19 ms·

Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo

593 points by recvonline 9mo ago

greatgib 9mo ago
What would be nice is something like the Python foundation, people can be a reasonable membership to become "members" of the organisation with a right proposal and vote for decisions.
darkwater 9mo ago
[flagged]
- bigbadfeline 9mo ago
  So much BS and nitpicking isn't humanly possible to produce. We're looking at the work of corpo bot farms with deep pockets and deep experience in subversion.
  - darkwater 9mo ago
    I think it's more because they are too much "in the middle", so they get shit from both sides: the side that wants them completely disconnected from BigTech and the side that, well, just doesn't want them because BigTech is good (I presume?). Every organization and every org leader make mistakes, often or less often, and Mozilla is no exception. But the sentiment here on HN towards it in every news that talks about Mozilla is frankly disappointing.
  - TiredOfLife 9mo ago
    But enough about the last 10 years of Mozilla leadership.
- jajuuka 9mo ago
  I will never understand the intense hatred people have for Mozilla and Firefox then go on to tell them how they should run the company. Which usually boils down to stuff they are already doing or fixing things they have no control over.
tensegrist 9mo ago
i feel like there ought to be a meaningfully large market for a "trusted" company where part of the brand identity is being able to form sentences that do not include the token "ai", especially with e.g. microsoft's recent excesses in this direction, but what do i know about the alleged realities of running a tech company in $YEAR
ecshafer 9mo ago
It looks like they chose a Product Manager and MBA. Why can't we get a software engineer or computer scientist?
- dvngnt_ 9mo ago
  Wouldn't it make more sense to have them program and let a product person handle big picture ideas
  - lawn 9mo ago
    The track record of MBA's destroying companies says otherwise. What Mozilla needs is a change in leadership direction, not another MBA.
    - tredre3 9mo ago
      I very much doubt that the track record of companies fronted by an hands-on engineer is much better. If anything they probably fail faster on average so we never hear about them.
      - LunaSea 9mo ago
        Most of the big tech companies were started and led by technical people.
- abcd_f 9mo ago
  They had one. Until he made a fatal mistake of giving a tenner to the wrong people.
  - neom 9mo ago
    He gave $1000 donation to support a ban on gay marriage, to be clear.
    - 4gotunameagain 9mo ago
deleted 9mo ago
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whoisthemachine 9mo ago
Looking at his LinkedIn profile, he seems to be the MBA type, with little to no technical experience. For the past year he's been the SVP or GM of Firefox, whatever that means. Take that as you will...
- tanepiper 9mo ago
  His one technical skill is building PowerPoint decks...
nefasti 9mo ago
What product or market mozilla still relevant? Of all the sites I manage, or companies I worked with in the last 5 years mozilla browsers were less than 1% of the userbase.
- spacechild1 9mo ago
  In Germany and France Mozilla has about the same market share as Edge, in Austria it's even more. Yes, Mozilla makes some dumb decision, but I think the bigger problem is that computer literacy has declined overall. Most people don't even realize they have a choice. Things like ad-blockers and privacy should be taught in schools.
- rjh29 9mo ago
  1% of all internet users is an absolutely gigantic user base.
Fiveplus 9mo ago
Does anyone else feel like the "Trust" angle is the only card they have left to play? Technically, Chrome is faster on JS benchmarks. Edge has better OS integration on Windows and comes by default. Safari wins on battery life on Mac. Firefox's only unique selling point is "We aren't a massive data vampire." If they clutter the browser with AI which inherently requires data processing, often in the cloud, they dilute their only true differentiator.
- Klonoar 9mo ago
  They also still lack significant security improvements that Chrome has.
- perlgeek 9mo ago
  They also have the "extensions that can do real ad blocking" angle.
  - bamboozled 9mo ago
    Have you tried Brave?
    - EbNar 9mo ago
      Been running it since 2021. The adblocker is simply great. A d keeps getting better.
      - EbNar 9mo ago
        and*
    - Larrikin 9mo ago
      It's good enough when some terrible lazy web designer only tested on Chrome. It does nothing to protect against the future when Google decides they are sick of people trying to get around their Ad Block ban and change the license because no one has any real alternatives anymore. Also blocking is not as good as intentionally poisoning with something like Ad Nauseum
sam_goody 9mo ago
Good for them. Currently they spend millions of dollars (that mostly come from people wanting to support their browser) on huge salaries and projects that have nothing to do with their browser. At the same time they keep on taking steps to alienate those that are donating or using their products. The bar for success is pretty low - stop wasting all them bucks, and stop alienating your users. If you could do that, there is plenty of next steps. Good luck
- wodenokoto 9mo ago
  No, their millions of dollars dont come mostly from people wanting to support their browser. It comes from search ads on google.com
  - sam_goody 9mo ago
    I agree that most of their money comes from Google (at least for now). But when you load their home page (https://www.mozillafoundation.org https://www.mozillafoundation.org), the first thing you are greeted with is a banner that says they have raised over $6M in their last campaign alone. So, it seems that millions are being donated by users. The claim that most of those users want it to go to their browser is not supported or refuted by that page, but I have read a detailed breakdown of all their donations and attempts to guess what people really think they are donating for, and it matched my original statement - though I haven't got the time to search now, what do _you_ think people are donating for?
    - TiredOfLife 9mo ago
      It's literally impossible to donate to Mozilla for Firefox.
colechristensen 9mo ago
I don't trust Mozilla. I don't trust them with my donation money. I don't trust their software any more than other browser vendors. "Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." Yeah, no. Just make a browser that doesn't suck. Mozilla has been wasting a ton of money, lost almost all of their market share, and have been focusing on making new products nobody wants for a VERY long time and this looks to continue.
deleted 9mo ago
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catapart 9mo ago
> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. Welp. Starting off on the wrong foot. "AI should always be a choice - something people can easily opt in to". Can't teach what there's profit in not learning, etc. Oh well.
- summermusic 9mo ago
  > AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. Literally 5 sentences later: > [Firefox] will evolve into a modern AI browser…
  - catapart 9mo ago
    Neat! I didn't make it that far. Nice thing about red flags is, there's no value in continuing after you see them. Turns out, the thing the red flag made me accuse them of was their stated goal. Case in point!
- TiredOfLife 9mo ago
  Same with tabs, sandboxing or pop-up blocking. All of the features should be opt-in.
henning 9mo ago
Can't imagine a worse angle for regaining trust than doubling down on AI slop.
ishtanbul 9mo ago
What browser should I use then? I quit chrome in a futile attempt to be tracked less. They killed support for my adblocker.
- neom 9mo ago
  fwiw I've been running brave for the past 5 years and it seems fine, they put a bunch of weird shit in it you need to turn off, but otherwise it...browses the internet well?
- suprjami 9mo ago
  Librewolf
  - zamalek 9mo ago
    Would any of these soft forks survive without Mozilla working on Firefox?
    - suprjami 9mo ago
      No
    - account42 9mo ago
      Depends, will I win the jackpot? The forks do not currently have the manpower to take up the full maintenance of a browser but that does not mean it's impossible that they'll be able to rally enough developers in case Mozilla implodes. A lot of people want a truly free browser to exist. Currently Firefox (barely) manages to fulfill that role and keeps many of those people from spending their time/money on alternatives.
- cpburns2009 9mo ago
  Brave. It's a Chromium fork with a built-in ad blocker that's equivalent to uBlock Origin. It works great on Android too.
  - ares623 9mo ago
alberth 9mo ago
Dumb question: who’s Firefox target user? Chrome is able to capture the mass consumer market, due to Google’s dark pattern to nag you to install Chrome anytime you’re on a Google property. Edge target enterprise Fortune 500 user, who is required to use Microsoft/Office 365 at work (and its deep security permission ties to SharePoint). Safari has Mac/iOS audience via being the default on those platform (and deep platform integration). Brave (based on Chromium), and LibreWolf (based on Firefox) has even carved out those user who value privacy. --- What’s Firefox target user? Long ago, Firefox was the better IE, and it had great plugins for web developers. But that was before Chrome existed and Google capturing the mass market. And the developers needed to follow its users. So what target user is left for a Firefox? Note: not trolling. I loved Firefox. I just don’t genuine understand who it’s for anymore.
- suprjami 9mo ago
  Ostensibly nerds. Linux users and maybe Mac users. Technical people who understand more about the software industry than all Mozilla Corp management since Brendan. It's difficult to monetize us when the product is a zero dollar intangible, especially when trust has been eroded such that we've all fled to Librewolf like you said. It's difficult to monetize normies when they don't use the software due to years of continuous mismanagement. I think giving Mozilla a new CEO is like assigning a new captain to the Titanic. I will be surprised if this company still exists by 2030.
  - 0x3f 9mo ago
    Yes, I would literally pay a nominal fee for Firefox if I were confident in the org's direction. As things stand though, the trust is gone as you said.
  - glenstein 9mo ago
    Right and to your point, there's not a whole lot of precedent for browsers successfully funding themselves when the browser itself is the primary product. Opera was the lightweight high performance extension rich, diversely funded, portable, adapted to niche hardware, early to mobile browser practically built from the dreams of niche users who want customization and privacy. They're a perfect natural experiment for what it looks like to get most, if not all decisions right in terms of both of features users want, as well as creative attempts to diversify revenue. But unfortunately, by the same token also the perfect refutation of the fantasy that making the right decisions means you have a path to revenue. If that was how it worked, Opera would be a trillion dollar company right now. But it didn't work because the economics of web browsers basically doesn't exist. You have to be a trillion dollar company already, and dominate distribution of a given platform and force preload your browser. Browsers are practically full scale operating systems these days with tens of millions of lines of code, distribued for free. Donations don't work, paying for the browser doesn't work. If it did, Opera (the og Opera, not the new ownership they got sold to) would still be here.
throw7 9mo ago
"Trust" and "AI" are mutually exclusive. Not really impressed with this guy. My guess is the board vetted this guy to be more politically correct than anything else.
pluc 9mo ago
> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. One sentence later: > It will evolve into a modern AI browser One more sentence later: > In the next three years, that means investing in AI that reflects the Mozilla Manifesto I mean if you wanted to concretely see how much ignoring their users is in their DNA. What a daring approach. Truly worth the millions he's gonna earn.
- suprjami 9mo ago
  You really only need to make $2M before you can live off the interest forever. That's the goal of these people imo.
  - whywhywhywhy 9mo ago
    The mozilla exec salaries are way higher than that.
1970-01-01 9mo ago
The only answer is for them to go back to "plan A" and do their own things. Stop copying Chrome. Stop looking at Safari and Edge. Stop the rapid release nonsense. Go back to the fundamentals of speed, security, and stability on desktops and leave the rest to plugins. Once desktop is back on track, they should begin fixing mobile. When both are great, do nothing else except bugfix and performance fixes. We want this and nothing more.
miki_oomiri 9mo ago
If I were the CEO, I would: - focus 100% on Firefox Desktop & Mobile - just a fast solid minimalist browser (no AI, no BS) - other features should be addons - privacy centric - builtin, first-class, adblocker - run on donations - partner with Kagi - layoff 80% of the non-tech employees I worked for them for many years, I guarantee you that Mozilla will be fine without all the non-sense people, just put engineers in charge.
- quchen 9mo ago
  To expand on Firefox mobile: if you haven’t tried it, give it a shot. uBlock Origin works just like on desktop. I have seen maybe five ads on my phone browser (including Youtube!) since buying it in 2019.
  - spacechild1 9mo ago
    Yes! I can confirm it works just like on desktop. I'm shocked when I have to use other people's phones. How do they put up with all these ads?
    - Iolaum 9mo ago
      This! So many times!
  - lionkor 9mo ago
    The only issue is that Firefox on mobile is visibly breaking a couple of sites every now and then; if you can put up with that for no ads (I can), then its great.
    - nine_k 9mo ago
      Which? I've never seen this through many years of daily use.
  - josefresco 9mo ago
    Can I get details on ad blocking in Firefox on iOS? I have an ad blocker which works well in Safari but not Firefox. What am I missing?
mgbmtl 9mo ago
I for one, am grateful to Mozilla for still being around, pushing for an open web. Their documentation is excellent, the improvements and roadmap for Thunderbird made me finally adopt it, and I appreciate their privacy-friendlier translation services. uBO works great in Firefox, and I can't stand using a browser without its full features. About MBA types: the free software project I work for has an MBA type, which I initially resented as being an outsider. However, they manage the finances, think about team and project growth long-term (with heavy financial consequences), and ignore the daily technical debates (which are left to the lead devs), and listen to users, big and small. Some loud users like to complain that we don't listen to them, and sometimes we kick them out, because we do listen to users. I don't know much about Mozilla internals, if I am to judge from the results: Mozilla is still here, despite everyone saying for 10+ years that they are going to die. They are still competitive. They are still holding big tech accountable, despite having a fraction of their power. I can imagine that they make a lot of people here very uncomfortable.
- ByThyGrace 9mo ago
  > despite everyone saying for 10+ years that they are going to die. What many people have been saying in my experience is pretty much the opposite: that Mozilla isn't going anywhere because Google wants them (needs them) to be around. That it's their antitrust Trojan horse.
  - AuthAuth 9mo ago
    They dont need an anti trust trojan horse the US gov has 0 intention of enforcing anti trust.
zetanor 9mo ago
> Aspiration: doing for AI what we did for the web. > Strength: $1.3B in reserves + diverse operating models (product, deep tech, venture, philanthropy) make Mozilla unusually free to bet long-term. > Strategy: Pillar 1: AI. Pillar 2: AI. Pillar 3: AI. Oh yes.
suprjami 9mo ago
You want "Trust"? Cut executive pay 75% back to what Brendan was getting paid, and invest that money in the company instead of lining your own pockets. Ditch the AI crap that nobody wants or needs and focus on making a good browser and email application, and advertising them to increase user count. Anything less than this is not trustworthy, it's just another lecherous MBA who is hastening the death of Mozilla.
pjmlp 9mo ago
Well good luck with those 3%, assuming that incrementing market share is actually the main goal for the new CEO.
bachmeier 9mo ago
Oh, let's see who's going to be the leader of the organization that's going to save privacy on the internet. Bet he has a track record of valuing free information and user privacy. Wait, just like the last CEO, the only way to find out anything about him is a LinkedIn page. I'd have to create an account, log in, and consent to letting them collect and do anything they want with my information. Apparently Mozilla doesn't have the technical capability of displaying an html web page that doesn't require a login and surrendering to data collection in order to view. Now try to find information about Satya Nadella without giving up your privacy.
- ekr____ 9mo ago
  https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/leadership/#anthony-enzor-demeo https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/leadership/#anthony-enzo...
  - account42 9mo ago
    Is he even real? Probably just bad filters but that picture looks almost AI generated.
mnls 9mo ago
Firefox exists as long as uBlock exists. It’s a niche product and the only (thin) argument about using it is “don’t let Google become a monopoly" (the very same company that keeps Mozilla alive). Its terrible management decisions, its questionable telemetry and at the end of the day, its performance are the reasons why it will never catch up and it will never get new users.
ChrisArchitect 9mo ago
Verge interview with some comments about AI: https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enz... (https://archive.ph/li0ig https://archive.ph/li0ig)
netdevphoenix 9mo ago
I love Mozilla but this feels like marketing imo. From the article: "AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off" and "Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser". I highly doubt you will be able to turn of the transformer tech features in an AI browser imo. And they won't make a separate browser for this. This really feels like the beginning of the end for Mozilla, sadly. Are there any true alternatives (not dependent on financing or any engines from third parties) to Google, if you wish to use the web in 2025?
- idiotsecant 9mo ago
  I'm excited about what Kagi is doing: https://orionbrowser.com/ https://orionbrowser.com/ I have no illusions that they will turn into google the first chance they get, all companies do. But for now they seem pretty good.
  - rrradical 9mo ago
    I tried Orion about a year ago. I tried using the profile sandboxing. Logging into my google account in one profile also logged me in in another profile. I can definitely excuse some bugs (there were crashes for example that I didn’t overly mind; I understand I was using prerelease software). But something like account containers should be built fundamentally to disallow any data sharing. If data sharing is a bug, and not fundamentally disallowed by the architecture, then it’s going to happen again later. So for that reason I’m not bullish on orion.
    - zamadatix 9mo ago
      I'd be interested if the issue you ran into was actually due to poor architecture or just something not fully implemented in the pre-release. Unfortunately, it's closed source - so hard to tell from the outside.
      - rrradical 9mo ago
        Well it was definitely a bug. It worked in some cases (I think it even worked in google at first, and then a few days later it manifested). And the feature was advertised, even though, again, they never claimed the software to be release quality. But my point is that, similar to security, you don't want to build this kind of feature piece meal. Either the containers are fundamentally walled off or they aren't.
colesantiago 9mo ago
"The World’s Most Trusted Software Company" I'm sure the new leader of the trojan horse (fox?) is not going to pivot to AI... "...Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions..." "It will evolve into a modern AI browser" and there it is, the most "trusted" software company pivoting to AI.
BoredPositron 9mo ago
Now they put a LinkedIn cowboy in charge. Great.
lionkor 9mo ago
Well Ladybird [0] it is [0]: https://ladybird.org/ https://ladybird.org/
- rvz 9mo ago
  And we can at least donate directly to Ladybird's development [0] Unlike Mozilla which Firefox is completely funded with Google's money. [0] https://donorbox.org/ladybird https://donorbox.org/ladybird
  - smt88 9mo ago
    You can donate to any nonprofit and stipulate that your money be used only for a certain purpose, and they're legally bound by it.
    - sfink 9mo ago
      Not relevant here. Yes, you can donate to Mozilla.org and stipulate whatever you like, but Mozilla.org does not develop Firefox so telling them to use it for developing Firefox will do about as much good as telling them to use it to resurrect unicorns. Mozilla.org owns Mozilla Corporation, which is a for-profit entity that develops Firefox, but thus far the corporation hasn't wanted the complications and restrictions that would come from accepting donations.
      - smt88 9mo ago
        Everything I can find online says that there are contributors working for both Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation
        sfink 9mo ago
        Contributors are people. Donations are dollars. People ≠ dollars. Unless you grind them up and eat them as sausages, but don't do that. The anti-theft threads will get stuck in your teeth.
eviks 9mo ago
> Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser Aligning yourself with garbage generators is how you lose trust. Meanwhile, the top user requested features still point to basic deficiencies of browser UI
desireco42 9mo ago
From my perspective, Firefox, a while back, just stopped working on issues that matter. They got into politics, they tried to do everything, but not as good. If they just focused to produce a good browser, they would be way ahead. And time when you could get $100Ms from Google are slowly coming to an end. Money attracts grifters and this is what brought them down from my perspective. Now, just to be honest, I wish they find a way. We always could use alternatives. Just don't expect this alternative to come from Mozilla.
- smileson2 9mo ago
  I've never understood their massive activism arm, it's always seemed bloated and ineffective compared to organizations I donate money to like the EFF
  - desireco42 9mo ago
    just grifters siphooning money
tiahura 9mo ago
Why does firefox need a CEO? Is the Linux model not feasible?
- Barrin92 9mo ago
  Because Mozilla is an explicitly mission driven non-profit. Linux doesn't really have a model, the closest equivalent is basically Chromium which is to say it's an open source project to which extremely large companies donate the vast majority of developer hours.
- hollerith 9mo ago
  The Linux Foundation has an executive director, which is the usual title (not CEO) for the head of a non-profit.
behringer 9mo ago
If the next update fails to remove ads on by default we can assume these are empty promises. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-disable-sponsored-suggestions-and-ads-in-Firefox https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-disable-sponsored-suggestions...
- wiredpancake 9mo ago
  [dead]
deleted 9mo ago
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oytmeal 9mo ago
I swear I've heard this trust angle used by so many CEOs throughout the years. When I hear this I know nothing good is on the way.
monegator 9mo ago
> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off and a couple of lines below > It will evolve into a modern AI browser Besides the obvious "what the fuck is an AI browser?" aren't the two mutually exclusive?
TrevorFSmith 9mo ago
If AI feature are on by default then no thanks! This is how to burn what little trust remains: "AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off." It has to be opt-in or you're not worthy of trust.
- sfink 9mo ago
  I find this whole "I gotta be able to turn off AI!" thing to be silly, personally. Do you also want to be able to turn off anything that uses binary search? Perhaps anything written in C++? Ooh, maybe it's nested for loops! Those kinda suck, give me an option to turn those off! My indelicately expressed point is that the algorithm or processing model is not something anyone should care about. What matters? Things like: is my data sent off my device? Is there any way someone else can see what I'm doing or the data I'm generating? Am I burning large amounts of electricity? But none of those are "is it AI or not?" Firefox already has a good story about what is processed locally vs being sent to a server, and gives you visibility and control over that. Why aren't the complaints about "cloud AI", at least? Why is it always "don't force-feed me AI in any form!"? (To be clear, I'm no cheerleader for AI in the browser, and it bothers me when AI is injected as a solution without bothering to find a problem worth solving. But I'm not going to argue against on-device AI that does serve a useful purpose; I think that's great and we should find as many such opportunities as possible.)
throwaway613745 9mo ago
Mozilla for the love of God I do not want “AI features” in the tool I use to do my online banking. Stop this madness. Nobody is switching away from Firefox because it’s not agentic. But there might be a small amount of people willing to switch away from Chromium slop browsers BECAUSE IT ISNT. Why do you think Waterfox and Librewolf leave this crap out?
cpburns2009 9mo ago
It continues to amaze me how a company racking in over 500 million a year in revenue can continue to fail so spectacularly. With that income there's no reason they shouldn't be the leading browser. Doubling down on AI is only going to burn more money while they continue to lose market share.
- sfink 9mo ago
  Are you implying that the direct competitor, Chrome, is taking in the same or less? Chrome has a much larger staff (excluding the rest of Google), so I guess they must all be earning a small fraction of Mozilla staff salaries. Such dedicated people!
  - cpburns2009 9mo ago
    My point is Mozilla achieves practically nothing despite making half a billion ad dollars for free from Google. If Wikipedia's numbers are right, that's $730,000 per employee.
    - someNameIG 9mo ago
      They're the only modern usable browser engine not developed by a multi-trillion dollar corp. I'd say that's a pretty big achievement.
      - cpburns2009 9mo ago
        They're developed by a billion dollar corp riding on their past success from when they challenged the leader of that time, Microsoft.
        someNameIG 9mo ago
        And their engine is still around, how's the leader of the times web engine going?
    - sfink 9mo ago
muragekibicho 9mo ago
I have a laptop with 4 GB of ram and firefox keeps crashing. I wish they'd fix this instead of saddling me with AI features I don't need.
lenerdenator 9mo ago
Mozilla needs to get back to just being a browser project with foundation-based corporate governance. I don't get why everything has to include the latest trend. Do what the Linux kernel project does: be a bazaar. If someone wants to create deeper AI integration into Firefox, they'll pick up that task, put it in a branch, and the community will discuss whether it merits inclusion in the main. If it does, it'll be there; if not, it won't be. Operate on donations of time and money with a clear goal of what the project should be.
- account42 9mo ago
  Yes but then how do you justify a multi-million dollar CEO salary.
cmcaleer 9mo ago
The only thing that gives some slight semblance of hope is that he at least acknowledges that Mozilla is vulnerable and he very very briefly mentions needing new sources of revenue. No mention of an endowment (like Wikipedia has) or concrete plans to spend money efficiently or in a worthwhile way, and I sure hope ‘invest in AI’ doesn’t mean ‘piss away 9 figures that could have set up an endowment to give Mozilla some actual resilience’. I hope is that he’s at least paranoid enough about Mozilla’s revenue sources to do anything about their current position that gives them resiliency. Mozilla has for well over a decade now been in a pathetic state where if Google turns off the taps it is quite simply over. He talks a lot about peoples’ trust in Mozilla. I don’t really remember what he’s talking about to be honest, but if Mozilla get to a point where they seem like they can exist without them simply being Google’s monopoly defence insurance, perhaps I’ll remember the feeling of trusting Mozilla. I miss it.
50208 9mo ago
I hope like hell Mozilla leadership can just go back to focusing on what is actually important: making a free, fast, secure, private web browser.
aucisson_masque 9mo ago
> people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it. > Second: our business model must align with trust. We will grow through transparent monetization that people recognize and value. > Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions. I like what the interim CEO was doing, focusing more on the browser and forgetting these side projects that leads to nowhere, but it seems it's back to business with this one.
- wackget 9mo ago
  > "a modern AI browser" No thanks. Absolutely not.
knodi 9mo ago
Bring back Mozilla OS - Android based! Privacy focused.
gkoberger 9mo ago
Having worked at Mozilla a while ago, the CEO role is one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Success is oddly defined: it's a non-profit (well, a for-profit owned by a non-profit) that needs to make a big profit in a short amount of time. And anything done to make that profit will annoy the community. I hope Anthony leans into what makes Mozilla special. The past few years, Mozilla's business model has been to just meekly "us-too!" trends... IoT, Firefox OS, and more recently AI. What Mozilla is good at, though, is taking complex things the average user doesn't really understand, and making it palpable and safe. They did this with web standards... nobody cared about web standards, but Mozilla focused on usability. (Slide aside, it's not a coincidence the best CEO Mozilla ever had was a designer.) I'm not an AI hater, but I don't think Mozilla can compete here. There's just too much good stuff already, and it's not the type of thing Mozilla will shine with. Instead, if I were CEO, I'd go the opposite way: I'd focus on privacy. Not AI privacy, but privacy in general. Buy a really great email provider, and start to own "identity on the internet". As there's more bots and less privacy, identity is going to be incredibly important over the years.. and right now, Google defacto owns identity. Make it free, but also give people a way to pay. Would this work? I don't know. But like I said, it's not a job I envy.
- wvh 9mo ago
  I'm still sad they shelved Mozilla Persona due to low adoption. There is a hole in the market around privacy and identity, and Mozilla would be a natural choice to fill it, but it's going to be an uphill battle to get major sites and end users on board. Not a job to be envious about indeed.
  - glenstein 9mo ago
    And just to add, I kind of mourn FirefoxOS. We couldn't have guessed it at the time, but as of 2025, Google is pushing developer verification and stepping closer and closer to ecosystem lockdown. It would have been a great time for an alternative mobile OS 10+ years in the making, to welcome all the energy that has gone into beautiful projects like F-Droid. If I could time travel into the past, in addition to preventing all the bad things (e.g. Young Sheldon), I might have told Yahoo they should flex some financial muscle while they still had relevance and worked to mobilize (no pun intended) developer time, energy, etc and perhaps even provide a baseline ecosystem of stock apps to support FirefoxOS.
pentagrama 9mo ago
At least he seems focused on Firefox. Hopefully this translates into clearer direction for Firefox and better execution across the company, instead of pushing multiple micro products that are likely destined to fail, as Mozilla has done over the past 5+ years. From his LinkedIn profile [1], his recent roles have been consistently centered on Firefox: Chief Executive Officer Dec 2025 - Present · 1 mo ------- General Manager of Firefox Jul 2025 - Dec 2025 · 6 mos ------- SVP of Firefox Dec 2024 - Jul 2025 · 8 mos ------- He appears to have a solid background in product thinking, feature development, and UX. If his main focus remains on Firefox, that could be a positive sign for the product and its long term direction. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyed/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyed/
- BoredPositron 9mo ago
  He rarely held a job for more than a year and a half throughout his entire career...
fuddle 9mo ago
"Mozilla's former CEO, Mitchell Baker, earned nearly $7 million in 2022, with compensation rising from around $3 million in 2020 to over $5.5 million in 2021 and $6.9 million in 2022" I wonder how much the new CEO is making now.
- star-glider 9mo ago
  Just to clarify how outrageous the Mozilla CEO compensation is, consider that Tim Cook makes 0.019% of Apple's revenue in compensation ($75M on $391BN of revenue). For Sundar Pichai (Google), it's 0.003%; Samsung is 0.0001%; Nadella at Microsoft is 0.032%. For Mozilla? 1.18%! That's almost FORTY TIMES these other companies. Apple revolutionized mobile computing; Google revolutionized search, Microsoft owns enterprise software, and Samsung is one of the largest hardware manufacturers in the world. Mozilla makes a second-rate web browser whose sole distinguishing feature is supporting a community-built addon that does a great job blocking Youtube ads. I could give $100k per year to Mozilla for the rest of my life, and my lifetime donation would cover less than half of the CEO's salary.
  - LunaSea 9mo ago
    I wonder what the percentage would be if you were to remove the $500M yearly check by Google.
  - locallost 9mo ago
    Yeah, considering how poorly it went and how much market share they lost I also always thought it was outrageous... Also so many people laid off and projects shut down. I don't have any insight, and I could be way off, but it always felt like the company was captured by bureaucracy and drained as long as it was possible. Again I could be way off, as I don't have any personal connections to it. I was a regular user until around 10 years ago, but Chrome just leapfrogged them and that was it. There was at one point nothing left other than nostalgia. edit: I still remember using Mozilla which was this "good thing" but somehow clunky, and then getting so excited when trying Phoenix for the first time, which was then renamed to Firebird, and lastly Firefox. It was so "obviously" the right thing to use.
  - 9mo ago
mcpar-land 9mo ago
> Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions. Please don't.
etempleton 9mo ago
I was on board with this until he said, Firefox would become a “modern AI browser.” I am not sure what that looks like or means, and I am not sure anyone really does. It feels like some kind of obligatory statement to appease someone somewhere.
stack_framer 9mo ago
> As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. Does this sentence feel incomplete to anyone else? Is it supposed to say "the most trusted software company" or is it supposed to be an emphasis (i.e. the trusted software company)?
teknopaul 9mo ago
Fire fix usage went from I forget what but really significant down to the level people don't build site for it anymore. Pretty sure it's because they made security changes that broke the Intranet. What you want una browser is that it t works. Not some security pop-up telling it doesn't work. Especially if you wrote the website. Still annoying evert time https://127.0.0.1 https://127.0.0.1 is flagged as insecure
- teknopaul 9mo ago
  #6 in hacker news ChatGPT images announcement doesn't work in Firefox Android as a perfect example. https://openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-images-is-here/ https://openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-images-is-here/
stodor89 9mo ago
Well it surely cannot get any wor- > ...investing in AI... Ugh, nevermind.
shmerl 9mo ago
What I want to see instead of all this AI nonsense is replacing Gecko with Servo and implementing Vulkan rendering.
neilv 9mo ago
> As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. That's what I'd do. The question is whether they really mean it. Mozilla will have to recover from some history of disingenuous and incompetent leadership.
shevy-java 9mo ago
Now Mozilla only needs to find a CEO that understands tech.
deleted 9mo ago
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peppersghost93 9mo ago
"Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." reading this genuinely disgusts me. I am so tired of this nonsense being shoved where it doesn't belong. I just want a fast browser that stays out of the way.
espeed 9mo ago
Rather than develop its own AI (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926779), Firefox should develop a system to pipe your html rendered browsing history in real time so external local services can process it (https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/archive-your-browser-history-and-pipe-a-stream-of-it-in-real/idi-p/103428 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/archive-your-browser-hi...). See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45743918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45743918 Firefox probably won't suddenly have the best AI, but it could be the only browser that does this. Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46018789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46018789
RickyLahey 9mo ago
i wouldn't touch anything from Mozilla with a twenty-foot pole
keeda 9mo ago
Everyone is reacting negatively to the focus on AI, but does Mozilla really have a choice? This is going to be a rehash of the same dynamic that has happened in all the browser wars: Leading browser introduces new feature, websites and extensions start using that feature, runner-up browsers have no choice but to introduce that feature or further lose marketshare. Chrome and Edge have already integrated LLM capabilities natively, and webpages and extensions will soon start using them widely: - https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in - https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2025/05/19/introducing-the-prompt-and-writing-assistance-apis/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2025/05/19/introducing-t... Soon you will have pages that are "Best viewed in Chrome / Edge" and eventually these APIs will be standardized. Only a small but passionate minority of users will run a non-AI browser. I don't think that's the niche Firefox wants to be in. I agree that Mozilla should take the charge on being THE privacy-focused browser, but they can also do so in the AI age. As an example, provide a sandbox and security features that prevent your prompts and any conversations with the AI from being exfiltrated for "analytics." Because you know that is coming.
- afarah1 9mo ago
  Of course they have a choice. Just don't do it. All you said are predictions of what may or may not happen in the future. The opposite could be true - the audience at large may get sick of AI tools being pushed on them and prefer the browser that doesn't. No one knows. But even if you are right, supporting an hypothetical API that extensions and websites may or may not use and pushing opt-out AI tooling in the browser itself are very different things.
  - keeda 9mo ago
    Sure, these features may never catch on... but if they do, consider the risk to Firefox: an underdog with dwindling market share that is now years behind capabilities taken for granted in other browsers. On the other hand, if these features don't pan out, they could always be deprecated with little hit to marketshare. Strategically I think Mozilla cannot take that risk, especially as it can get feature parity for relatively low cost by embracing open-source / open-weights models. As an aside, a local on-device AI is greatly preferable from a privacy perspective, even though some harder tasks may need to be sent to hosted frontier models. I expect the industry to converge on a hybrid local/remote model, largely because it lets them offload inference to the users' device. There's not much I could do about a hosted LLM, but at least for the local model it would be nice to have one from a company not reliant on monetizing my data.
mithrilskeleton 9mo ago
Mozilla should restructure its governance such that leadership is elected by their employees - preferably their software developers.
MerrimanInd 9mo ago
IMO Zen Browser fixed a lot of the Firefox UI painpoints while keeping what I like about it. It would be a smart move to make the Zen UI the canonical version of Firefox. Especially since features like vertical tabs, folders, pins, split screen, and new tab previews are more in the power user use case and Chrome has entirely dominated the casual user demographic.
mmooss 9mo ago
I think this is a great insight and great leadership. While the for-profit world, and many others, have embraced extremes of predatory capitalism, contempt for users, and disinformation, Mozilla has a fantastic opportunity to compete on its unique capabilities: It's not under pressure to adapt that business culture - no private equity, Wall Street, etc. pushing it; its culture is antithetical to those things; and its culture has always been geared toward service to the community and trust. The insight and leadership is to find this word, which hasn't been used much (I think many in business or politics would laugh at it), is incredibly powerful and a fundamental social need, and is clear guidance for everyone and every activity at Mozilla and for customers. Imagine using a company's products and not having to think about them trying to cheat you.
deleted 9mo ago
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anthem2025 9mo ago
[dead]
orblivion 9mo ago
> It will evolve into a modern AI browser Next time I run into Richard Stallman I should ask him for tips on browsing the web
ggm 9mo ago
I know quite a few non-tech firefox users. None of them want the AI integration. I am wary of confirmation bias, but I feel this is one of those simpsons headmaster meme moments: Am I wrong? No, I am right! the users are wrong! the users want me to spend millions developing AI for firefox instead of all the other things.
motbus3 9mo ago
"It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." I stopped reading there. I just want a browser. Nothing else
jmyeet 9mo ago
Mozilla has been in a dire place for years. Notably someone years ago posted a chart showing how exec salary keeps going up while marketshare keeps going down [1]. In the Microsoft antitrust trial in the 1990s, the court established that having a browser monopoly was anticompetitive. Sadly, we've allowed this situation to repeat on mobile so Chrome and Safari now dominate. Windows has a lot of default Edge installs (and set as the default browser, particularly in corporate settings) but it's really just a Webkit skin at this point. Now iOS does technically allow third-party browsers but they're just Safari skins and they're not as good (eg at different times they have more limited features like not havintg the latest Javascript engine). I really think we need to end the bundled exclusive apps on mobile for certain things. Until then I'm really not sure what Mozilla's path forward is. They've tried to pivot on things like privacy but I don't think any of these make sense or at least won't produce a revenue source to justify the investment. How do you fund something like Mozilla? And how do you create value for users? [1]: https://itdm.com/mozilla-firefox-usage-down-85-but-why-are-execs-salary-up-400/2050/ https://itdm.com/mozilla-firefox-usage-down-85-but-why-are-e...
NegativeK 9mo ago
One of the secondary awful things about AI is that I have to hear news sources I like listening to complain about it constantly. This AI hype is frustrating, but it's also frustrating that it dominates conversations with valid points that are identical to the last five times it was talked about.
- ipdashc 9mo ago
  At this point it's almost more annoying than the AI hype in the first place. The hype by now at least seems pretty much self aware. It's mind-boggling to me that people don't realize all the Mozilla stuff is completely empty/PR fluff. You have to say you're an "AI first company" because that's the only thing investors want to hear in 2025. Everyone knows it's all fluff, they say it anyways. I will wait and see if it actually meaningfully affects their product or not. The complaints meanwhile are spammed everywhere, and like you said, it's the same exact content every time. We get it, new features that you aren't going to use are annoying. Disable them or just don't use them, is is really that big a deal? The CEO literally says they will all be able to be disabled.
koolala 9mo ago
Got my first change in Firefox today that says "Nightly uses AI to read your Open Tabs". Says its local but I really have zero trust for telemetry on this kind of stuff.
unsungNovelty 9mo ago
Copying portion of the comment I said under another comment: I and many stuck with Firefox despite being it being horrible until quantum release because Mozilla was aligned with community. But their tech is better now but they aren't aligned with community. It was the community that made Firefox overtake IE. They seem to forget that. Unless its gonna come pre-installed like chrome, they need community make the user base grow. They are absolutely dumb for going after a crowd who are happy with Chrome while shitting on the crowd which want to be with them.
- CivBase 9mo ago
  I switched back to Firefox around the quantum release and have been very happy with it since. I certainly have some complaints, but it's night and day compared to what Google wants me to deal with.
  - unsungNovelty 9mo ago
    Ofcourse it is. But that also doesn't make my above comment wrong though. Not to mention, many were silent for so long against their actions. Now it looks like the entire community has started voicing against it. The ball is now on Mozilla's court. Not to mention there is more than just technical aspect with Firefox and community. A lot of people have invested a ton of time in it. Mozilla warrants all the flack they are getting. I am just saying they can't virtue signal their way through this. It wont work.
urig 9mo ago
Lost me right about in the middle when he started chirping AI AI AI like a parrot. AI and trust do not go hand in hand. Focus on privacy, transparency and simplicity because instead. Good luck.
tchbnl 9mo ago
Mozilla went to shit after Brendan Eich was ousted.
betamint 9mo ago
I think the fundamental problem with Firefox and Mozilla is, that people want an organization to maximize Firefox, but Mozilla is an organization maximizing something else while preserving Firefox. The fundamental problem is expectation and reality mismatch, and is being 'solved' from two directions: new ideal browsers, or criticism of Mozilla in the hope that it improves.
qwertox 9mo ago
> People want software that is fast, modern, but also honest about what it does. I want my browser to be able to run uBlock Origin, so therefore people want more than just what is specified above. I did quit using Google Chrome because they banned uBO (I know the command-line-flags hack still works, but for how long?). If Firefox also bans uBO through removal of Manifest v2 without offering a proper alternative, then it's just as big of a piece of crap as Chrome is. Due to lack of real choices, I could as well move back to Chrome. I'm currently using Vivaldi.
webreac 9mo ago
My wish list: - A secure email (with optional encryption/signature, with whitelists) - IM (with point to point encryption). - identity management (I would love delegating the login/password ceremonial to Mozilla instead of reinventing the well for each site). It seems I have trust in Mozilla.
stainablesteel 9mo ago
DEI and ESG don't work anymore, now people are latching onto AI wherever they can they're all just marketing scams. if these people actually implement AI in ways that isn't needed it just kills the product the built-in language translation feature of firefox is great, because it's locally ran i don't want my browser fetching commands from random servers just to implement AI in a browser that was working fine without it
ponker 9mo ago
What does Mozilla do these days?
okokwhatever 9mo ago
Money calls

593 points by recvonline 9mo ago

What would be nice is something like the Python foundation, people can be a reasonable membership to become "members" of the organisation with a right proposal and vote for decisions.

darkwater 9mo ago

[flagged]

bigbadfeline 9mo ago
So much BS and nitpicking isn't humanly possible to produce. We're looking at the work of corpo bot farms with deep pockets and deep experience in subversion.
- darkwater 9mo ago
  I think it's more because they are too much "in the middle", so they get shit from both sides: the side that wants them completely disconnected from BigTech and the side that, well, just doesn't want them because BigTech is good (I presume?). Every organization and every org leader make mistakes, often or less often, and Mozilla is no exception. But the sentiment here on HN towards it in every news that talks about Mozilla is frankly disappointing.
- TiredOfLife 9mo ago
  But enough about the last 10 years of Mozilla leadership.
jajuuka 9mo ago
I will never understand the intense hatred people have for Mozilla and Firefox then go on to tell them how they should run the company. Which usually boils down to stuff they are already doing or fixing things they have no control over.

tensegrist 9mo ago

i feel like there ought to be a meaningfully large market for a "trusted" company where part of the brand identity is being able to form sentences that do not include the token "ai", especially with e.g. microsoft's recent excesses in this direction, but what do i know about the alleged realities of running a tech company in $YEAR

ecshafer 9mo ago

It looks like they chose a Product Manager and MBA. Why can't we get a software engineer or computer scientist?

dvngnt_ 9mo ago
Wouldn't it make more sense to have them program and let a product person handle big picture ideas
- lawn 9mo ago
  The track record of MBA's destroying companies says otherwise. What Mozilla needs is a change in leadership direction, not another MBA.
  - tredre3 9mo ago
    I very much doubt that the track record of companies fronted by an hands-on engineer is much better. If anything they probably fail faster on average so we never hear about them.
    - LunaSea 9mo ago
      Most of the big tech companies were started and led by technical people.
abcd_f 9mo ago
They had one. Until he made a fatal mistake of giving a tenner to the wrong people.
- neom 9mo ago
  He gave $1000 donation to support a ban on gay marriage, to be clear.
  - 4gotunameagain 9mo ago

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

whoisthemachine 9mo ago

Looking at his LinkedIn profile, he seems to be the MBA type, with little to no technical experience. For the past year he's been the SVP or GM of Firefox, whatever that means. Take that as you will...

tanepiper 9mo ago
His one technical skill is building PowerPoint decks...

nefasti 9mo ago

What product or market mozilla still relevant? Of all the sites I manage, or companies I worked with in the last 5 years mozilla browsers were less than 1% of the userbase.

spacechild1 9mo ago
In Germany and France Mozilla has about the same market share as Edge, in Austria it's even more. Yes, Mozilla makes some dumb decision, but I think the bigger problem is that computer literacy has declined overall. Most people don't even realize they have a choice. Things like ad-blockers and privacy should be taught in schools.
rjh29 9mo ago
1% of all internet users is an absolutely gigantic user base.

Fiveplus 9mo ago

Does anyone else feel like the "Trust" angle is the only card they have left to play? Technically, Chrome is faster on JS benchmarks. Edge has better OS integration on Windows and comes by default. Safari wins on battery life on Mac. Firefox's only unique selling point is "We aren't a massive data vampire." If they clutter the browser with AI which inherently requires data processing, often in the cloud, they dilute their only true differentiator.

Klonoar 9mo ago
They also still lack significant security improvements that Chrome has.
perlgeek 9mo ago
They also have the "extensions that can do real ad blocking" angle.
- bamboozled 9mo ago
  Have you tried Brave?
  - EbNar 9mo ago
    Been running it since 2021. The adblocker is simply great. A d keeps getting better.
    - EbNar 9mo ago
      and*
  - Larrikin 9mo ago
    It's good enough when some terrible lazy web designer only tested on Chrome. It does nothing to protect against the future when Google decides they are sick of people trying to get around their Ad Block ban and change the license because no one has any real alternatives anymore. Also blocking is not as good as intentionally poisoning with something like Ad Nauseum

sam_goody 9mo ago

Good for them. Currently they spend millions of dollars (that mostly come from people wanting to support their browser) on huge salaries and projects that have nothing to do with their browser. At the same time they keep on taking steps to alienate those that are donating or using their products. The bar for success is pretty low - stop wasting all them bucks, and stop alienating your users. If you could do that, there is plenty of next steps. Good luck

wodenokoto 9mo ago
No, their millions of dollars dont come mostly from people wanting to support their browser. It comes from search ads on google.com
- sam_goody 9mo ago
  I agree that most of their money comes from Google (at least for now). But when you load their home page (https://www.mozillafoundation.org https://www.mozillafoundation.org), the first thing you are greeted with is a banner that says they have raised over $6M in their last campaign alone. So, it seems that millions are being donated by users. The claim that most of those users want it to go to their browser is not supported or refuted by that page, but I have read a detailed breakdown of all their donations and attempts to guess what people really think they are donating for, and it matched my original statement - though I haven't got the time to search now, what do _you_ think people are donating for?
  - TiredOfLife 9mo ago
    It's literally impossible to donate to Mozilla for Firefox.

colechristensen 9mo ago

I don't trust Mozilla. I don't trust them with my donation money. I don't trust their software any more than other browser vendors. "Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." Yeah, no. Just make a browser that doesn't suck. Mozilla has been wasting a ton of money, lost almost all of their market share, and have been focusing on making new products nobody wants for a VERY long time and this looks to continue.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

catapart 9mo ago

> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. Welp. Starting off on the wrong foot. "AI should always be a choice - something people can easily opt in to". Can't teach what there's profit in not learning, etc. Oh well.

summermusic 9mo ago
> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. Literally 5 sentences later: > [Firefox] will evolve into a modern AI browser…
- catapart 9mo ago
  Neat! I didn't make it that far. Nice thing about red flags is, there's no value in continuing after you see them. Turns out, the thing the red flag made me accuse them of was their stated goal. Case in point!
TiredOfLife 9mo ago
Same with tabs, sandboxing or pop-up blocking. All of the features should be opt-in.

henning 9mo ago

Can't imagine a worse angle for regaining trust than doubling down on AI slop.

ishtanbul 9mo ago

What browser should I use then? I quit chrome in a futile attempt to be tracked less. They killed support for my adblocker.

neom 9mo ago
fwiw I've been running brave for the past 5 years and it seems fine, they put a bunch of weird shit in it you need to turn off, but otherwise it...browses the internet well?
suprjami 9mo ago
Librewolf
- zamalek 9mo ago
  Would any of these soft forks survive without Mozilla working on Firefox?
  - suprjami 9mo ago
    No
  - account42 9mo ago
    Depends, will I win the jackpot? The forks do not currently have the manpower to take up the full maintenance of a browser but that does not mean it's impossible that they'll be able to rally enough developers in case Mozilla implodes. A lot of people want a truly free browser to exist. Currently Firefox (barely) manages to fulfill that role and keeps many of those people from spending their time/money on alternatives.
cpburns2009 9mo ago
Brave. It's a Chromium fork with a built-in ad blocker that's equivalent to uBlock Origin. It works great on Android too.
- ares623 9mo ago

alberth 9mo ago

Dumb question: who’s Firefox target user? Chrome is able to capture the mass consumer market, due to Google’s dark pattern to nag you to install Chrome anytime you’re on a Google property. Edge target enterprise Fortune 500 user, who is required to use Microsoft/Office 365 at work (and its deep security permission ties to SharePoint). Safari has Mac/iOS audience via being the default on those platform (and deep platform integration). Brave (based on Chromium), and LibreWolf (based on Firefox) has even carved out those user who value privacy. --- What’s Firefox target user? Long ago, Firefox was the better IE, and it had great plugins for web developers. But that was before Chrome existed and Google capturing the mass market. And the developers needed to follow its users. So what target user is left for a Firefox? Note: not trolling. I loved Firefox. I just don’t genuine understand who it’s for anymore.

suprjami 9mo ago
Ostensibly nerds. Linux users and maybe Mac users. Technical people who understand more about the software industry than all Mozilla Corp management since Brendan. It's difficult to monetize us when the product is a zero dollar intangible, especially when trust has been eroded such that we've all fled to Librewolf like you said. It's difficult to monetize normies when they don't use the software due to years of continuous mismanagement. I think giving Mozilla a new CEO is like assigning a new captain to the Titanic. I will be surprised if this company still exists by 2030.
- 0x3f 9mo ago
  Yes, I would literally pay a nominal fee for Firefox if I were confident in the org's direction. As things stand though, the trust is gone as you said.
- glenstein 9mo ago
  Right and to your point, there's not a whole lot of precedent for browsers successfully funding themselves when the browser itself is the primary product. Opera was the lightweight high performance extension rich, diversely funded, portable, adapted to niche hardware, early to mobile browser practically built from the dreams of niche users who want customization and privacy. They're a perfect natural experiment for what it looks like to get most, if not all decisions right in terms of both of features users want, as well as creative attempts to diversify revenue. But unfortunately, by the same token also the perfect refutation of the fantasy that making the right decisions means you have a path to revenue. If that was how it worked, Opera would be a trillion dollar company right now. But it didn't work because the economics of web browsers basically doesn't exist. You have to be a trillion dollar company already, and dominate distribution of a given platform and force preload your browser. Browsers are practically full scale operating systems these days with tens of millions of lines of code, distribued for free. Donations don't work, paying for the browser doesn't work. If it did, Opera (the og Opera, not the new ownership they got sold to) would still be here.

throw7 9mo ago

"Trust" and "AI" are mutually exclusive. Not really impressed with this guy. My guess is the board vetted this guy to be more politically correct than anything else.

pluc 9mo ago

> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. One sentence later: > It will evolve into a modern AI browser One more sentence later: > In the next three years, that means investing in AI that reflects the Mozilla Manifesto I mean if you wanted to concretely see how much ignoring their users is in their DNA. What a daring approach. Truly worth the millions he's gonna earn.

suprjami 9mo ago
You really only need to make $2M before you can live off the interest forever. That's the goal of these people imo.
- whywhywhywhy 9mo ago
  The mozilla exec salaries are way higher than that.

1970-01-01 9mo ago

The only answer is for them to go back to "plan A" and do their own things. Stop copying Chrome. Stop looking at Safari and Edge. Stop the rapid release nonsense. Go back to the fundamentals of speed, security, and stability on desktops and leave the rest to plugins. Once desktop is back on track, they should begin fixing mobile. When both are great, do nothing else except bugfix and performance fixes. We want this and nothing more.

miki_oomiri 9mo ago

If I were the CEO, I would: - focus 100% on Firefox Desktop & Mobile - just a fast solid minimalist browser (no AI, no BS) - other features should be addons - privacy centric - builtin, first-class, adblocker - run on donations - partner with Kagi - layoff 80% of the non-tech employees I worked for them for many years, I guarantee you that Mozilla will be fine without all the non-sense people, just put engineers in charge.

quchen 9mo ago
To expand on Firefox mobile: if you haven’t tried it, give it a shot. uBlock Origin works just like on desktop. I have seen maybe five ads on my phone browser (including Youtube!) since buying it in 2019.
- spacechild1 9mo ago
  Yes! I can confirm it works just like on desktop. I'm shocked when I have to use other people's phones. How do they put up with all these ads?
  - Iolaum 9mo ago
    This! So many times!
- lionkor 9mo ago
  The only issue is that Firefox on mobile is visibly breaking a couple of sites every now and then; if you can put up with that for no ads (I can), then its great.
  - nine_k 9mo ago
    Which? I've never seen this through many years of daily use.
- josefresco 9mo ago
  Can I get details on ad blocking in Firefox on iOS? I have an ad blocker which works well in Safari but not Firefox. What am I missing?

mgbmtl 9mo ago

I for one, am grateful to Mozilla for still being around, pushing for an open web. Their documentation is excellent, the improvements and roadmap for Thunderbird made me finally adopt it, and I appreciate their privacy-friendlier translation services. uBO works great in Firefox, and I can't stand using a browser without its full features. About MBA types: the free software project I work for has an MBA type, which I initially resented as being an outsider. However, they manage the finances, think about team and project growth long-term (with heavy financial consequences), and ignore the daily technical debates (which are left to the lead devs), and listen to users, big and small. Some loud users like to complain that we don't listen to them, and sometimes we kick them out, because we do listen to users. I don't know much about Mozilla internals, if I am to judge from the results: Mozilla is still here, despite everyone saying for 10+ years that they are going to die. They are still competitive. They are still holding big tech accountable, despite having a fraction of their power. I can imagine that they make a lot of people here very uncomfortable.

ByThyGrace 9mo ago
> despite everyone saying for 10+ years that they are going to die. What many people have been saying in my experience is pretty much the opposite: that Mozilla isn't going anywhere because Google wants them (needs them) to be around. That it's their antitrust Trojan horse.
- AuthAuth 9mo ago
  They dont need an anti trust trojan horse the US gov has 0 intention of enforcing anti trust.

zetanor 9mo ago

> Aspiration: doing for AI what we did for the web. > Strength: $1.3B in reserves + diverse operating models (product, deep tech, venture, philanthropy) make Mozilla unusually free to bet long-term. > Strategy: Pillar 1: AI. Pillar 2: AI. Pillar 3: AI. Oh yes.

suprjami 9mo ago

You want "Trust"? Cut executive pay 75% back to what Brendan was getting paid, and invest that money in the company instead of lining your own pockets. Ditch the AI crap that nobody wants or needs and focus on making a good browser and email application, and advertising them to increase user count. Anything less than this is not trustworthy, it's just another lecherous MBA who is hastening the death of Mozilla.

pjmlp 9mo ago

Well good luck with those 3%, assuming that incrementing market share is actually the main goal for the new CEO.

bachmeier 9mo ago

Oh, let's see who's going to be the leader of the organization that's going to save privacy on the internet. Bet he has a track record of valuing free information and user privacy. Wait, just like the last CEO, the only way to find out anything about him is a LinkedIn page. I'd have to create an account, log in, and consent to letting them collect and do anything they want with my information. Apparently Mozilla doesn't have the technical capability of displaying an html web page that doesn't require a login and surrendering to data collection in order to view. Now try to find information about Satya Nadella without giving up your privacy.

ekr____ 9mo ago
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/leadership/#anthony-enzor-demeo https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/leadership/#anthony-enzo...
- account42 9mo ago
  Is he even real? Probably just bad filters but that picture looks almost AI generated.

mnls 9mo ago

Firefox exists as long as uBlock exists. It’s a niche product and the only (thin) argument about using it is “don’t let Google become a monopoly" (the very same company that keeps Mozilla alive). Its terrible management decisions, its questionable telemetry and at the end of the day, its performance are the reasons why it will never catch up and it will never get new users.

ChrisArchitect 9mo ago

Verge interview with some comments about AI: https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enz... (https://archive.ph/li0ig https://archive.ph/li0ig)

netdevphoenix 9mo ago

I love Mozilla but this feels like marketing imo. From the article: "AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off" and "Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser". I highly doubt you will be able to turn of the transformer tech features in an AI browser imo. And they won't make a separate browser for this. This really feels like the beginning of the end for Mozilla, sadly. Are there any true alternatives (not dependent on financing or any engines from third parties) to Google, if you wish to use the web in 2025?

idiotsecant 9mo ago
I'm excited about what Kagi is doing: https://orionbrowser.com/ https://orionbrowser.com/ I have no illusions that they will turn into google the first chance they get, all companies do. But for now they seem pretty good.
- rrradical 9mo ago
  I tried Orion about a year ago. I tried using the profile sandboxing. Logging into my google account in one profile also logged me in in another profile. I can definitely excuse some bugs (there were crashes for example that I didn’t overly mind; I understand I was using prerelease software). But something like account containers should be built fundamentally to disallow any data sharing. If data sharing is a bug, and not fundamentally disallowed by the architecture, then it’s going to happen again later. So for that reason I’m not bullish on orion.
  - zamadatix 9mo ago
    I'd be interested if the issue you ran into was actually due to poor architecture or just something not fully implemented in the pre-release. Unfortunately, it's closed source - so hard to tell from the outside.
    - rrradical 9mo ago
      Well it was definitely a bug. It worked in some cases (I think it even worked in google at first, and then a few days later it manifested). And the feature was advertised, even though, again, they never claimed the software to be release quality. But my point is that, similar to security, you don't want to build this kind of feature piece meal. Either the containers are fundamentally walled off or they aren't.

colesantiago 9mo ago

"The World’s Most Trusted Software Company" I'm sure the new leader of the trojan horse (fox?) is not going to pivot to AI... "...Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions..." "It will evolve into a modern AI browser" and there it is, the most "trusted" software company pivoting to AI.

BoredPositron 9mo ago

Now they put a LinkedIn cowboy in charge. Great.

lionkor 9mo ago

Well Ladybird [0] it is [0]: https://ladybird.org/ https://ladybird.org/

rvz 9mo ago
And we can at least donate directly to Ladybird's development [0] Unlike Mozilla which Firefox is completely funded with Google's money. [0] https://donorbox.org/ladybird https://donorbox.org/ladybird
- smt88 9mo ago
  You can donate to any nonprofit and stipulate that your money be used only for a certain purpose, and they're legally bound by it.
  - sfink 9mo ago
    Not relevant here. Yes, you can donate to Mozilla.org and stipulate whatever you like, but Mozilla.org does not develop Firefox so telling them to use it for developing Firefox will do about as much good as telling them to use it to resurrect unicorns. Mozilla.org owns Mozilla Corporation, which is a for-profit entity that develops Firefox, but thus far the corporation hasn't wanted the complications and restrictions that would come from accepting donations.
    - smt88 9mo ago
      Everything I can find online says that there are contributors working for both Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation
      - sfink 9mo ago
        Contributors are people. Donations are dollars. People ≠ dollars. Unless you grind them up and eat them as sausages, but don't do that. The anti-theft threads will get stuck in your teeth.

eviks 9mo ago

> Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser Aligning yourself with garbage generators is how you lose trust. Meanwhile, the top user requested features still point to basic deficiencies of browser UI

desireco42 9mo ago

From my perspective, Firefox, a while back, just stopped working on issues that matter. They got into politics, they tried to do everything, but not as good. If they just focused to produce a good browser, they would be way ahead. And time when you could get $100Ms from Google are slowly coming to an end. Money attracts grifters and this is what brought them down from my perspective. Now, just to be honest, I wish they find a way. We always could use alternatives. Just don't expect this alternative to come from Mozilla.

smileson2 9mo ago
I've never understood their massive activism arm, it's always seemed bloated and ineffective compared to organizations I donate money to like the EFF
- desireco42 9mo ago
  just grifters siphooning money

tiahura 9mo ago

Why does firefox need a CEO? Is the Linux model not feasible?

Barrin92 9mo ago
Because Mozilla is an explicitly mission driven non-profit. Linux doesn't really have a model, the closest equivalent is basically Chromium which is to say it's an open source project to which extremely large companies donate the vast majority of developer hours.
hollerith 9mo ago
The Linux Foundation has an executive director, which is the usual title (not CEO) for the head of a non-profit.

behringer 9mo ago

If the next update fails to remove ads on by default we can assume these are empty promises. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-disable-sponsored-suggestions-and-ads-in-Firefox https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-disable-sponsored-suggestions...

wiredpancake 9mo ago
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deleted 9mo ago

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oytmeal 9mo ago

I swear I've heard this trust angle used by so many CEOs throughout the years. When I hear this I know nothing good is on the way.

monegator 9mo ago

> AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off and a couple of lines below > It will evolve into a modern AI browser Besides the obvious "what the fuck is an AI browser?" aren't the two mutually exclusive?

TrevorFSmith 9mo ago

If AI feature are on by default then no thanks! This is how to burn what little trust remains: "AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off." It has to be opt-in or you're not worthy of trust.

sfink 9mo ago
I find this whole "I gotta be able to turn off AI!" thing to be silly, personally. Do you also want to be able to turn off anything that uses binary search? Perhaps anything written in C++? Ooh, maybe it's nested for loops! Those kinda suck, give me an option to turn those off! My indelicately expressed point is that the algorithm or processing model is not something anyone should care about. What matters? Things like: is my data sent off my device? Is there any way someone else can see what I'm doing or the data I'm generating? Am I burning large amounts of electricity? But none of those are "is it AI or not?" Firefox already has a good story about what is processed locally vs being sent to a server, and gives you visibility and control over that. Why aren't the complaints about "cloud AI", at least? Why is it always "don't force-feed me AI in any form!"? (To be clear, I'm no cheerleader for AI in the browser, and it bothers me when AI is injected as a solution without bothering to find a problem worth solving. But I'm not going to argue against on-device AI that does serve a useful purpose; I think that's great and we should find as many such opportunities as possible.)

throwaway613745 9mo ago

Mozilla for the love of God I do not want “AI features” in the tool I use to do my online banking. Stop this madness. Nobody is switching away from Firefox because it’s not agentic. But there might be a small amount of people willing to switch away from Chromium slop browsers BECAUSE IT ISNT. Why do you think Waterfox and Librewolf leave this crap out?

cpburns2009 9mo ago

It continues to amaze me how a company racking in over 500 million a year in revenue can continue to fail so spectacularly. With that income there's no reason they shouldn't be the leading browser. Doubling down on AI is only going to burn more money while they continue to lose market share.

sfink 9mo ago
Are you implying that the direct competitor, Chrome, is taking in the same or less? Chrome has a much larger staff (excluding the rest of Google), so I guess they must all be earning a small fraction of Mozilla staff salaries. Such dedicated people!
- cpburns2009 9mo ago
  My point is Mozilla achieves practically nothing despite making half a billion ad dollars for free from Google. If Wikipedia's numbers are right, that's $730,000 per employee.
  - someNameIG 9mo ago
    They're the only modern usable browser engine not developed by a multi-trillion dollar corp. I'd say that's a pretty big achievement.
    - cpburns2009 9mo ago
      They're developed by a billion dollar corp riding on their past success from when they challenged the leader of that time, Microsoft.
      - someNameIG 9mo ago
        And their engine is still around, how's the leader of the times web engine going?
  - sfink 9mo ago

muragekibicho 9mo ago

I have a laptop with 4 GB of ram and firefox keeps crashing. I wish they'd fix this instead of saddling me with AI features I don't need.

lenerdenator 9mo ago

Mozilla needs to get back to just being a browser project with foundation-based corporate governance. I don't get why everything has to include the latest trend. Do what the Linux kernel project does: be a bazaar. If someone wants to create deeper AI integration into Firefox, they'll pick up that task, put it in a branch, and the community will discuss whether it merits inclusion in the main. If it does, it'll be there; if not, it won't be. Operate on donations of time and money with a clear goal of what the project should be.

account42 9mo ago
Yes but then how do you justify a multi-million dollar CEO salary.

cmcaleer 9mo ago

The only thing that gives some slight semblance of hope is that he at least acknowledges that Mozilla is vulnerable and he very very briefly mentions needing new sources of revenue. No mention of an endowment (like Wikipedia has) or concrete plans to spend money efficiently or in a worthwhile way, and I sure hope ‘invest in AI’ doesn’t mean ‘piss away 9 figures that could have set up an endowment to give Mozilla some actual resilience’. I hope is that he’s at least paranoid enough about Mozilla’s revenue sources to do anything about their current position that gives them resiliency. Mozilla has for well over a decade now been in a pathetic state where if Google turns off the taps it is quite simply over. He talks a lot about peoples’ trust in Mozilla. I don’t really remember what he’s talking about to be honest, but if Mozilla get to a point where they seem like they can exist without them simply being Google’s monopoly defence insurance, perhaps I’ll remember the feeling of trusting Mozilla. I miss it.

50208 9mo ago

I hope like hell Mozilla leadership can just go back to focusing on what is actually important: making a free, fast, secure, private web browser.

aucisson_masque 9mo ago

> people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it. > Second: our business model must align with trust. We will grow through transparent monetization that people recognize and value. > Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions. I like what the interim CEO was doing, focusing more on the browser and forgetting these side projects that leads to nowhere, but it seems it's back to business with this one.

wackget 9mo ago
> "a modern AI browser" No thanks. Absolutely not.

knodi 9mo ago

Bring back Mozilla OS - Android based! Privacy focused.

gkoberger 9mo ago

Having worked at Mozilla a while ago, the CEO role is one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Success is oddly defined: it's a non-profit (well, a for-profit owned by a non-profit) that needs to make a big profit in a short amount of time. And anything done to make that profit will annoy the community. I hope Anthony leans into what makes Mozilla special. The past few years, Mozilla's business model has been to just meekly "us-too!" trends... IoT, Firefox OS, and more recently AI. What Mozilla is good at, though, is taking complex things the average user doesn't really understand, and making it palpable and safe. They did this with web standards... nobody cared about web standards, but Mozilla focused on usability. (Slide aside, it's not a coincidence the best CEO Mozilla ever had was a designer.) I'm not an AI hater, but I don't think Mozilla can compete here. There's just too much good stuff already, and it's not the type of thing Mozilla will shine with. Instead, if I were CEO, I'd go the opposite way: I'd focus on privacy. Not AI privacy, but privacy in general. Buy a really great email provider, and start to own "identity on the internet". As there's more bots and less privacy, identity is going to be incredibly important over the years.. and right now, Google defacto owns identity. Make it free, but also give people a way to pay. Would this work? I don't know. But like I said, it's not a job I envy.

wvh 9mo ago
I'm still sad they shelved Mozilla Persona due to low adoption. There is a hole in the market around privacy and identity, and Mozilla would be a natural choice to fill it, but it's going to be an uphill battle to get major sites and end users on board. Not a job to be envious about indeed.
- glenstein 9mo ago
  And just to add, I kind of mourn FirefoxOS. We couldn't have guessed it at the time, but as of 2025, Google is pushing developer verification and stepping closer and closer to ecosystem lockdown. It would have been a great time for an alternative mobile OS 10+ years in the making, to welcome all the energy that has gone into beautiful projects like F-Droid. If I could time travel into the past, in addition to preventing all the bad things (e.g. Young Sheldon), I might have told Yahoo they should flex some financial muscle while they still had relevance and worked to mobilize (no pun intended) developer time, energy, etc and perhaps even provide a baseline ecosystem of stock apps to support FirefoxOS.

pentagrama 9mo ago

At least he seems focused on Firefox. Hopefully this translates into clearer direction for Firefox and better execution across the company, instead of pushing multiple micro products that are likely destined to fail, as Mozilla has done over the past 5+ years. From his LinkedIn profile [1], his recent roles have been consistently centered on Firefox: Chief Executive Officer Dec 2025 - Present · 1 mo ------- General Manager of Firefox Jul 2025 - Dec 2025 · 6 mos ------- SVP of Firefox Dec 2024 - Jul 2025 · 8 mos ------- He appears to have a solid background in product thinking, feature development, and UX. If his main focus remains on Firefox, that could be a positive sign for the product and its long term direction. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyed/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyed/

BoredPositron 9mo ago
He rarely held a job for more than a year and a half throughout his entire career...

fuddle 9mo ago

"Mozilla's former CEO, Mitchell Baker, earned nearly $7 million in 2022, with compensation rising from around $3 million in 2020 to over $5.5 million in 2021 and $6.9 million in 2022" I wonder how much the new CEO is making now.

star-glider 9mo ago
Just to clarify how outrageous the Mozilla CEO compensation is, consider that Tim Cook makes 0.019% of Apple's revenue in compensation ($75M on $391BN of revenue). For Sundar Pichai (Google), it's 0.003%; Samsung is 0.0001%; Nadella at Microsoft is 0.032%. For Mozilla? 1.18%! That's almost FORTY TIMES these other companies. Apple revolutionized mobile computing; Google revolutionized search, Microsoft owns enterprise software, and Samsung is one of the largest hardware manufacturers in the world. Mozilla makes a second-rate web browser whose sole distinguishing feature is supporting a community-built addon that does a great job blocking Youtube ads. I could give $100k per year to Mozilla for the rest of my life, and my lifetime donation would cover less than half of the CEO's salary.
- LunaSea 9mo ago
  I wonder what the percentage would be if you were to remove the $500M yearly check by Google.
- locallost 9mo ago
  Yeah, considering how poorly it went and how much market share they lost I also always thought it was outrageous... Also so many people laid off and projects shut down. I don't have any insight, and I could be way off, but it always felt like the company was captured by bureaucracy and drained as long as it was possible. Again I could be way off, as I don't have any personal connections to it. I was a regular user until around 10 years ago, but Chrome just leapfrogged them and that was it. There was at one point nothing left other than nostalgia. edit: I still remember using Mozilla which was this "good thing" but somehow clunky, and then getting so excited when trying Phoenix for the first time, which was then renamed to Firebird, and lastly Firefox. It was so "obviously" the right thing to use.
- 9mo ago

mcpar-land 9mo ago

> Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions. Please don't.

etempleton 9mo ago

I was on board with this until he said, Firefox would become a “modern AI browser.” I am not sure what that looks like or means, and I am not sure anyone really does. It feels like some kind of obligatory statement to appease someone somewhere.

stack_framer 9mo ago

> As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. Does this sentence feel incomplete to anyone else? Is it supposed to say "the most trusted software company" or is it supposed to be an emphasis (i.e. the trusted software company)?

teknopaul 9mo ago

Fire fix usage went from I forget what but really significant down to the level people don't build site for it anymore. Pretty sure it's because they made security changes that broke the Intranet. What you want una browser is that it t works. Not some security pop-up telling it doesn't work. Especially if you wrote the website. Still annoying evert time https://127.0.0.1 https://127.0.0.1 is flagged as insecure

teknopaul 9mo ago
#6 in hacker news ChatGPT images announcement doesn't work in Firefox Android as a perfect example. https://openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-images-is-here/ https://openai.com/index/new-chatgpt-images-is-here/

stodor89 9mo ago

Well it surely cannot get any wor- > ...investing in AI... Ugh, nevermind.

shmerl 9mo ago

What I want to see instead of all this AI nonsense is replacing Gecko with Servo and implementing Vulkan rendering.

neilv 9mo ago

> As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. That's what I'd do. The question is whether they really mean it. Mozilla will have to recover from some history of disingenuous and incompetent leadership.

shevy-java 9mo ago

Now Mozilla only needs to find a CEO that understands tech.

deleted 9mo ago

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peppersghost93 9mo ago

"Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." reading this genuinely disgusts me. I am so tired of this nonsense being shoved where it doesn't belong. I just want a fast browser that stays out of the way.

espeed 9mo ago

Rather than develop its own AI (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926779), Firefox should develop a system to pipe your html rendered browsing history in real time so external local services can process it (https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/archive-your-browser-history-and-pipe-a-stream-of-it-in-real/idi-p/103428 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/archive-your-browser-hi...). See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45743918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45743918 Firefox probably won't suddenly have the best AI, but it could be the only browser that does this. Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46018789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46018789

RickyLahey 9mo ago

i wouldn't touch anything from Mozilla with a twenty-foot pole

keeda 9mo ago

Everyone is reacting negatively to the focus on AI, but does Mozilla really have a choice? This is going to be a rehash of the same dynamic that has happened in all the browser wars: Leading browser introduces new feature, websites and extensions start using that feature, runner-up browsers have no choice but to introduce that feature or further lose marketshare. Chrome and Edge have already integrated LLM capabilities natively, and webpages and extensions will soon start using them widely: - https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in - https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2025/05/19/introducing-the-prompt-and-writing-assistance-apis/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2025/05/19/introducing-t... Soon you will have pages that are "Best viewed in Chrome / Edge" and eventually these APIs will be standardized. Only a small but passionate minority of users will run a non-AI browser. I don't think that's the niche Firefox wants to be in. I agree that Mozilla should take the charge on being THE privacy-focused browser, but they can also do so in the AI age. As an example, provide a sandbox and security features that prevent your prompts and any conversations with the AI from being exfiltrated for "analytics." Because you know that is coming.

afarah1 9mo ago
Of course they have a choice. Just don't do it. All you said are predictions of what may or may not happen in the future. The opposite could be true - the audience at large may get sick of AI tools being pushed on them and prefer the browser that doesn't. No one knows. But even if you are right, supporting an hypothetical API that extensions and websites may or may not use and pushing opt-out AI tooling in the browser itself are very different things.
- keeda 9mo ago
  Sure, these features may never catch on... but if they do, consider the risk to Firefox: an underdog with dwindling market share that is now years behind capabilities taken for granted in other browsers. On the other hand, if these features don't pan out, they could always be deprecated with little hit to marketshare. Strategically I think Mozilla cannot take that risk, especially as it can get feature parity for relatively low cost by embracing open-source / open-weights models. As an aside, a local on-device AI is greatly preferable from a privacy perspective, even though some harder tasks may need to be sent to hosted frontier models. I expect the industry to converge on a hybrid local/remote model, largely because it lets them offload inference to the users' device. There's not much I could do about a hosted LLM, but at least for the local model it would be nice to have one from a company not reliant on monetizing my data.

mithrilskeleton 9mo ago

Mozilla should restructure its governance such that leadership is elected by their employees - preferably their software developers.

MerrimanInd 9mo ago

IMO Zen Browser fixed a lot of the Firefox UI painpoints while keeping what I like about it. It would be a smart move to make the Zen UI the canonical version of Firefox. Especially since features like vertical tabs, folders, pins, split screen, and new tab previews are more in the power user use case and Chrome has entirely dominated the casual user demographic.

mmooss 9mo ago

I think this is a great insight and great leadership. While the for-profit world, and many others, have embraced extremes of predatory capitalism, contempt for users, and disinformation, Mozilla has a fantastic opportunity to compete on its unique capabilities: It's not under pressure to adapt that business culture - no private equity, Wall Street, etc. pushing it; its culture is antithetical to those things; and its culture has always been geared toward service to the community and trust. The insight and leadership is to find this word, which hasn't been used much (I think many in business or politics would laugh at it), is incredibly powerful and a fundamental social need, and is clear guidance for everyone and every activity at Mozilla and for customers. Imagine using a company's products and not having to think about them trying to cheat you.

deleted 9mo ago

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anthem2025 9mo ago

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orblivion 9mo ago

> It will evolve into a modern AI browser Next time I run into Richard Stallman I should ask him for tips on browsing the web

ggm 9mo ago

I know quite a few non-tech firefox users. None of them want the AI integration. I am wary of confirmation bias, but I feel this is one of those simpsons headmaster meme moments: Am I wrong? No, I am right! the users are wrong! the users want me to spend millions developing AI for firefox instead of all the other things.

motbus3 9mo ago

"It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions." I stopped reading there. I just want a browser. Nothing else

jmyeet 9mo ago

Mozilla has been in a dire place for years. Notably someone years ago posted a chart showing how exec salary keeps going up while marketshare keeps going down [1]. In the Microsoft antitrust trial in the 1990s, the court established that having a browser monopoly was anticompetitive. Sadly, we've allowed this situation to repeat on mobile so Chrome and Safari now dominate. Windows has a lot of default Edge installs (and set as the default browser, particularly in corporate settings) but it's really just a Webkit skin at this point. Now iOS does technically allow third-party browsers but they're just Safari skins and they're not as good (eg at different times they have more limited features like not havintg the latest Javascript engine). I really think we need to end the bundled exclusive apps on mobile for certain things. Until then I'm really not sure what Mozilla's path forward is. They've tried to pivot on things like privacy but I don't think any of these make sense or at least won't produce a revenue source to justify the investment. How do you fund something like Mozilla? And how do you create value for users? [1]: https://itdm.com/mozilla-firefox-usage-down-85-but-why-are-execs-salary-up-400/2050/ https://itdm.com/mozilla-firefox-usage-down-85-but-why-are-e...

NegativeK 9mo ago

One of the secondary awful things about AI is that I have to hear news sources I like listening to complain about it constantly. This AI hype is frustrating, but it's also frustrating that it dominates conversations with valid points that are identical to the last five times it was talked about.

ipdashc 9mo ago
At this point it's almost more annoying than the AI hype in the first place. The hype by now at least seems pretty much self aware. It's mind-boggling to me that people don't realize all the Mozilla stuff is completely empty/PR fluff. You have to say you're an "AI first company" because that's the only thing investors want to hear in 2025. Everyone knows it's all fluff, they say it anyways. I will wait and see if it actually meaningfully affects their product or not. The complaints meanwhile are spammed everywhere, and like you said, it's the same exact content every time. We get it, new features that you aren't going to use are annoying. Disable them or just don't use them, is is really that big a deal? The CEO literally says they will all be able to be disabled.

koolala 9mo ago

Got my first change in Firefox today that says "Nightly uses AI to read your Open Tabs". Says its local but I really have zero trust for telemetry on this kind of stuff.

unsungNovelty 9mo ago

Copying portion of the comment I said under another comment: I and many stuck with Firefox despite being it being horrible until quantum release because Mozilla was aligned with community. But their tech is better now but they aren't aligned with community. It was the community that made Firefox overtake IE. They seem to forget that. Unless its gonna come pre-installed like chrome, they need community make the user base grow. They are absolutely dumb for going after a crowd who are happy with Chrome while shitting on the crowd which want to be with them.

CivBase 9mo ago
I switched back to Firefox around the quantum release and have been very happy with it since. I certainly have some complaints, but it's night and day compared to what Google wants me to deal with.
- unsungNovelty 9mo ago
  Ofcourse it is. But that also doesn't make my above comment wrong though. Not to mention, many were silent for so long against their actions. Now it looks like the entire community has started voicing against it. The ball is now on Mozilla's court. Not to mention there is more than just technical aspect with Firefox and community. A lot of people have invested a ton of time in it. Mozilla warrants all the flack they are getting. I am just saying they can't virtue signal their way through this. It wont work.

urig 9mo ago

Lost me right about in the middle when he started chirping AI AI AI like a parrot. AI and trust do not go hand in hand. Focus on privacy, transparency and simplicity because instead. Good luck.

tchbnl 9mo ago

Mozilla went to shit after Brendan Eich was ousted.

betamint 9mo ago

I think the fundamental problem with Firefox and Mozilla is, that people want an organization to maximize Firefox, but Mozilla is an organization maximizing something else while preserving Firefox. The fundamental problem is expectation and reality mismatch, and is being 'solved' from two directions: new ideal browsers, or criticism of Mozilla in the hope that it improves.

qwertox 9mo ago

> People want software that is fast, modern, but also honest about what it does. I want my browser to be able to run uBlock Origin, so therefore people want more than just what is specified above. I did quit using Google Chrome because they banned uBO (I know the command-line-flags hack still works, but for how long?). If Firefox also bans uBO through removal of Manifest v2 without offering a proper alternative, then it's just as big of a piece of crap as Chrome is. Due to lack of real choices, I could as well move back to Chrome. I'm currently using Vivaldi.

webreac 9mo ago

My wish list: - A secure email (with optional encryption/signature, with whitelists) - IM (with point to point encryption). - identity management (I would love delegating the login/password ceremonial to Mozilla instead of reinventing the well for each site). It seems I have trust in Mozilla.

stainablesteel 9mo ago

DEI and ESG don't work anymore, now people are latching onto AI wherever they can they're all just marketing scams. if these people actually implement AI in ways that isn't needed it just kills the product the built-in language translation feature of firefox is great, because it's locally ran i don't want my browser fetching commands from random servers just to implement AI in a browser that was working fine without it

ponker 9mo ago

What does Mozilla do these days?

okokwhatever 9mo ago

Money calls