Mozilla in 2013

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/12/16/mozilla-in-2013/

by robin_reala • 13 years ago

188 81 13 years ago

blog.mozilla.org

koip493• 13 years ago

This really resonates with me: "Mozilla is dedicated to offering users privacy and transparency and we are honored to be an organization that users trust."

Thank god for Mozilla, they are one of the few tech companies I still trust in these troubled times.

I like to think if the NSA asked for direct access to their servers (such as Google were revealed to have granted), Mozilla would have no shortage of whistle-blowers.

Symmetry3• 13 years ago

I thought the way the NSA got direct access to Google's servers was by running taps into Google fiber optics?

koip493• 13 years ago

That's what Google tried to claim once Snowden forced their hand, but the leaked PRISM documents contradict their official stance. I know which I choose to believe.

cpeterso• 13 years ago

Why didn't Google encrypt the fiber traffic between their data centers? I understand that private fiber links are supposed to be "secure", but telecoms like AT&T have a history of letting the NSA tap their networks.

lcnmrn• 13 years ago

In the mean time, everyone just want a better browser.

owenmarshall• 13 years ago

Really? The last time I've thought to myself "gee, my browser is missing a feature I'd really like" or "all my browser needs to get better is (some improvement)" was... 2008? 2009? I'm not sure, I just know it's been a while.

And it doesn't really matter what browser I was using at the time. Chrome, Firefox, even Safari.

What do you want to make your browser better?

chrismonsanto2• 13 years ago

css grid support, flex-wrap support

bm1362• 13 years ago

I agree, I think the sentiment for better browsers resonates with web developers. I'm personally more excited by Firefox OS.

eiji• 13 years ago

Try FF on windows 8. It's an abysmal experience. Try to remove Google vom FF Android. Not possible.

I could go on and on.

lmm• 13 years ago

Dart

millstone• 13 years ago

My favorite browser features are ones that combat user-hostile website features. For example: popup blockers, cookie blockers, Safari Reader.

I would love to see more features along those lines, such as de-pagination and blocking popover psuedo-windows. However as Firefox is funded indirectly through advertising, Mozilla's loyalties are necessarily mixed.

lovskogen3• 13 years ago

I thought about and had to work with Mozilla today. "Seven years have passed without this bug being fixed." https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=349259

untog4• 13 years ago

I guess we should just give up on everything Mozilla does, then.

Sssnake2• 13 years ago

Doing other things (that very few people are interested in or want) does not excuse having a broken browser stay unfixed for years. Firefox is well on its way to being the next IE6.

Aldo_MX• 13 years ago

You can always submit a patch, remember that the source is Open, and everyone is welcome to contribute.

My cringe with Firefox are misfeatures like window.onbeforeunload. They deliberately break the expected behavior due to an unreasonable decision, but no browser is perfect.

Skalman2• 13 years ago

That patch would not be welcome. The patch to make the behavior intuitive is literally to remove "!important" from one CSS file. They're not changing because they're afraid to break the web.

ancarda2• 13 years ago

remember that the source is Open, and everyone is welcome to contribute.

Problem is, not everybody knows C++. Having a bug open for 7 years makes me think the issue will never be resolved. All I can do is wait or use another browser. One annoyance I have with Firefox is the lack of built in keychain support. This really summarizes how I feel: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106400#c94

natural219• 13 years ago

Can you elucidate? From my naive understanding of the back button API, I always thought Firefox's default behavior (not firing onpopstate on page load) made way more sense than say Chrome's. I guess both vendors make silly decisions sometimes.

lovskogen3• 13 years ago

I don't know enough code to do that.

pwnna• 13 years ago

15 years and counting! https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=540

untog4• 13 years ago

"Last year I asked for requirements that would lead to the successful closure of this bug. [...] I haven't heard back."

If no one can even provide that...

alexcabrera• 13 years ago

If you need that much styling control over a text area, using a content editable region and Javascript for the interaction is almost certainly a better option.

drdaeman• 13 years ago

An even better option is to use emscripten to bundle custom HTML rendering engine that would draw styled text input using Wayland server running on <canvas>

lovskogen3• 13 years ago

Why not just CSS? All I want is to set the line-height.

untog4• 13 years ago

I went to the Mozilla Festival in London this year and was amazed at just how much does Mozilla does. They're very far from just a browser manufacturer.

doe882• 13 years ago

Reading this post I wanted to buy a tee-shirt or two because I like Firefox and wanted to help them a bit (and help them alleviate their dependancy on Google's $$) but I was unable to find a page with Mozilla products... It's a shame because I think people would love to contribute by buying a goodie or something. I know I still can donate money but maybe I'm a bit selfish but I find it not to be as fun as getting something in return.

evilpie• 13 years ago

If you donate 30$ or more you can get a t-shirt: https://sendto.mozilla.org/page/contribute/join-mozilla?sour.... However a proper Firefox store has sadly been missing for some time now.

doe882• 13 years ago

Ah great, I don't know why but when I follow the donate link from the main Mozilla page it goes to this url https://sendto.mozilla.org/page/contribute/EOYFR2013-tabzill... and there's no tee-shirts on this one.

Anyway thanks for the link that's what I was looking for.

mark_l_watson2• 13 years ago

+1 thanks for that link. I just joined. thanks!

kibwen• 13 years ago

It's not quite the same, but I nabbed about twenty Rust stickers from this year's Mozilla Summit in Toronto. I might be willing to part with some for people who've made donations, if anyone's interested. :)

taliesan• 13 years ago

Hi All,

We are working to set up a gear store. Hopefully, we'll be able to announce it early in the new year.

In the meantime, if you know someone who is an e-commerce / systems integration expert, please point them at this opening:

http://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/oOP3Xfwn

Thanks,

alandarev• 13 years ago

Now, that is what I call an inspiring connectivity with the public.

Ygg23• 13 years ago

I wanted to give 3$ to Firefox but their form for submitting credit cards is weird and it needs my address for some reason?! Anyway the address was wrong and I can't be really bothered to try all the addresses I used in previous 4 years.

If GoG doesn't need my address why would Mozilla? And further more why should it complain about wrong address.

ehsanu12• 13 years ago

Umm, that's standard anti-fraud for e-commerce sites. I'm pretty confused actually at your surprise, I've never paid for anything by credit card without requiring at least a zip code, and usually a full address.

vertex-four2• 13 years ago

GoG doesn't, and a couple of other high-profile sites don't (Amazon for example), but the vast, vast majority of card payment forms on the Internet require a full address as for fraud prevention. Do you not often buy things on the Internet?

jlgaddis2• 13 years ago

Requiring (at least) the zip code of your billing address is a pretty standard (anti-fraud) practice.

r00fus• 13 years ago

I remember getting a Firefox polo a while back (9 years ago?). Must've been the reward for a donation. Still makes an impact - people keep asking what I did to get it.

jlgaddis2• 13 years ago

I had a really cool "Firefox 1.0" poster I purchased years ago (IIRC, my name was included on it because of my donation/purchase) but, sadly, I've moved since then and I've no idea what happened to it. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw it in an old picture a few days ago.

edit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eggplant/40525989/

_random_• 13 years ago

Keep up the good work with asm.js! It would be nice to see more apps developed in C++ for web in 2014.

mrschwabe• 13 years ago

I would really love to see Mozilla team up (and/or buy) DuckDuckGo. Not only for a better search experience, but it would just be great to see Mozilla sever its ties with Google - a company who seems blatantly at odds with the very principals of trust, privacy, and transparency that Mozilla is boasting here.

mfwoods• 13 years ago

According to Wikipedia[1] over 80-90% (or $163 million in 2011) of Mozilla's funding comes from Google. I'd love to see Mozilla be more independent from Google, but I don't think they're going anywhere without them anytime soon.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Google

Widdershin• 13 years ago

I think that would put them in an extremely uncomfortable place financially.

mapgrep• 13 years ago

In 2013 we launched Firefox OS , the first open Web devices based entirely in Web technologies

This early sentence really derailed me. There is so much going on:

-What is an "open web device", what qualifies? Maybe put a link here?

-Why is Firefox OS called an OS if it is actually devices?

-Is being based IN web technologies the same as being based ON web technologies?

-And there is a weird implication here that there have been open web devices NOT based on web technologies but now we have open web devices that actually ARE based on web technologies. That can't be right, can it?

From what I can tell the sentence should read something like, "In 2013 we launched Firefox OS, the first [mobile?] operating system based entirely on Web technologies."

jaredsohn• 13 years ago

My interpretation:

"Web device" implies a device that allows browsing the web (such as a smartphone or tablet). "open" implies that it is open source to some extent (similar to Android).

"based entirely on web technologies" differentiates it from Android in that all apps are web apps and use standardized web APIs to access the hardware rather than having native apps that use proprietary APIs.

It does seem weird that the sentence use the term "OS" to describe devices, though.

ffrryuu• 13 years ago

Implement CSS grid already

jdsgfsdf• 13 years ago

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/perspective.png

thisiswrong• 13 years ago

Wishes for Mozilla in 2014:

-Accept cryptocurrency donations; -Break free from Google/surveilance as default search; -DDGo as default search; -Firefox OS becomes as adopted as iOS and Android; -Firefox browser regain market share back from Chrome/surveillance.

okonomiyaki3000• 13 years ago

No mention of Fira? This is a great font! Thanks Mozilla! https://github.com/mozilla/Fira

purephase• 13 years ago

I'm really surprised by the naysayers in this thread. Mozilla is a not-for-profit. The largest and most influential when it comes to action on the web given their footprint directly in-front of the users.

You're complaining about lack of some edge-css features, silly bugs that have been open for a long time, and the fact that they may be chasing down some avenues that yield little fruit.

But, the web I envision without them is one that I do not want any part of. While I switched and used Chrome (for the tools), lately, the only browser vendor that I trust is Mozilla. I switched back to FF, donated, and decided to start dipping into their code/docs to see if I can help out.

While certainly not perfect, they are the company that we should be supporting. Not necessarily financially, but by being advocates, code/doc junkies and designers.

Here's to Mozilla and here's to 2014. Congrats!

nsns• 13 years ago

Agreed. Mozilla, Wikipedia and the Internet Archive keep alive the Web as it used to be, before getting commodified.

mark_l_watson2• 13 years ago

Totally agree! Support diversity and a not for profit that champions user privacy and an open web.

cloudgeekruhil• 13 years ago

I am happy ..But I want you people better than chrome in all terms.You are guys doing well but you need to do hardwork..

buovjaga• 13 years ago

Mozilla also recently helped Eloquent JavaScript 2nd edition reach its funding goal: https://eloquentjavascript.net/2nd_edition/donors.html

Mozilla in 2013

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