Mozilla lays off 70

I don't understand Mozilla. How did the go from a lightweight Mozilla Browser alternative to a company that spends $450m annually and dedicates $43m just for future endeavors? Why couldn't they just focus on making the best browser possible with a small dedicated team?

Would you cut, say, Rust?

Rust is perhaps the best thing to come out of any corporation in years. Protobuf, Envoy, Kubernetes, ... -- I struggle to think of anything better for our industry than Rust.

You could feel that Rust as a programming language is the greatest thing to ever happen to computer science, the big question for a corporation’s C-suite is can it make money. I’d assume (perfect possible that I’m wrong) that Rust does nothing but cost money for Mozilla. This is not to say I think it will be cancelled or force to expatriate and become a separate legal entity, but management is beholden to shareholders, not the tech community at large.

And yes I know that Rust does receive some corporate funding from other entities, but it is still a Mozilla product.

Rust is not a Mozilla product.

It is heavily used at and funded by Mozilla but they have almost zero influence over the direction of the language.

Actually, this kind of perception is the reason that they have been recently talking about forming a Rust Foundation.

http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2020/01/09/towa...