[Opinión] Mozilla is still immersed in its identity drift in which Ideology outweighs technology And while supporting minorities in need is the right thing to do, as long as it’s done honestly, I’d love to see the same amount of effort put into pulling Firefox out of the hole it’s been put in.
No dear reader, this is not an attack on Firefox. In any case, it would be an attack on Mozilla, although I personally do not share simplifying a criticism by qualifying it as an attack. It is not. However, that’s how many will take it, which doesn’t matter to me, because I’m going to continue doing it when I think it’s convenient.
It happens that you enter the Mozilla site expecting to find something new about its products, read Firefox, and what you come across is an article that talks about how a queer singer-songwriter finds pride and joy in the intersection of technology and musicanother dealing with redefining love and identity…
I have nothing against these contents, although my impression is that Mozilla moves like a weathervane to where the wind blows and for the company, not the foundation, they are reduced to pure marketing to appear more committed than they are with the cause and try to attract users like that. But it doesn’t work for them.
That is why it unnerves me to find other content, which fortunately also exists, so neglected that they cause me immediate rejection. That laziness with which they treat their true value -which has never been activism- is shown in articles like this one, in which they explain something as basic as configuring Firefox as your default browser in Windows.
Firefox in Windows 7. Very current reference
What’s wrong with such an article? Which is not recent, but from 2020, a rehash without the slightest consideration for your product, Firefox, or users. First, for not showing the new image of Firefox, which is not the same as it was in 2020, and second, for not taking the opportunity to focus the tutorial on Windows 11.
It is not the only example. A day after the previous one, they published another tutorial explaining how to easily switch from Chrome to Firefox, which also seems like a rehash from a long time ago, although this one does not explain it. But just look at the screenshots of MacOS Catalina and Windows 7 to make sure of it. Was it so difficult to update those articles with a minimum of dedication?
There will be those who find it a minor matter and even an unimportant detail, but it gives me the feeling that Mozilla has its mind elsewhere, which is not to continue improving Firefox to maintain competition with the Chromium environment and its derivatives. . A problem, that of the loss of focus, that the company has been dragging for years.
And for the record, Firefox, despite being behind Chromium and Co. in practically everything, works very well. It is not a browser that is only maintained for what it is supposed to represent, the free Internet and other nonsense (whatever anyone wants to believe); or for what it was, the free alternative that stood up to Internet Explorer and its reign of terror.
Nope: firefox works great.
It may be that in terms of performance or multimedia support it does not reach Chrome, that having abandoned such basic features today as web applications has reduced its supporters, or that the continued waste of Mozilla’s management -and I am not saying this because the leadership of an alleged non-profit foundation that works for the good of humanity collects millions, while laying off its employees in batches- detract from what has been achieved with Firefox.
All this may have played a role in the fall of Firefox, and in fact I think it has. As has the omnipresence of Google – the company that keeps Mozilla alive, to be exact – and its Chrome even in the soup, which surely has had a more prominent part in the sinking process if possible. And, even with everything, Firefox is an excellent browser, with its things…
Then? If Firefox is an excellent browser, does that mean Mozilla hasn’t done too badly? Evidently. Mozilla has done a lot of things very badly, but not everything, and not all of the time. I find it a bit pathetic intellectually to have to point it out expressly, because not even for those reasons is there going to be anyone who will try to understand it, but for trying it, it won’t be left.
What I can’t help but wonder is how things would be if Mozilla had done everything moderately well, without the tremendous ups and downs they have suffered. And with respect to the subject of the cultural story, what has been said: it is not about underestimating it for the sake of it. It does not make sense. It is as if in MC we dedicated ourselves to denouncing the inequalities of the world. Without a doubt, it would be laudable, but we would not be a technological medium.
From its peak until now: this has been the decline of Firefox
Not to repeat what was mentioned: they do not deceive anyone, and it is that the smell of opportunism is smelled from afar. That is why I would like them to focus more on technology -with exceptions, the successive versions of Firefox are, compared to what the competition offers, like a ghost that passes without penalty or glory- than on ideology, because if Mozilla wants to change or help change something, it will be based on technology, not ideology.
In fact, one is not incompatible with the other. All large American companies have jumped on the bandwagon of defending civil rights, and not for that reason have they neglected the care for their products and services, which, after all, are the basis of their business. Eye, angry fan of Mozilla and Firefox, or Mozilla Firefox, so much mounts: I could make a list of hardly justifiable nonsense. Maybe one day I will.
Because the outbursts they give me are not out of hatred towards Mozilla, although I consider that a thorough cleaning of its management leadership would be the best thing that could happen to the project. These outbursts are sorry for firefox. And not to mention, the next thing you write about the browser will be positive. I promise.
