Hacker News: klez

New comment by klez in "Leaving Mozilla"

klez — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 09:24:19 +0000

I'm using Waterfox on desktop at the moment, but I really wish Mozilla would get their act back together and make all the forks unnecessary. I'm not saying they need to die: I only hope one day they aren't needed anymore.

Also, I'm afraid that's not sustainable in the long run. How long before Mozilla makes a change so big to introduce some nasty feature that it becomes impossible for forks to stay up to date with upstream? Do they really have the resources necessary to maintain an actual fork and not just a customized version?

New comment by klez in "Leaving Mozilla"

klez — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 09:16:36 +0000

I don't know, but maybe spending 15 years working on something that you felt was not only a job but also in part a mission shapes a lot of you as a person and you want to express your feelings about that huge part of your life.

New comment by klez in "Leaving Mozilla"

klez — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:29:13 +0000

As the OP says, the point is not that they needed unpaid work, if that's what you mean. The point is that volunteers shaped what Firefox, MDN, Thunderbird, Mozilla itself were.

New comment by klez in "Leaving Mozilla"

klez — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:17:56 +0000

Some 10 years ago I was a Mozilla volunteer. I mainly worked on MDN, to the point of becoming a so-called "topic driver" for the glossary. Some of the work I did landed in the citations of a couple of papers about web technology. They flew me a whole week to Vancouver for an event where employees and volunteers worked together in the same room and they even made me (and the other volunteers ) attend a sort-of-corporate meeting where they sort-of fought about something (can't even remember what it was).

I'm telling you this to highlight that volunteers where a huge part of Mozilla.

But on the last day they announced that they were moving the day-to-day conversations from IRC (an open protocol) to Yahoo Messenger (a closed protocol). I felt sort of betrayed in that moment: the company that was all about openness and to which I dedicated countless hours doing unpaid work for and even more years evangelizing for was imposing its volunteers and employees used a proprietary app to coordinate. That didn't sit well with me. At all. I basically lost interest.

This was in 2015. Last I heard MDN introduced ads (I wouldn't know, uBlock is pretty effective) and is not showing contributors to a page on the page itself anymore.

So yeah, the part of OP saying how Mozilla managed to piss volunteers resonated pretty hard with me.

Wabi Tek Sabi

klez — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:46:42 +0000

Article URL: https://www.wabiteksabi.com/index.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422479

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by klez in "The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover"

klez — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:34:09 +0000

It's probably the C++ version of the tired EnterpriseBuilderPatternWhateverFactory jokes about java verbosity.

New comment by klez in "Why Janet? (2023)"

klez — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:35:21 +0000

If moderation is the problem maybe only allow downvoting? Of course that may bring to the surface a different set of problems (no solution is without drawbacks), but it removes the "numbers go up" incentives.

New comment by klez in "Why I collect DLES"

klez — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:35:26 +0000

AFAIU you're presented with the titles of two porn videos and have to guess the one with the most likes

New comment by klez in "Nitpicking the shell history scene in 'Tron: Legacy'"

klez — Fri, 29 May 2026 08:21:48 +0000

>It's still among my favorite music to listen to while coding

In that case you may want to try the Dark Ambient genre in general. Lots of similar vibes.

New comment by klez in "Gemini, Gophers, and Fingers. Oh My Alternative Internets Beyond HTTPS"

klez — Fri, 29 May 2026 06:57:23 +0000

Says who? I, for one, don't really like the idea of "everything is http(s)".

After all, dissatisfaction with the status quo is the reasons this space (gopher, gemini, etc.) even exists. If, like you say, nobody wanted this we wouldn't be here discussing it.

New comment by klez in "Usborne 1980s Computer Books"

klez — Sun, 24 May 2026 16:42:51 +0000

Uhm... My browser is redirected to https://usborne.com/it/books/computer-and-coding-books which 404s.

New comment by klez in "Revised^7 Report on Scheme, Large: Procedural Fascicle Draft is now public"

klez — Sun, 24 May 2026 06:54:42 +0000

I hope you don't take this question the wrong way: why is R7RS large taking so long? Is there a consensus problem or just a lack of resources? If it's the latter, is there any way a random scheme dabbler can help?

Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun?

klez — Sat, 16 May 2026 22:02:51 +0000

Of course I don't mean they stopped being fun for everyone. My impression is that they've been on one side "corporatized", and on the other became a vehicle for mindless entertainment.

I don't care for coding new stuff. Everything I may need either already exists or is too complex to do on my own (and no, I won't vibe-code it, what's the fun in that?)

I don't even code for work anymore since I moved to a project/service management role.

Basically, the spark I felt some 25 years ago seems to be completely gone.

Any suggestion on getting it back?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48164173

Points: 78

# Comments: 105

New comment by klez in "Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer"

klez — Sat, 16 May 2026 08:02:21 +0000

I'm afraid that's just our bubble. If I asked my Mac- and iPad- using parents who Steve Jobs was they'd know it was the Apple guy, but if I asked if they've ever heard of NeXT they wouldn't have the foggiest idea.

New comment by klez in "Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes"

klez — Tue, 12 May 2026 21:56:38 +0000

> Notable shoutout, the GNOME open/save dialogs are the absolute worst. I wish distros wouldn't default to it.

I'll never understand who in their right mind would think that in a save dialog, if I start typing, I mean to search for something instead of trying to change the name of the file. It's really baffling.

New comment by klez in "Pinocchio is weirder than you remembered"

klez — Fri, 08 May 2026 07:30:34 +0000

If you want a film version that is more faithful to the original book, I suggest you watch the 2019 Garrone movie [0]. There's Benigni in It, but this time he plays Geppetto and he's not as insufferable as he can be. And the rest of the cast is very good too (many beloved comedians including the late Gigi Proietti).

I have no idea if this stayed only in Italy or if it has been translated to other languages.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio_(2019_film)

New comment by klez in "StarFighter 16-Inch"

klez — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:32:34 +0000

I'm curious: why is hacker news non-GDPR-compliant?

New comment by klez in "Little magazines are back"

klez — Sun, 03 May 2026 13:03:14 +0000

You should probably read it as "Amazon can shut down your kindle but not your bookshelf"

New comment by klez in "OpenTrafficMap"

klez — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:02:12 +0000

I, for one, do like it. I usually prefer lighter themes, but this one would be more than ok for me.

New comment by klez in "Tell HN: YouTube RSS feeds no longer work"

klez — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:51:47 +0000

Looks like it's back now.