The ecosystem is not so healthy on the server side, and I think the API documentation is a major factor.
The project has been sitting on this for many years
You could say it's an improvement over BlueSky because with Mastodon you can host your own server, but if you don't like their server, then you're out of options
Mastodon builds on the ActivityPub protocol with its own API, but the last time I looked into it, the documentation of the API was poor, so it was difficult to develop for.
I haven't looked at the BlueSky docs so I can't compare, but it sticks in my craw a bit seeing the words "friendly for third-party devs" being used in the same sentence with Mastodon
Actually this reminds me of the story a while back about how LLMs give better results if you threaten them with physical violence. Maybe that's one way to get a cheaper ticket?
Started running a homeserver recently, trying to get non-techy friends to join, can confirm this is difficult (the main one right now being people using old software on their phones, one friend was running iOS 14 for crying out loud)
This story marks the loss of another revenue stream for Mozilla. Their business is increasingly reliant on Google's search deal for money, and if that money stops, they'll have to face that same reckoning. For example, they won't be able to afford paying their CEO millions of dollars a year any more.
I think they should start repositioning themselves now as an activist organisation that is fighting corporate interests trying to control the internet. If they can do that, I think a lot of people would pay to use Firefox
Enough internet users are familiar with the adage "if a product is free, you are the product", through personal experience
I'd be OK with paying for Firefox if it meant that it was stripped of all association with advertisers. And presumably, if Mozilla were freed from that association, they'd be able to make a stronger case for how they're protecting a free internet
Mozilla should fire their non-technical staff, strongly make the case for how they're fighting for a free and open internet, and use a subscription model for Firefox to pay the bills
I like the idea of automatically fastening zips in places with limited access (like the tent example in the article), but unless the failure rate is very low, you'd always need a backup fastening technique on hand
This is the problem