back to article Mozilla keeps its Beard, hopes anti-gay marriage troubles are now over

Mozilla has confirmed that Chris Beard, who was appointed as interim CEO three months ago as a replacement for controversial Brendan Eich, will stay at the helm for the foreseeable future. "Chris has a keen sense of where Mozilla has been – and where we’re headed," said Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman at Mozilla. "He has …

  1. NoneSuch Silver badge

    Firefox lost me when they updated every thirty seconds and killed my add-ons. I have no love for Chrome, but it works and is relatively simple.

  2. Captain DaFt

    When Firefox started throwing out new versions hectically, throwing in new features willy-nilly, and throwing older, wanted features under the bus, and totally defenestrated plug-in compatibility between versions*, I just side stepped to SeaMonkey.

    Saner development pace, about the same size as Firefox despite being a full application suite.

    And yet, hardly anyone uses it. Is there something I'm missing?

    *Seriously, Firefox seems to have taken its current development strategy from a vaudeville pie fight!

    1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Jumped to Midori and xxxterm myself. Plus the trusted oldies: Dillo, for when scripts and other eye-candy is not wanted or w3m, for when a graphical environment is not available.

  3. Fungus Bob
    Thumb Up

    Upvote for the vaudeville pie fight

  4. David Kelly 2

    Mozilla Lost Me

    Tired of perpetual updates (are you listening Adobe FLASH?),

    Thunderbird is an ugly mess,

    And then intolerance for Eich daring to have his own opinion drove the final nail in their coffin.

    1. Windrose

      Re: Mozilla Lost Me

      Yeees, of course. Eich has a right to his opinions, but all the rest of us does not. Grand.

    2. Hollerith 1

      Re: Mozilla Lost Me

      It lost me too, to SeaMonkey, after it became so slow that I thought ice ages would come and go before the damn thing loaded. But as for 'daring to have his own opinion' -- everyone is entitled to that, and to back it up to donations to those who promote the causes one agrees with, but if you are going to be a leader in any organisation, you have to demonstrate that you are 'for' your employees, that they will all get a fair deal, that they all have the same employment rights and the same career progression, if they merit it. So we have a guy who is CEO whose personal opinion is that some people should not have the rights others have, for whatever reason. As a private individual, sure. As an officer of a company, no. If he is active enough to donate, he would be active enough to oppose or reject any recognition of gay unions within his company, to oppose health benefits to same-sex couples...I need not go on.

      Being an executive officer of a company, like being an officer in the military, means being able to put your own needs, opinions, fears, etc second and the good of the team first. Eich's team had reason to doubt that he'd be watching their backs equally.

      1. P. Lee

        Re: Mozilla Lost Me

        > If he is active enough to donate, he would be active enough to oppose or reject any recognition of

        > gay unions within his company, to oppose health benefits to same-sex couples

        Since when does a company officer get involved in approving or denying relationships in a company? I'm pretty sure I never got permission from my manager when I got married. Do they provide benefits for non-employees? Historically, benefits were extended to female spouses on the assumption that they probably would be at home looking after the offspring rather than being in paid employment which would provide its own benefits, or a woman's career is more likely to be limited by a large time out to look after the children. I've seen organisations operating benefits which only applied to men on this basis. They've changed their policies, but that was the original reasoning. While the law has been changed in the name of equality, this generally still holds true for heterosexuals - I'm not sure if it holds for gay couples or not.

        Then there is the issue of differentiating between gay unions and gay marriage. We had equality in the UK, but still the gay lobby pushed through legislation to call gay unions "marriage". That's not a rights or benefits issue, that's social engineering. Now its difficult for me to expect that similar actions elsewhere are rights-issues rather than social engineering.

        It's curious that Eich received so much flack for a "no" opinion, but Google and Apple execs received no censure for expressing their opinions. I get really concerned when I see suggestions that opposing opinion should not be voiced. No dissenting opinions allowed? That's not a freedom and it isn't how democracy should work.

        There's no suggestion at all that Eich's opinions negatively impacted his employees. That's what we call "professionalism" in the workplace- doing a job regardless of personal opinions and officers and employees are including Eich are expected to exhibit it. There are plenty of people I work with whom I don't like for one reason or another but that doesn't mean that I treat them as an enemy. That would be childish. There are plenty of people I meet with socially with religious and moral practises of which I don't approve, but I don't treat them as enemies either, that would be wrong. I often work for organisations where I don't agree with all their practises. Perhaps that blows the mind of those engaged in simplistic politicking, but its true. I'm not out to destroy all those who disagree with me. In fact, listening to opposing arguments keeps me on my mental toes and helps me clarify my own thoughts rather than sinking into a morass of monopolistic group-think.

        Sadly, politics these days is increasingly involved with legislating thought and speech crime. That's a dangerous precedent to set, even if you like the current rules.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mozilla Lost Me

          Yeah right.... so if he was a supporter of man-boy love, and had donated $1,000 to NAMBLA, then 'so what if it doesn't effect how he behaves at work'???

          Yeah. Right. You'd be screaming for him to be sacked, but I guess whilst paedophilia is wrong, homophobia is ok???

        2. SiempreTuna

          Re: Mozilla Lost Me

          "Then there is the issue of differentiating between gay unions and gay marriage. We had equality in the UK, but still the gay lobby pushed through legislation to call gay unions "marriage". That's not a rights or benefits issue, that's social engineering. "

          If you don't agree with same-sex marriage, don't marry someone of the same sex. What other people choose to do is none of your f****** business.

          Small minded, petty prejudice does not give anyone the right to affect the happiness of others, even if they do find them offensive. Unless of course, you're claiming a new right? In which case, if you get that right, so do i and using mine to veto the happiness of obnoxious bigots because I find them totally offensive.

          Before you even go there, forget religious objections, too: marriage is and always has been a civil institution - even Luther admitted that - that pre-dates any current religion. It will doubtless be around when the current lot are but a distant memory.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mozilla Lost Me

          "Then there is the issue of differentiating between gay unions and gay marriage. We had equality in the UK, but still the gay lobby pushed through legislation to call gay unions "marriage". That's not a rights or benefits issue, that's social engineering. Now its difficult for me to expect that similar actions elsewhere are rights-issues rather than social engineering."

          Ladytards and Gentletards....From now on please use this paragraph for whenever proof is needed that a brother and sister should not have children together.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mozilla Lost Me

          So it turns out that the Reg comentards are generally homophobic linux obsessives.

          Who new?

        5. Someone Else Silver badge
          Facepalm

          @ P. Lee -- Re: Mozilla Lost Me

          Since when does a company officer get involved in approving or denying relationships in a company?

          Since the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision.

          Next question?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Mozilla Lost Me

        "CEO whose personal opinion is that some people should not have the rights others have"

        Rubbish, every gay person has the same right to fall in love with somebody of the opposite sex, marry them and have children, just like normal people.

        If in doubt, ask that swimmer how his attempts to have children are going.

      3. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Hollerith 1 Re: Mozilla Lost Me

        ".....but if you are going to be a leader in any organisation, you have to demonstrate that you are 'for' your employees, that they will all get a fair deal, that they all have the same employment rights and the same career progression, if they merit it....." So please do show even one example of where Eich let his personal and legal choice of years ago affect any of his actions as Mozilla boss? If you are going to fire people because 'they might do something' then you're not going to find anyone to do the job - fire all women because they might decide to have kids; fire all men because they might promote a female worker to gain sexual favours; fire all lesbians because they might hate men or might harass/promote women; fire all gay men because they might hate women and harass/promote men; fire all blacks because they might hate whites; fire all whites because they might hate blacks; fire all Catholics because they might victimise Protestants. Etc., etc. if Eich had been a bad boss or had been shown to be prejudicial in his treatment of gay staff then fair enough, but the truth is he was booted for expressing his opinion in a legal and democratic manner years before becoming boss, and only because others outside the company had an axe to grind.

  5. Christoph
    Joke

    Any Doc Smith fan will know they should never have appointed one of the Eich.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      and

      E. E.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Controversial Brendan Eich

    "Feedback from Mozilla's staff on Beard's first three months has been very positive. He's a known quantity and wasn't as abrasive as Eich in his internal dealings"

    First I've heard of Eich being abrasive, and it took over two years for his contribution to Prop 8 to become a firing offence.

  7. S 11
    Pirate

    Less'zilla

    While I too dumped Mozilla 6-7 years ago because their product sucked, I think they contributed a great deal to making open source software viable and they deserve accolades for the effort!

    I was upset when I heard Eich's support for what I feel is bigotry. I realize he wasn't proselytizing at work, and he definitely has a right to donate money to whom he wishes, but I thought it was perfectly within Mozilla's right to show him the door so as not to tarnish the brand.

  8. AlexV

    Still with Firefox

    Reading the first few posts, I figure I might as well provide some balance from the other side of the opinions. I still use Firefox, because it's simply better.

    I don't like the Australis UI changes though; the Firefox UI was better than the Chrome UI, moving it in the Chrome direction did not improve anything. However, being Firefox, there's an add-in available for customising the UI back to the way I liked it (Classic Theme Restorer). That more or less sums up the advantages of Firefox for me, addins to make it do whatever you want it to do, in the way you want it to. Other browser's more limited extensions systems are not in the same league, and the browsers themselves try to force you to accept the way that they think is best to work.

  9. The New Turtle
    Meh

    And I went back to Firefox

    ........having left in protest at Eich's firing.

    As AlexV said, FF is simply better than the other options, even when Chromatised. I'm no fan of the retrograde interface and the new version every 30s approach, but it's simply the most effective browser for me.

    Lack of principles? I emailed my protest, though though I doubt that counted.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    dunno

    I use FF and sometimes Opera because they are better than IE, tried chrome didn't like it but haven't been able to remove all its bits after dis-installation

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