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    1602 points rebelwebmaster | 15 comments | | HN request time: 1.017s | source | bottom
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    dblohm7 ◴[] No.24122017[source]
    [I am a Mozilla employee, and yes, I do recognize how my position influences my perspective.]

    One thing that always frustrates me a bit whenever Mozilla comes up on HN or elsewhere is that we are always held to impossibly high standards. Yes, as a non-profit, we should be held to higher standards, but not impossible standards.

    OTOH, sometimes it just seems unreasonable and absurd. Stuff like, to paraphrase, "Look at the corporate doublespeak in that press release. Fuck Mozilla, I'm switching to Chrome."

    Really? That's what's got you bent out of shape?

    Sure, Mozilla has made mistakes. Did we apologize? Did we learn anything? Did we work to prevent it happening again?

    People want to continue flogging us for these things while giving other companies (who have made their own mistakes, often much more consequential than ours, would never be as open about it, and often learn nothing) a relatively free pass.

    I'm certainly not the first person on the planet whose employer has been on the receiving end of vitriol. And if Mozilla doesn't make it through this next phase, I can always find another job. But what concerns me about this is that Mozilla is such an important voice in shaping the future of the internet. To see it wither away because of people angry with what are, in the grand scheme of things, minor mistakes, is a shame.

    EDIT: And lest you think I am embellishing about trivial complaints, there was a rant last week on r/Firefox that Mozilla was allegedly conspiring to hide Gecko's source code because we self-host our primary repo and bug tracking instead of using GitHub, despite the fact that the Mozilla project predates GitHub by a decade.

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    hn_throwaway_99 ◴[] No.24125514[source]
    I certainly don't think the corporate doublespeak is reason to switch to Chrome, but I do think the corporate doublespeak in this announcement is just awful.

    When you're doing a layoff, just announce the layoff, show compassion to the affected employees, and if you want to announce other changes, do it in a separate announcement. Putting stuff about the fight against systemic racism in the opening paragraph of a layoff announcement is just inviting a tidal wave of eye rolls.

    replies(5): >>24125886 #>>24126001 #>>24126092 #>>24137000 #>>24160253 #
    vages ◴[] No.24126092[source]
    I have to respectfully disagree. It is common for leaders to re-state their entity's reason for being as they bring bad news. See Churchill's speeches during the battle of France, for instance.

    I think this opening was well-written and clearly communicated Mozilla's purpose. You can blame it for being populist, but don't hate the player, hate the game.

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    1. tingol ◴[] No.24126410[source]
    What if we all liked this player for not playing the game?
    replies(1): >>24126874 #
    2. Jare ◴[] No.24126874[source]
    I would say that's the sort of impossible standard the OP was probably referring to.
    replies(1): >>24127964 #
    3. rabuse ◴[] No.24127964[source]
    The tech sector should not be politicized, IMO. It's the one bastion we've had from all the nonsense.
    replies(4): >>24128639 #>>24129481 #>>24133155 #>>24154173 #
    4. TeaDrunk ◴[] No.24128639{3}[source]
    The tech sector has almost never not been politicized, damn, are kids these days forgetting how much open source was fought for and defended?
    replies(4): >>24129339 #>>24129385 #>>24129712 #>>24130308 #
    5. pgeorgi ◴[] No.24129339{4}[source]
    Not forgetting, they weren't there yet
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    6. raxxorrax ◴[] No.24129385{4}[source]
    I remember that they fought for freedoms, not for corporate compliance.
    7. mavhc ◴[] No.24129481{3}[source]
    Everything is political.

    Silicon Valley is polluted, all your hardware is made in China, algorithms shape what we see.

    replies(1): >>24129972 #
    8. MaxBarraclough ◴[] No.24129712{4}[source]
    To channel RMS: The political concern there is Free Software. Open Source isn't a political movement, it's an approach to software development that has similar ideas on software licensing.
    9. GoblinSlayer ◴[] No.24129972{4}[source]
    That hardly a reason to sink deeper.
    replies(1): >>24130321 #
    10. wizzwizz4 ◴[] No.24130138{5}[source]
    Neither was I. I remember. Youth is no excuse to be ignorant of recent history.
    11. j-krieger ◴[] No.24130308{4}[source]
    Open Source is not influenced by political factors. Influencing factors are almost entirely economical, with the exception being decisions by lawmakers.

    I'd rather they kept politics and so-called fights against racism out of Software, because they were never problematic there to begin with.

    The terms master and slave for example are only in bad taste because people make them to be.

    12. j-krieger ◴[] No.24130321{5}[source]
    I agree. They are exterior problems and have nothing to do with open-source in itself.
    replies(1): >>24132096 #
    13. mavhc ◴[] No.24132096{6}[source]
    You'd think China would be all about open source, what with the communism.
    14. otikik ◴[] No.24133155{3}[source]
    Consider that it might have always been politized, but the previous status quo might have been more convenient/pleasant to you (i.e. made it easier for you to ignore problems which affect others).
    15. rawbot ◴[] No.24154173{3}[source]
    I think this sentiment is a few years too late.