Mozilla Is Shutting Down Persona.org Authentication System

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mozilla Is Shutting Down Persona.org Authentication System

Five years ago Mozilla launched Persona.org as a decentralized authentication system focused on privacy and utilizing the BrowserID protocol, but given its limited use, Mozilla will be putting an end to the server...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mozilla-Closing-Persona.org

[gbcox]

Can't say I'm surprised - and a good decision to conserve resources. Mozilla needs to circle the wagons and concentrate on the browser - otherwise their days are numbered. That would be a shame because I truly believe a strong Mozilla is important. I'm mainly a chrome user now because Firefox has lagged in features and aesthetically it is in the 80s. I would change back in an instant if they would get their act together.

[NateHubbard]

Firefox has lagged in features and aesthetically it is in the 80s.

Glad you're not exaggerating or anything.

[Daktyl198]

This honestly makes me sad. Mozilla is one of the few people I believe could pull this off (and they even had the support of a few other 3rd parties like Yahoo and Microsoft). This was going to be something great, and now... it's not.

To be fair, it wasn't perfect. Even one of the developers replied to a comment somewhere stating more than a couple reasons why even he didn't think it was going to work out. Still, the dream is there

[Guest]

If it's really decentralized, someone else could run their own server couldn't they?

(I don't know too much about the project)

[ssokolow]

Now can we FINALLY revive the efforts to enhance the browser's built-in account manager that they killed off in favour of Persona?

Before all of this Persona nonsense, they were in active discussion with Chrome devs to standardize a spec for HTML-based metadata which would allow the browser's password manager to reliably integrate with the site's built-in login/logout flow (be it username/password or OpenID), both for more reliable password management, and so login and logout could be handled via UI elements in browser chrome for enhanced phishing protection.

They also had plans to make it modular so other distributed login mechanisms (eg. OAuth) could be integrated as first-class citizens.

[gbcox]

Glad you're not exaggerating or anything.

ROFL... OK, suffice it to say they have a dated interface and lag on new features. I get that they have limited resources... which is why it is good that they appear to be getting back to their core competency.

[tigerroast]

This honestly makes me sad.

I didn't even know this was a thing.

Huh. Oh well. Another day, another overarching ambition Mozilla kills off, I suppose. Time to keep giving the FLOSS community cancer and keep watching Netflix on my Chromebook. Thought Google'd find my backlog interesting.

[rabcor]

Well this system was clearly a failure, since I didn't even know it existed till today. It was a pretty cool idea though, I wish they had succeeded, but not much you can do about low publicity, unless you have the resources, and the will to bet them on ads (which isn't exactly an easy move to make)

A decentralized account system is a great idea, but keeping such a system decentralized, and moreover keeping the data in it anonymous/out of reach for anyone who might want to see it (for those who would want that), is a pretty difficult task, I doubt mozilla was up for it in the long run.

[ElectricPrism]

Well this system was clearly a failure, since I didn't even know it existed till today.

This. A good example of failure to spread the word. It could be the most technically ingenious system ever, and if it gets into the hands of only 5 or 10 people what good will it do.

This is my reaction when I was using Thunderbird and learned that in addition to Email it's a RSS Reader, and Instant Messaging App connecting to IRC, Facebook and Google Talk.