Discussion MS tells Mozilla it should stop development immediately, embrace one-browser-web

[mikeymikec]

https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/...ophical-ivory-tower-cease-firefox-development

A Microsoft program manager has caused a stir on Twitter over the weekend by suggesting that Firefox-maker Mozilla should give up on its own rendering engine and move on with Chromium. "Thought: It's time for @mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower. The web is dominated by Chromium, if they really 'cared' about the web, they would be contributing instead of building a parallel universe that's used by less than five percent?" wrote Kenneth Auchenberg, who builds web developer tools for Microsoft's Visual Studio Code.

Auchenberg's post referred to Mozilla's response to Microsoft's announcement in December that it would scrap Edge's EdgeHTML rendering engine for Chromium's. The move will leave Firefox's Gecko engine as the only alternative to Chromium, which is used by Opera and dozens of other browsers. Few people agreed with Auchenberg, including engineers from both Mozilla and Chromium. Long-serving Mozillian Asa Dotzler was not impressed. "Just because your employer gave up on its own people and technology doesn't mean that others should follow," Dotzler replied to Auchenberg. Auchenberg clarified that he didn't want to see Mozilla vanish, but said it should reorganize into a research institution "instead of trying to to justify themselves with the 'protectors of the web' narrative."

Apparently said with not a hint of irony.

 

[KeithP]

MS A Microsoft employee tells Mozilla it should stop development immediately, embrace one-browser-web

FTFY

-KeithP

 

[mikeymikec]

FTFY

-KeithP

Yes and no. A high-level employee will know perfectly well that if they go on the record, they're speaking on behalf of their company. If he gets fired for it, then we know MS doesn't consider his comments to be representative of their position. Having said all of that, I doubt that MS gives a crap about what he said whether they disagree with it or not, because it makes no difference to anything.

To all intents and purposes, it's a scenario like the disclaimer that so many companies are fond of putting in their employees' email signatures that says that this e-mail literally doesn't mean anything at all. Such a claim is bollocks, because what would be the point in sending the e-mail in the first place if its contents shouldn't be taken at face value.

- edit - my mistake, I thought the employee in question was a manager in charge of a particular branch. Even then, my point still pretty much stands.

 

[A///]

A Microsoft employee said this, not Microsoft. An employee who states on their Twitter their Tweets are opinion and not a reflection of MS. That said, I also tore him a new one in the comments. I don't think I saw one person defend his stupidity.

 

[whm1974]

A Microsoft employee said this, not Microsoft. An employee who states on their Twitter their Tweets are opinion and not a reflection of MS. That said, I also tore him a new one in the comments. I don't think I saw one person defend his stupidity.

Well to be clear, Fire Fox along with LInux, are not exactly "products" but they are Communities instead.

 

[Rifter]

MS is just slinging crap because they know that as soon as Chrome goes live with the new crap thats going to break all the add blockers and a slew of other extensions that FF is going to triple its market share overnight and then continue to climb until chrome is a distant memory.

Because realistically no one browses without add blockers, the current internet is just plain not usable without them.

Chrome is literally digging their own grave with this breaking ad blocker crap, i honestly have no idea what they are thinking.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Because realistically no one browses without add blockers, the current internet is just plain not usable without them.

Sad. But true.