Thank god we have a photo of the firefox logo instead of an article
This is good enough for me. This means the Firefox code base will not get so integrated with AI features that forkers cannot remove them, and that was my primary concern.
Too little too late
Firefox has actually become less stable for me, which is crazy because it was stable for several years.
It had gotten bloated and unstable when Chrome first came out, too.
Why does Mozilla always trend toward mediocrity?
Yawn. People have been saying “Screw MozIlla, I’m switching browsers now!”
Nothing new. Just disable the feature like you do with telemetry lol.
I disabled telemetry by switching browsers tho
You cannot do that in chrome.
I started using a firefox fork lol
switching browsers
Firefox fork
So still the same browser, just a different flavor. Chrome and Firefox are different browsers. IronFox and LibreWolf are still Firefox.
I’m interested in Ladybird so we can have an independent browser with no ties to Google.
Yeah, the same browser engine. That’d be like saying all linux is the same because they all use the kernel. I do look forward to ladybird though
Which fork?
That’s a contradiction
Lol, lmao. Still deleting firefox, get fucked. Mozilla betrayed its users trust by choosing to follow this slop trend, and they’ll suffer the consequences.
& you’ll suffer the consequences of monopoly. Wait it out until LadyBird & Servo gets fully tested out
So you’ll just not visit websites at all anymore?
Opt-in you say? How about RMB click with AI chatbot that you can disable by clicking “Disable AI bot” there? Wasn’t opt-in first. And, how is that in aboug:config .ml. list contains tons of entries set to True, rather than False? How in the fuck is it opt-in? It has been opt-out and in order to opt-out most of it, you would need an intermediate/advanced user. There was no toggle switch on a sidebar for normies to see and click. I call BS on this statement.
The best killswitch is called Librewolf. Another good one is Waferfox.
Anyone know why LibreWolf isn’t in the default Debian repositories? I trust Debian - I’m not going to add a repository to get LibreWolf.
Until it’s available from a default Debian repo, I’ll keep going thru my list of all the garbage I have to go switch off in Settings and about:config every time I install Firefox for someone.
I just installed librewolf yesterday. Pretty cool, except for the no dark mode thing.
“Changes course after backlash” != “clarifies”.
Changes courseswerves erratically before continuing in the same general direction.I dunno that seems very compatible with the following that was said in the CEO statement.
AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.
Also here is a link to the posts https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500373677782
Also, the dev says the following and I think they have a point.
I’m not asking for faith in our direction - the thing I love about the Firefox community is how open, honest, and technical it is.
But I do ask that you don’t have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we’re going to do the wrong thing here.
Something easily turned off is distinctly not opt in. They’re still lying to everyone.
Earlier today I found a fucking AI feature automatically turned on… Those idiots need to get their shit straight and fast if they want to remain relevant.
Something easily turned off is distinctly not opt in. They’re still lying to everyone.
It’s just that nobody can agree what “opt-in” actually means, apparently.
It means off by default for starters.
try not to be determined that we’re going to do the wrong thing here.
There’s a lot Mozilla has done right, but there’s a lot they haven’t done right as well. These days, the cynical view has proven itself to be more reliable in general, so it’s hard not to apply it here as well.
That being said, FF has supported AI chatbots for a while and I haven’t seen it come up once in my browser beyond when they said “this is a thing now”. But this has also been a good opportunity to explore alternatives, so I’m trying out Zen now (ff-based still).
“Can easily turn off” implies that it ships to you on.
Honestly, asking us to assume that every action comes from a place of good will just makes me doubt them even more. You earn that kind of trust, you don’t ask for it; and if they don’t have it they should be asking hard questions about why.
They are a company that used to be about independent choice but are effectively reliant on Google (a privacy nightmare) to be solvent, and they’re now putting their bets into being “a modern AI browser”. Nothing about that tells me I should just trust them.
Maybe but I although critical of some recent firefox actions think its possible given the og statement it is a clarification from a somewhat vague statement that was taken in the worst possible way by some and posted again and again often by people not even reading beyond the headline.
They already said as much two or three months ago, but sure, believe that everybody is out to get you via forced AI.
not sure this is enough for me. Its too late and too large a faux pas to recover from. In my opinion.
For me it’s really not. If you don’t need to opt out and are proud of your killswitch, just don’t put it there for normal people.
Is the killswitch in settings? Because I had to set browser.ml.enable to false in about:config since there was nothing related to it in settings
Yeah, that’d be like the web browser equivalent of going into the Windows registry editor and changing a value in there. Like, it’s there, but unless you already know what you’re looking for, it’s not really an option.
They have said they will make one outside of about:config.
Is anything related to AI even in yet? Or is it that they just placed the flag in there for future use, but no features are in?
The tab grouping has an ai thing that suggests groups for you I think
and the right click summarize is in.
Not sure if it counts but chatbot support in the sidebar has existed for quite some time now.
Yeah. I’m still pissed off dev hours get wasted on this shit instead of, idk, HDR support? Surround sound audio?
They say a switch will be built in. There is no switch yet. Which means the deluge of little popups about AI tab grouping and the “look at Perplexity” messages are not going away until these changes are actually released.
the killswitch is in
about:configbrowser.ml.enable browser.ml.chat.enabled browser.ml.chat.menu browser.ml.chat.page browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled extensions.ml.enabled browser.search.visualSearch.featureGateThis is 12 switches
That’s… Not really a switch. If somebody has to go to a secret place, get past a warning sign, and type in a half dozen secret commands… it sounds more like an espionage movie than the flipping of a switch.
And people have already complained that some of those flags don’t affect newer ones, which Mozilla keeps adding. We might as well say Microsoft has a setting to turn off telemetry, never mind it’s also hidden and it also keeps getting switched back on.
the killswitch is in
about:configAh yes, the easiest place to put a kill switch for the average user, as opposed to the complexity of a toggle in settings.
People on Lemmy will hate to hear this but the average user wants AI integrations.
That’s the main problem Firefox has. They are trying to appeal to a wide audience but their core users would never let them do anything that might do that. Then the core users sit there and wonder why Mozilla struggles and demand they work exclusively on the browser, an endeavor well known to not be profitable.
The average user doesn’t give a shit about privacy either as evidenced by the state of the current Internet.
First, citation needed on these people who want AI. People on LinkedIn will hate to hear this, but I don’t think the average user does.
Second, I don’t understand your point. Do you actually believe the average user would feel compelled to switch to Firefox? Why? Instead, Mozilla is taking aim at their current users.
The average user uses llms like a search engine because search sucks rn
It sucks specifically because the megacorps want to make the AI look better than it is and because they want to keep people on search results pages…
The shittyness is a feature to these vultures.
The average user doesn’t give a shit about privacy either as evidenced by the state of the current Internet.
Indeed but 0% of them are using Firefox. That battles been lost
deleted by creator
Or you could just use Librewolf
FF build with adblock built in and AI/spyware ripped out
they have said they will make an option that is not in about:config
Well they should have done this when the first ai feature was introduced. Bit late now.
“You won this round. But we’ll try again tomorrow!”
They already said as much two or three months ago…
