Mozilla Shuts Down Firefox Send and Firefox Notes Services (zdnet.com) 27
Mozilla is shutting down two of its legacy products, Firefox Send and Firefox Notes, the company announced today. From a report: "Both services are being decommissioned and will no longer be a part of our product family," a Mozilla spokesperson told ZDNet this week. Of the two, the most beloved was Firefox Send, a free file-sharing service, and one of the few that supported sharing files in encrypted formats. Launched in March 2019, the service gained a dedicated fanbase but Send was taken offline earlier this summer after ZDNet reported on its constant abuse by malware groups. At the time, Mozilla said that Send's shutdown was temporary and promised to find a way to curb the service's abuse in malware operations. But weeks later, things changed after Mozilla leadership laid off more than 250 employees as part of an effort to re-focus its business on commercial products.
Why? (Score:2)
Once something like this is setup, why get rid of it? I used Send all the time - it just worked well for what it was. I can't imagine it was costing Mozilla much of anything to keep these services running - the development was finished.
I didn't even know about Notes. I used to use Evernote until they insisted I pay them - was it similar to that?
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Funny how easy and cheap things are in assumption land.
Maintenance is absolutely expensive for production services, especially one as resource-intensive as a file-sharing service. Ops and internal support. Security updates. Keeping people around who understand enough about the products to be reliable stewards. Even if it was 1 FT developer to do the maintenance work and pieces of a bunch of other people's time to do the other work, it would still be a few hundred thousand a year in payroll/benefits alone. Then you've got bandwidth and processing time, especially if they were using AWS et al rather than their own servers (which would probably be a wash with procurement, maintenance, IT, etc.) Keeping the visuals up-to-date with the company's branding standards. Project managers to coordinate the efforts to implement all of these things.
So, yeah. No.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the "it must be cheap to run this international file-sharing service because I don't know anything about running services" comment was the most ill-conceived comment that this thread could dredge up, even on 2020 Slashdot, but my man, you really blew them out of the water with this nonsense. Nice one.
The fine summary says: (Score:2)
Quoting TFS:
--
Send was taken offline earlier this summer after ZDNet reported on its constant abuse by malware groups.
--
Quoting TFS in the linked Slashdot story: ... all file uploads are encrypted (useful to dodge malware scanners), and the Firefox URL is whitelisted in most orgs (useful for bypassing email filters).
--
Reasons include
--
Re: Why? (Score:2)
I wasn't aware that either existed, so I won't miss them.
Who used it? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
We actually started using it at my work (2000 or so employees). We found it very easy and useful, and it filled a required niche better than anything else. We were very bummed when it was taken offline.
Re: (Score:2)
https://xkcd.com/949/ [xkcd.com]
There really aren't any good, reliable, professional-looking ways for people to send large files to each other that don't involve a) having your own net-accessible infrastructure and the know how/gumption to set up on-demand file-sharing securely, b) privacy-murdering free file transfer services, c) technically savvy users on both ends, or d) enough set-up to be a time suck if you do it all the time on-the-clock.
Re: (Score:2)
Torrents don't take much to set up and use.
Re: Who used it? (Score:1)
Erm... Yes they do. If your starting point is non-technical users, you might as well give up.
Re: (Score:2)
It took me literally two minutes to set up a torrent that I could transfer to my phone and use it to download an image from my computer. It's not like you're trying to remote into a computer in command line and navigate an FTP server and unencrypt a file with a key pair. If you're too stupid to work a torrent you're too stupid to use the internet. End of.
Re: (Score:1)
Well done you.
I don't know if you're being terribly naive, or if you're suffering from inverse Dunning-Kruger, but how many non-technical people do you think would be able to do that? Or even understand that sentence?
Mum: I've finished setting up the Powerpoint for the book I want you to publish, but it says it's too big for e-mail.
Me: Just set up a torrent that I can transfer to my phone and use to download the file from my computer.
Mum: (blank stare)
or...
Me: Just go to this web address and upload it.
Mum
Re: (Score:2)
Neither my fault nor my problem. Technology is everywhere and easier to use than it ever has been in history. Any technological illiteracy at this point is willful ignorance. That torrent was the first one I ever set up in my life, and it took two minutes.
Re: (Score:1)
> Any technological illiteracy at this point is willful ignorance.
That's possibly true. I mean, cars have been around since before I was born and they are easier to use than they have been in history. Yet I have no interest in them and, beyond the basics that I need to know in order to use them, I am wholly ignorant. Wilfully. I have no desire to learn more than I need.
For most people, computers are tools to accomplish some tasks in their life, and if they know how to do those things they have no inte
Re: (Score:3)
Actually there is a use to this. In Windows 7 (not sure about 10) if you set something as a desktop background in preferences it uses a jpged version, but Firefox sets it to the exact image warts and all. You can get around it in Windows by replacing the file but most people wont think of that, so it's more an MS problem than a Mozilla problem.
Yes shut more services down (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Yes shut more services down (Score:4, Insightful)
Legacy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Legacy is now what we call something a year and a half old? Really?
"Mozilla Shuts Down (Score:2)
Sadly the writing is on the wall for Firefox... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Google, don't call it Alphabet, it's Google. They only shat out a new name and tried to push it because they know their rep is tanking. It's like Bradley Manning.