These are my thoughts on the matter:
I applaud the employees that pushed back and have spoken out. You guys/gals Rock!! Thank you so dang much!!!
To Andy Yen, you obviously have no flipping clue who your actual customers are. Your views are incompatible with what I thought Proton was. I don't care how inconsequential of a decision you thought it was. That attitude over anything, especially security!?, is the exact opposite of what I thought Proton was when I signed up in 2020. I especially did not expect something like this when I became a buisness level subscriber in 2022. For me to continue using the services of Proton, you need to resign from Proton in any and all capacity.
Furthermore to Proton as an entity. Any and all who shared in this kind of mentality and disregard needs to be scrutinized and removed if necessary. Don't be crazy about it, but you know who NEEDS to go I think.
Look, we all are seeing that AI is here to stay. And it has gotten incredible at coding if I am to believe what I have read. The world is abruptly changing, but that is why now more that ever we need you to move as securely as you possibly can. Yes that still means using every tool at your disposal, but with the utmost concern and scrutiny supporting security and privacy. Even the crazy conspiracy/science fiction would never happen stuff, we're counting on you guys not being susceptible to it. We want privacy and security, not features and shinn-shi-curity.
If that is not the company Proton is striving to be, I will be taking my business elsewhere. I expect many others will be doing so as well. Imagine the fash.crud on top of all this. Don't know why I was sticking around truthfully.
Outside of the fediverse and the magazines reporting on this, I doubt it will impact Proton that much. If they actually make the CEO step down, they'd need someone with a focus on community and Doing The Right Thing, whatever that means in practice. Maybe a social contract, Debian style?
This is the reason we shouldn't have bosses. If 99% oft a company disagrees with a tactic that the CEO wants, one person can destroy everything. It's statistically speaking likely a more narcisstic/psychopathic person at the top.
We need workers cooperatives instead, where decisions are met based on consensus of employees
Something like that, yes. Need to figure out a way so people who know what they're talking about have a voice.
If simple majority at my job made decisions, they'd still be editing python2 directly in production.
That's where concepts like rational authority come in handy.
For example:
the coop votes on who is in what role. People explain their education, credentials, or experience, and the coop determines who should have authority over which roles. They are then responsible for the choices pertinent to that role because they are likely the most qualified to decide them.
If somebody disagrees with the role holder's decisions then they can challenge it and get the coop to vote on it, but that causes a lot of tension and scrutiny so you'd have to be sure you're challenging for legitimate reason lest you make a fool of yourself. Generally the role holder is left to make decisions because the coop has entrusted them to do so, and they're likely the best person for that role. But it also allows accountability if they make poor decisions.
Right. I think there's an unavoidable risk in that someone's political skills can carry them further than their practical skills would justify. Like I've known a lot of people at work who make solid engineering decisions, but aren't as well liked as the suck ups.
Damn right!
I'd argue these are the places Proton subscribers found out about Proton and became convinced to trust it.
If the board acts swiftly and decisively with absolute transparency this could be just a "small" bump to a healthier and more trust worthy company on the other side. There can't be any more BS from them though. Are they a privacy company or a profit company? They need to pick now and fucking prove it if they want to be a security company.
I also see a possible path forward, this "bump" being what sets the course. I am a paying Proton subscriber, and the important thing for me is how this gets resolved. What they learn. If they say "this or that feature won't be implemented any time soon, we're going to focus on QA and cleaning up our repos for a while" then that is exactly the type of thing that I'm willing to pay for, for example.
Yep, if Proton plays its cards well, this could be a positive thing in the end. If they dump Yen quickly enough and replace him with someone who doesn't suffer late-stage AI psychosis, it could be seen as a sign that even a brainrotten CEO can't sink this ship because corporate culture is strong enough to fix things like that.
And I do not think Yen has as much staying power as the "usual suspects" in the AI frenzy.
For those who aren't already aware: Proton AG (all of their services like Mail, VPN, etc) is a for-profit company, while the non-profit Proton Foundation retains majority ownership.
It's the same structure that Mozilla uses.