coming from the Mozilla AI stuff.
I see a future where the journalist gives the LLM two sentences and asks it to spit out a 2000 word article out of that.
The user then asks the LLM to Tl;Dr the article down to the two core sentences.
Same probably for business email. Jane goes “send an email to Joe saying no.” The LLM goes “dear joe… we appreciate… your valuable conteibution… unfortunately at this time… cannot consider… looking forward… thanks for … whatever”. Joe then clicks the “summarise” button and gets “Jane says no”.
Amazing how far we’ve come.
The same with resumes. Using a LLM to write a resume and cover letter out of key facts, sending it, turning it back into key facts around the applicant.
Firefox is the only browser with local website translation. Literally the extension is the only app on Android that does that.
Wrong. Vivaldi has had local translation for half a year now.
Cool! So it works on Chromium, they just need to implement it. Is it Foss? Do they use the same thing as Firefox?
Yes, but also require Apple to expand its EU software to people not in the EU
oh yeah put the onus on mozilla, nice one
Yeah, that will fix Apple being total utter assholes. Giving them what they want always fixes everyone being assholes.
I don’t know what you coul have against mozilla ai?
Mozilla: ignores years of customer complaints and requests
Mozilla: creates new product nobody asked for
Fans: “What’s wrong with Product?”
Are these customers donating, or purchasing mozilla products or services so that mozilla doesn’t have to rely on google’s donations?
https://github.com/Mozilla-Ocho
Nearly 10k and 400 stars on those respective repos.
A way to run a large language model on any operating system, in any OS, in a simple, local, and privacy respecting manner?
For linux we have docker, but Windows users were starving for a good way to do this, and even on linux, removing the step of configuring docker (or other container runtimes) to work with nvidia, is nice.
And it’s still FOSS stuff they aren’t being paid for, currently. But there are plenty of ways to monetize this.
Here’s an easy one: tie in the the vpn service they have to allow you to access the web ui of the computer running the llamafile remotely. Configure something like end to end encryption or or nat traversal (so not even mozilla can sniff the traffic), and you end up with a private LLM you can access remotely.
With this, maybe they can afford some actual development on firefox, without having to rely on google money.
I’m confused what you’re trying to say here.
Are you saying that Google has more of a right to dictate what Mozilla does because Google gives Mozilla the most money?
Are you saying Google told Mozilla to work on things other than Firefox with the money they were given?
Why bring up Google at all?
Telemitry is way more useful than you think, because the loudest are not always right. Same for donations.
Because much of mozilla’s funding is from a deal with google, that’s why.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Foundation
A lot of money, but not enough to actually to actually do a lot. They keep cutting features their “customers” like. Why?
Because development is expensive.
Google props mozilla up to pretend they don’t have a monopoly on the internet. Just enough money to barely keep up, not enough to truly stay competitive.
Mozilla wants to not rely on google money, so they are trying to expand their products. AI is overhyped, but still useful, and something worth investing in.
I know that, but why did you bring it up in order to contrast it with Mozilla’s consumer base? Do you mean to say that Google is the actual paying customer?
It seems like such a bizarre thing to bring up at all.