That's honestly one of those big differences between Mozilla and the tons of other idealistic free/open source projects out there. They care about presentation. They care about clarity. They care about layout. They care about style.
IMO understanding how to appeal to non-tech-y users (and that tech-y users don't always want to sift through 5 pages of links to SDK-tarballs when trying to download a software) was how they managed to compete with IE/Microsoft back in the day. They're also one of the few non-profit organizations releasing software that understands user interfaces.
All that stuff going on with FF57 and whatnot must be tough for them but overall, I believe they're a huge success story and more open projects should look up to them for inspiration. If there was an operating system (sorry, Firefox OS didn't count) or office suite developed with a similar attitude, it could really make an impact.
Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. I'd link the latter, but it basically just starts to download the file you actually want. It's the little things...
Without the budget of Mozilla, there is no time to put enough thought and effort on presentation. Our volunteers are our money. I wear like five different hats in LibreOffice and do not get paid for any of them. If I focus on web layouts for some weeks, I watch in horror as our unconfirmed bug stats start growing out of control.
The number of people actively thinking about LibreOffice web presentation and layout is zero. If someone wants to start doing it for no compensation whatsoever, feel free to ping me.
As a fellow open source developer I completely understand you. Thank you for your work on LibreOffice.
Having said that, the grandparent reflects an undeniable truth of our time. User expectations are high, users are "spoiled": they expect it all and they expect it for free. Not commenting on whether that is a good or bad thing, just pointing out that it is true.
Yes, psychologically it is healthier to draw motivation from the fun of working with other contributors. I also like delegating stuff to others and that is a really good habit for avoiding burnout.
An astute observation -- applies to more than just open source. Doesn't it seems to sum up the western society in general these days, or am I becoming a grumpy old man?
The sense of automatic entitlement, with no expectation of reciprocity or putting in the hard work (in open source or otherwise), appears pervasive.
IMO understanding how to appeal to non-tech-y users (and that tech-y users don't always want to sift through 5 pages of links to SDK-tarballs when trying to download a software) was how they managed to compete with IE/Microsoft back in the day. They're also one of the few non-profit organizations releasing software that understands user interfaces.
All that stuff going on with FF57 and whatnot must be tough for them but overall, I believe they're a huge success story and more open projects should look up to them for inspiration. If there was an operating system (sorry, Firefox OS didn't count) or office suite developed with a similar attitude, it could really make an impact.
Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. I'd link the latter, but it basically just starts to download the file you actually want. It's the little things...