Mozilla's mission is to ensure that the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. As this seems laudable, we've tended to regard Mozilla itself as a good role model. Currently the evidence points the other way.

In the past we've sometimes mis-categorized news items about Mozilla - putting them in the Open Source section by mistake. While Firefox and other of its projects are open source, Mozilla itself has a complicated status and comprises two parts, the Mozilla Foundation, which describes itself as: 

 "a non-profit organization that promotes openness, innovation and participation on the Internet"

and the Mozilla Corporation, which is the Foundation's wholly owned subsidiary. This is a commercial company that oversees the development of Firefox and other projects by a global community of open-source developers, some of whom are employees of the company. Despite Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation being distinct entities, currently the same person, Mitchell Baker, is Chief Executive Officer of Mozilla Corporation and Chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation.

The news we reported last month that Mozilla was laying off 250 employees prompted contract software engineer, Cal Paterson to do an evaluation of Mozilla's performance as a non-profit organization that you can read in full on his website. What struck me about it was this chart:

It's a sorry situation when something you admire is in decline and this chart makes the decline in Firefox look even worse than the situation reported last month of Firefox having a 7% share of the desktop browser market. By juxtaposing Firefox usage with Mitchell Baker's pay as disclosed on Mozilla's Income Tax Return paints a picture that is very disturbing. Mozilla Foundation is clearly not living up to the ideals we would expect of its "non-profit" status. Nor is it following the norms of many reputable profit-making companies where top executives are rewarded with bonuses linked to commercial success.  

More Information

Firefox usage is down 85% despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up 400%

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