I just read the entire article and I don’t see why Mozilla really wants in on the Fediverse. It covers a lot of how it wants in, but not the driving motivation.
My best guess is they want to be the next Facebook/Twitter. They see a window and think it’s not something to miss.
Never forget: “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish”, even if it’s from a relatively liked company like Mozilla.
I am a bit cynical about it as well, but on the other hand mozilla's entire shtick and what's keeping them alive is their privacy oriented, anti-google approach. If they enter the fediverse they'd probably stick to these principles since they are the only reason why you'd want to go with them over the competitors in the first place, right? So it could be a good thing maybe.
I mean, we all probably said similar things about Google 20 years ago. It was a liked company that brought a lot of cool innovations to the web. Or even relatively more recently with Chrome. At launch it was liked, but now it’s weaponized.
To be fair, there are far, FAR worse players than Mozilla. I might even be so far as to be convinced they have benign interests at heart at the moment. But corruption always follows domination.
Yeah but Google won, they became the biggest and now can do whatever they want. Unless Mozilla gets close (and I dont think they ever will, even remotely), I dont think they're in the same situation. Until then I kinda just root for them to survive and exist as competition, even if they have such a small market share compared to google.
It also took several years of utter dominance before they started to drift into their current monstrousness. It's not just that they won, but they also stayed winning.
Success might eventually breed a monster but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it like we are doing with Google and FB etc. by seeking alternatives.
Plus, I’m not sure a monster in the fediverse is nearly as bad a thing when you can easily jump to a different provider.
The risk is that Mozilla is in a position to add features and stability at a rate that smaller developers cannot possibly replicate. By doing so they risk becoming the defacto standard (embrace/extend). Then they get to dictate what the entire platform should or should not do. And you’re either on board or left in the dust. And if Mozilla decides that moderating a social network is too much of a liability, then we’re at extinguish.
To be frank, I’m so jaded by big players in this late stage capitalist world that I don’t trust anyone I might otherwise be fine with, like Mozilla.
I think the problem there is that if the fediverse were to be adopted by the masses the general population wouldn’t pay attention/wouldn’t even care and just use whatever instance was most convenient for them, and if an insurance has a large proportion of users it inherently has power over the entire network
If meta entered properly like everyone thought they might, they could massively control the entire fediverse by threatening defederation with instances that don’t comply with their rules. Because they have so many users and generate so much content no instance wants to be cut off
That example probably wouldn’t work for the fediverse as it stands right now as we’re pretty much all nerds, dislike companies like meta and probably wouldn’t enjoy the content generated by its users anyway but it stands as an example
My “secret” is I’m fine defederating with fb or any other larger player because nerds are all I really want to socialize with anyway. Those of us here would lose nothing by fb joining and defederating.
I get that, that was the whole point of that comment is the likes of us wouldn’t want to interact with Facebook but as I said that’s just an example.
Imagine the chaos if Reddit implemented activitypub, or discord with their threads feature, or even just a new instance like world that snaps up a lot of users for one reason or another, plays it safe for a while and acts benign until they’ve got the bulk of the users and then starts imposing their rules on other instances
I doubt they want to be a big instance — in the end, they simply don’t have the resources for it.
If anything, I imagine this “investment” is simply a part of their bigger market positioning as “privacy provider”, along with Mozilla VPN and their email service.
Which might be somewhat profitable for them but I’d say it’s also good for the consumers — they at least become aware of the product.
Never forget: “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish”, even if it’s from a relatively liked company like Mozilla.
If you take that view, you will never be satisfied by the official motivation expressed by a non-profit organization. That's the reason you don't see why – you are refusing. But are you wrong? Only Mozilla knows.
It's interesting you picked that, since the origins of that phrase is why Mozilla was even founded. And why they worked so damn hard for so many years on web standards.
Mozilla has been a big advocate for a decentralized web for awhile now. Joining the Fediverse seems like a natural move for them; honestly surprised they didn’t do it sooner.
At least as Mozilla exists now, I think it would be much harder for it to become “enshitified”.
Preface: IANAL, just going off my best understanding.
The Mozilla Corporation is actually wholly owned by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit. Profits that the corporation generates are the property of the Foundation, which falls under all the usual restrictions for spending and reporting that 501.c.3 orgs have. So at least as they exist now, Mozilla’s profits cannot be used to enrich executives or investors, which is the driving motivation behind the enshitification cycle.
I hope this isn’t the prelude to a decline. I just ordered my third Pi over the weekend. It should arrive today. I’d hate to see the platform squandered by “make number go up” types.
RISC-V is an open instruction set, which should be what the Pi foundation (if their open source mission is to be taken at face value) would be switching to if they weren’t just a way for Broadcom to push their chips on the maker community under the guise of open source.
RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA), has been making waves in the world of computer architecture. “RISC-V” stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) and the “V” represents the fifth version of the RISC architecture. **Unlike proprietary architectures such as ARM and x86, RISC-V is an open standard, allowing anyone to implement it without the need for licensing fees. This openness has led to a surge in interest and adoption across various industries, making RISC-V a key player in the evolving landscape of computing.**At its core, an instruction set architecture defines the interface between software and hardware, dictating how a processor executes instructions. RISC-V follows the principles of RISC, emphasizing simplicity and efficiency in instruction execution. This simplicity facilitates easier chip design, reduces complexity, and allows for more straightforward optimization of hardware and software interactions. This stands in contrast to Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) architectures, which have more elaborate and versatile instructions, often resulting in more complex hardware designs. The open nature of RISC-V is one of its most significant strengths. The ISA is maintained by the RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit organization that oversees its development and evolution. The RISC-V Foundation owns, maintains, and publishes the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), an open standard for processor design. The RISC-V Foundation was founded in 2015 and comprises more than 200 members from various sectors of the industry and academia.
Much like the fediverse, we’re very early on that technology. We’re waiting for the network effect to take hold in both areas. Once it does, things will improve significantly, IMO.
As Long as there are no Hamas flags shown, the massacre on 7th October is not cheered for and they are not calling for the destruction of Israel: let them show their support for Palestinians
Terrorist or freedom fighter. It’s a long read but if you use a finger and sound out the big words you might learn a thing or two about how the world isn’t so fucking black and white.
Sorry, it looks like you are heavily implying that the Hamas terrorist attacked that killed over 1400 Israelis in their own homes and at festivals is acceptable and it’s only a matter of perception?
Your opinion allows for absolutely zero nuance. Someone capable of empathy would see that the intentional murder of innocent civilians on EITHER SIDE of this conflict is a tragedy and morally wrong. I’m sorry that is all lost on you.
If one of my employees cheered on an attack on civilians with huge casualties they would be gone as well. From either side. What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Y’all want the freedom to cheer on and encourage civilian deaths but don’t want anyone else free to call you out for it.
No we’re just criticising the fact that one side is apparently angels even though they’re murdering civilians and the other side are terrible even though they’re doing the same murdering of civilians.
Crazy to me that they'd shut down instead of going open source and integrating with the fediverse. Doesn't even seem like a good business move as offering hosting for other companies and professional groups seems like a good market opportunity in a world where businesses even dislike Twitter.
Edit: for example, offer gitlab like service but for social media.
Wouldn't even need to open source - they could have joined the fediverse as closed source, offering a platform to those people who are apparently scared away by anything with a permissive license.
Then again, these people are probably more eager to be on bluesky.
I think the whole step to integrate with the fediverse would have taken too much time and too many resources. Seems like a massive rewrite of the codebase to me, if it wasn’t taken into account from the very start.
I can’t help but wonder if it’s 80% from old, Republican women because there just aren’t as many old, Republican men. They don’t live as long as Democrats:
In my experience old Republican men generally have some hobbies, in my area it tends to be hot rodding. But old Republican women not so much, so they end up playing shitty facebook games and posting shit.
I think it’s more that old republican men don’t like the internet, just going off my dad and his age group at the church I grew up in they all think it’s a waste of time or a communist plot. For reference these men are in their late 60s
It may vary by region as well. Most old dudes in my area arent all that religious unless their Mormons or some shit, they just want to do their own things.
Doubtful, while facebook does have a huge segment of the VR market, they’re not the only relevant player, so dont have the ability to entirely control it, and while I’ll certainly not be buying any headset of theirs given their extreme lack of trustworthiness even for a tech company, they have played a pretty big role in improving the tech and bringing the costs down a bit. I think some people just expected the tech to go from “blurry 3-d monitor strapped to your face” to “indistinguishable from reality the way its shown in fiction” in short order and have taken the gradual refinement of the tech instead of rapid leap as a sign that the technology has failed or something.
I mean, the acquisition did change VR from being a pretty open standard to being a walled garden where Facebook is paying devs to make their games not work with any other headset. I think without exclusivity there would be more interest in PCVR as a whole.
I might not understand the whole thing but how did Google lose when apple won. Is Google ecosystem not more open and allows side loading of apps. I have many apps not from Google Play store on my android.
“Following the law is not optional, but Apple continues to defy that decision. Effective April 6th, the Commission can start noncompliance proceedings and impose daily fines. It’s time for decisive action to once and for all give consumers real choice,” Spotify Spokesperson Jeanne Moran told TechCrunch in a statement.
Came for the retro love, left remembering that Spotify exists and i hate it.
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