Honestly I'm actually a little happy about this. I feel Mozilla needs to focus on its core job of advancing its browser and web standards so we don't get stuck with Chromium-only world (like when us old timers had to deal with Internet Explorer holding the majority market share).

These side projects like running VPN services and social networks may have the best intentions but have had to pull from their limited resources. I would prefer they get spun off as separate projects instead of pulling resources from the parent company.

This is management speak for... our shit isn't working, we're trying to diversify our revenue but so far just wasted heaps of money. We're going to cut everything to extend the curve but this marks the start of our death spiral.

This is a bit left field but... my big idea is that mozilla should become a payment gateway for donating to other opensource projects. They can skim a few percent off everything. Great alignment with Mozilla's values & history. All open source projects will end up promoting mozilla. Mozilla has the right brand and user-base to leverage.

Suppose my new tab page showed me a bit of an overview about some opensource project, the people involved, and the people who use the project, and suggested a donation of $1. I would genuinely like that. After a few small donations they could suggest I charge my account with $50 which I can then donate to whatever projects in the coming months as the mid takes me.

Yo, wtf. Their VPN, Relay and Monitor are basically the only Mozilla services I'd use and pay for.

If the "'d" means that you're not paying for it... That might be the problem 😢

Article quote "Mozilla will focus on bringing “trustworthy AI into Firefox.” To do so, it will bring together the teams that work on Pocket, Content and AI/Ml."

Does not scream privacy friendly, imo

AI seems like the latest shiny object they're chasing. I wish they'd focus on building the most usable browser. I subscribe to the VPN, Pocket, and Relay, but I guess I'll have to start looking for alternatives? I suppose Mullvad, Omnivore are the way to go, not sure about alternative to Relay.

I think that we don't know the whole picture but if they're canceling VPN, Relay and Monitor it's because they're not making enough money on those services. I also think the new CEO feels they're spread too thin and need to focus resources on core products, which might be a good thing. They've gotten a lot of flak for trying different things.

... and scale back its investment in its mozilla.social Mastodon instance.

In what way did they invest anything significant in the mastodon instance? I had been sort of waiting for them to do something interesting with it after all the fanfare with which it belatedly arrived. As far as I could tell last time I looked it was just a bog-standard and rather small instance that hadn't visibly changed since some engineer took a day or two to set it up last year. What'd I miss?

I don't like it either, but if focusing on Firefox lets them market Firefox and somehow win back user-share, then maybe it'd be worth it…

They are having the wrong direction since years. If anything, this is the same direction.

and scale back investment in its Mozilla.social Mastodon instance.

Well shit, I guess I’m never getting off that waitlist. Of all the services being effected by this news the mastodon instance is a relatively minor loss but I was really hoping it’d work out and thrive in a similar manner to Vivaldi’s instance.

this sounds like a cookiecuter CEO who only focuses on hype topics like mobile and ai instead of privacy services has taken the wheel, sad news. thats why i have trust issues when it comes to companies

Company I don't like lets go of employees: ❌❌LAYOFFS❌❌😡😡

Company I like lets go of employees: ✨✨downsizing✨✨😇😇

I wish they would compete with Kagi and give us a paid search browser.

seemingly VERY common mozilla L.

This sucks to hear as I've been paying for their relay service for a while now. I'm wondering if I should work to transfer all emails over to another service...

I was also considering signing up for Mozilla monitor, but now I'm not so sure if it's just gonna get canned soon or not.

Thanks god

This is the best summary I could come up with:

After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is making some major changes to its product strategy, TechCrunch has learned.

Specifically, Mozilla plans to scale back its investment in a number of products, including its VPN, Relay and, somewhat remarkably, its Online Footprint Scrubber, which launched only a week ago.

Going forward, the company said in an internal memo, Mozilla will focus on bringing “trustworthy AI into Firefox.” To do so, it will bring together the teams that work on Pocket, Content and AI/Ml.

Mozilla started expanding its product portfolio in recent years, all while its flagship product, Firefox, kept losing market share.

And while the organization was often sharply criticized for this, its leadership argued that diversifying its product portfolio beyond Firefox was necessary to ensure Mozilla’s survival in the long run.

Firefox, after all, provided the vast majority of Mozilla’s income, but it also meant the organization was essentially dependent on Google to continue this deal.

The original article contains 234 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 29%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Honestly adding more features and services is the wrong answer. They need to strip down Firefox in terms if UI and software bloat. A smaller (ish) codebase would be easier manage.