Brendan Eich becomes Mozilla CEO(brendaneich.com)
brendaneich.com
Brendan Eich becomes Mozilla CEO
https://brendaneich.com/2014/03/mozilla-news/
524 comments
Excellent choice, Mozilla is killing it with WebGL + asm.js right now among many other things. Probably the best Firefox and Mozilla has ever been so far. As a game developer targeting WebGL/asm.js what they are doing is awesome, almost like a new console. Both Unity and Unreal have their engines running well on it. Mozilla is the new game developers favorite, Chrome is nice as well but needs something like asm.js optimizations.
Wow, I almost can't tell if I'm on Hacker News or Tumblr. Brendan Eich made a mistake 6 years ago, let all of us Social Justice Warriors break out the pitchforks and show him the true meaning of tolerance!
Honestly he's never made any impassioned rants on the subject, never spoken out against gay marriage, never reportedly acted out against any homosexuals in any way. He only made one small donation to what was, at the time, a very popular political campaign.
Maybe he was misguided, or misunderstood the reality of what Proposition 8 would mean. The campaigns were certainly filled with misinformation that suckered in a huge number of Californians. I know we technophiles like to think we're cut from a better cloth than that, but there are days we're just as gullible as the next.
We're all guilty of lapses of morality at some point in our lives. Hopefully we learn from those mistakes. Hopefully Brendan will, as well.
Honestly he's never made any impassioned rants on the subject, never spoken out against gay marriage, never reportedly acted out against any homosexuals in any way. He only made one small donation to what was, at the time, a very popular political campaign.
Maybe he was misguided, or misunderstood the reality of what Proposition 8 would mean. The campaigns were certainly filled with misinformation that suckered in a huge number of Californians. I know we technophiles like to think we're cut from a better cloth than that, but there are days we're just as gullible as the next.
We're all guilty of lapses of morality at some point in our lives. Hopefully we learn from those mistakes. Hopefully Brendan will, as well.
I'm curious how common the CTO→CEO transition is.
The only other one that stands out in my mind is Etsy, though I know there are others I'm missing.
In any case, congratulations are in order. I don't know much about Eich, but I'm a huge fan of the work Mozilla's done. Their focus on privacy and unrestricted software becomes more relevant by the day, so I have high hopes for this change.
The only other one that stands out in my mind is Etsy, though I know there are others I'm missing.
In any case, congratulations are in order. I don't know much about Eich, but I'm a huge fan of the work Mozilla's done. Their focus on privacy and unrestricted software becomes more relevant by the day, so I have high hopes for this change.
I hope Brendan restores Mozilla's Persona project.
State of the art federated authentication is overly complicated by solutions bundling enterprise features such as resource authorization and directory services. These additional features should be factored out since they can be layered.
By contrast, BrowserId's parsimonious take on federated authentication (via an email handle) is refreshing.
State of the art federated authentication is overly complicated by solutions bundling enterprise features such as resource authorization and directory services. These additional features should be factored out since they can be layered.
By contrast, BrowserId's parsimonious take on federated authentication (via an email handle) is refreshing.
I work for Mozilla. I support Brendan as our CEO. I strongly, vehemently oppose his views on gay marriage. I personally won't tolerate any CEO-level chicanery on our internal and external policies of tolerance, though I do not expect any. I am not alone in this feeling amongst the staff. I think his leadership is good for the organization and its goals. This cognitive dissonance will likely make me even more diligent in ensuring Mozilla is an equitable place to work.
A bunch of people here seem to be wondering whether this will mean a substantial change to Mozilla's strategy. This seems very unlikely – Brendan has been on Mozilla's steering committee for many years, and involved in many key decisions in the past year. I expect him becoming CEO means more of the same – if you like what Mozilla is doing, then you should be happy, and if you wish it was doing something else then you should probably look elsewhere.
Brace for incoming (revived) controversy[1].
1. http://projects.latimes.com/prop8/donation/8930/
1. http://projects.latimes.com/prop8/donation/8930/
MODS: This would be a damn fine thread to try out that new comment widget pg was talking about the other day.
I think Mozilla is making a mistake. I've met Brendan several times and I don't think he'll be a good CEO. His political views are not aligned with Mozilla's views as a company and that might come up as an issue at some point later.
It makes sense, given that Mozilla's purpose as an organization seems to have primarily become the promotion of the Javascript language
This is good, but also somewhat inevitable.
It's interesting that all announcements play up the interim CEO's involvement in Firefox OS. I have felt for a long time that it's going after the wrong target in Android, and should instead go up against Chrome OS. Will be interesting to see how the priorities change, if at all.
It's interesting that all announcements play up the interim CEO's involvement in Firefox OS. I have felt for a long time that it's going after the wrong target in Android, and should instead go up against Chrome OS. Will be interesting to see how the priorities change, if at all.
One reason to use https://etalio.com instead of Mozilla Persona is that Ericsson CEO is not a homophobe.
This might be a good thread to turn on the new commenting feature.
I've read this comment thread a few days ago, and was disappointed that the discussion has focused on Brendan's contribution to prop 8. Just want to get this off my chest:
I've known Brendan, I've code-reviewed some super scary changes he was checking in. I've watched him do cartwheels.
He is a very smart guy, one of the few I've met who is clearly superior to me (Hi Guha!). He is also part of a tribe foreign to me, deeply religious computer geeks.
I believe (have no 1st hand knowledge), that Brendan contributed to prop 8 as part of a church drive. His contribution has offended many, but it not part of his core beliefs.
I also believe that he gets Internet's potential more than just about anyone. My passion is open Web, and Brendan leading Mozilla is great news. He knows what really matters, he is passionate, and he will fight for it.
I've known Brendan, I've code-reviewed some super scary changes he was checking in. I've watched him do cartwheels.
He is a very smart guy, one of the few I've met who is clearly superior to me (Hi Guha!). He is also part of a tribe foreign to me, deeply religious computer geeks.
I believe (have no 1st hand knowledge), that Brendan contributed to prop 8 as part of a church drive. His contribution has offended many, but it not part of his core beliefs.
I also believe that he gets Internet's potential more than just about anyone. My passion is open Web, and Brendan leading Mozilla is great news. He knows what really matters, he is passionate, and he will fight for it.
The weekly public Mozilla Project meeting has some discussion from the executive team about the change and will have Q/A later on: https://air.mozilla.org/the-monday-meeting-20140324/
Gary Kovacs stepped down last summer, does this mean that Mozilla has been without a CEO for almost a year?
I'm guessing this is another hurdle in the Dart VM ever making its way into FireFox.
On the one hand, he's homophobic, but on the other hand, he's a great technologist. I guess they sort of balance out, right?
I am actually quite surprised he took the position.
I wonder if Jay is actually leaving Mozilla since Li Gong is now the COO.
That being said, I think Brendan is now put on a major test.
If instead Brendan doesn't believe in abortion, would we still have this conversation? The split among pro-live and pro-choice is just as bad as pro-gay and non-gay. And among pro-choice there is a split on what constitutes a good reason to abort and what is not.
A good CEO should ensure the company is sustainable and well. One way is to accept and respect differences. If Mozilla employees think gay workers should receive X benefit that non-gay workers already been receiving and they petition Mozilla and Brendan to take action, Brendan and his team will have to work toward that goal. That's their job (well mostly COO I guess). Otherwise employees will lose faith in the organization and talent will be lost.
If he truly values Mozilla and his hard work at Mozilla, he will not hesitate to make Mozilla more friendly and more open and transparent. But he doesn't have to change his belief to be a CEO. He, in his personal space, at his house, he can do whatever he wants and say whatever he wants.
I don't work for Mozilla and I don't ask around to find out who is gay and who is not. I don't know whether gay workers feel welcome at Mozilla or not. Just saying.
I wonder if Jay is actually leaving Mozilla since Li Gong is now the COO.
That being said, I think Brendan is now put on a major test.
If instead Brendan doesn't believe in abortion, would we still have this conversation? The split among pro-live and pro-choice is just as bad as pro-gay and non-gay. And among pro-choice there is a split on what constitutes a good reason to abort and what is not.
A good CEO should ensure the company is sustainable and well. One way is to accept and respect differences. If Mozilla employees think gay workers should receive X benefit that non-gay workers already been receiving and they petition Mozilla and Brendan to take action, Brendan and his team will have to work toward that goal. That's their job (well mostly COO I guess). Otherwise employees will lose faith in the organization and talent will be lost.
If he truly values Mozilla and his hard work at Mozilla, he will not hesitate to make Mozilla more friendly and more open and transparent. But he doesn't have to change his belief to be a CEO. He, in his personal space, at his house, he can do whatever he wants and say whatever he wants.
I don't work for Mozilla and I don't ask around to find out who is gay and who is not. I don't know whether gay workers feel welcome at Mozilla or not. Just saying.
Good man. Certainly deserved both ways.
Looking forward to learning his opinion of "user-enhancing" advertising as part of the Firefox application.
Congrats to Eich!
And, has everyone here gone insane? Personally I hold Eugenic racist homophobic neo-nazis to a higher regard than those who view forgiveness and moving on as something that should never be done.
And, has everyone here gone insane? Personally I hold Eugenic racist homophobic neo-nazis to a higher regard than those who view forgiveness and moving on as something that should never be done.
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Do I smell IPO? :P
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So scripted ;)
Please re-title this as "Mozilla News" as per the guidelines, thanks.
I would lay long odds that upwards of 90% of the U.S. citizens taking Eich to task on this thread voted for Barack Obama.
So being opposed to gay marriage disqualifies you from being the CEO of a tech company, but not from being President of the United States.
That's a...convenient...position. Just not a rational one.
Personally, I don't think the government (and certainly not the Federal government) has any business being involved with marriage in the first place, other than providing a registry for the contracts and a court system to enforce them.
So being opposed to gay marriage disqualifies you from being the CEO of a tech company, but not from being President of the United States.
That's a...convenient...position. Just not a rational one.
Personally, I don't think the government (and certainly not the Federal government) has any business being involved with marriage in the first place, other than providing a registry for the contracts and a court system to enforce them.
http://tommorris.org/posts/2550