Mozilla's proposed CEO, Eich, departed due to his support of an anti-gay marriage proposition in California. But since then, nothing has changed, and Mozilla is
desperately in need of some leadership at a time when its $300M/year deal with Google is coming to an end (Dec 2014, to be precise). Writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:
Today, months later, under the temporary leadership of acting CEO Chris Beard, Mozilla doesn't appear to be any closer to finding a new CEO.
In a June 3 blog posting, Surman wrote that one of the things on the top of his mind is "Finding the right balance between clear goals, working across teams and distributed leadership. If I'm honest, we've struggled with these things at [Mozilla] for the last 18 months or so. Our recent all hands in San Francisco felt like a breakthrough: focused, problem-solving, fast moving." How this will translate into true leadership remains an unanswered question.
What next for embattled Mozilla? And how to prevent the once mighty browser-giant from becoming the next Netscape?
Their big problem is that you can't just throw money at a problem - you need vision, inspiration, and good, qualified people. It's obvious they're just aping Chrome at the moment, and it's pathetic. How about innovating and making a better browser? How about diversifying your revenue stream from just sucking at Google's tit via default search? If I were on the Board of Directors, I'd be shaking management's cage - they're swimming dangerously close to the edge of extinction, which is pathetic considering how truly awful IE10 is. If Google eats Firefox's lunch, it's a bad day for all of us, simply because competition over the past decade has led to some remarkable improvements in browsing.