Link to original post: https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/111932214690841585
Link to news link shown in the photo: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/mozilla-lays-off-60-people-wants-to-build-ai-into-firefox/
Cooperative ownership for all businesses too!
Firefox is developed in the open and accepts outside contributions already. The only thing this is adding is a paid membership.
A paid membership to vote on changes and additions to the program. I think that would be pretty beneficial honestly.
True, you can. But for people who may not have the skill or time but still value the browser, I think it isn’t a bad idea. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
The mass won’t even consider being part of a paid membership of a cooperative that’s only purpose is a web browser. That would be the way to drive them even more into Chrome or Safari.
i don’t think you need to be a paid member to use the finished product. membership is for having a say in what will be changed.
This has some serious “only landowners should be allowed to vote” vibes
I will say directly that this model of governance is incompatible with the tenets of free software.
I mean, I don’t really think that’s a fair comparison because people aren’t being forced to use this theoretical browser, so it’s not like the “landowners” are making decisions that are forced onto everyone else. It’s more of a “We are using our money/labor to build a house here and everyone can use it for free, we just get to decide the layout”.
Free software, in my book, means software, that respects the users privacy and provides them full control over the software, and that anyone can use, regardless of what they plan to use it for, even when they make their own money off of it by using the software to provide a service for example. It does not mean that it’s a democratic approach to the decision making process in development.
I will say directly that this model of governance is incompatible with the tenets of free software.
Which of the four freedoms does it fall short of?
Well this just sounds like Librewolf with more steps
You see cooperation, I see a subscription.
Yeah, I remember how the “community” reacted when they made that homophobic asshole quit. They still won’t shut the fuck up about it, about how mozilla cares more about wokeness than the browser whenever there’s a girls’ coding initiative or the like. I don’t want those assholes having a say in anything.