LibreWolf is one of the best browsers for people who don’t like generative AI.
Here is the statement posted on Mastodon:
As there seems to have been recent confusion about this, just a quick “official” toot to then pin: we haven’t and won’t support “generative AI” related stuff in LibreWolf. If you see some features like that (like Perplexity search recently, or the link preview feature now) it is solely because it “slipped through”. As soon as we become aware of something like this / it gets reported to us, we will remove/disable it ASAP.
People do get that ultimately Firefox is paying rent right? Like if firefox goes too far, the much smaller team behind Librewolf is very unlikely to be able to keep up.
Your point being? “Give up and submit”?
Point is, there are still actual workers behind your favourite apps who still have to pay bills and feed their family. We can’t keep asking for cake and eat it. I don’t agree with the gradual enshitiffication, but I understand. This is why I am in favour of public-funded internet and applications, in the same vein how other countries fund their TV services like BBC or France 24.
So what is your proposal for now then? We should continue using Firefox and donating to Mozilla? Dont use LibreWolf?
You could not use Firefox and move to a different alternative, but even devs in that alternative will start to demand to be paid more.
Nowhere is anybody complaining about Firefox devs wanting money. That is so far from the issue. Most of us would happily and willingly give Mozilla money if it went to making Firefox a thing we want. If Mozilla had a bounty on features, direct avenues to fund devs, asked for donations every quarter or every semester, called for hardware donations, asked the community how to improve and listened or had community members on the board, I doubt the majority would complain. Mozilla does none of that except maybe asking for donations.
Donations to Mozilla just go into a black box and then you find out its gone to community outreach, AI features, buying an ad company, paying the ex CEO 5 millions per year, firing Servo engineers, and a bunch more crap.
There are many reasons people don’t donate to Mozilla. Unwillingness to pay devs is not one of them.
My point being that people are misinformed about how much of the important work is being done by who.
The bills have to be paid.
The underlying development exists because the developers at mozilla can put food on the table.
We can’t ignore the fact that a project of Firefoxs scale cannot be held together by volunteer work and hopes and prayers.
If people cared as much as they said they did, they should be looking at how the public could buy Mozilla such that the enshitification stopped rather than pretending alternatives would be able to survive the wake of any of the giants they are downstream of sinking.
Web browsers really should have been publicly funded but we have what we have…