- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.today
- fuck_ai@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.today
- fuck_ai@lemmy.world
Starting with Firefox 148, which rolls out on Feb. 24, you’ll find a new AI controls section within the desktop browser settings. It provides a single place to block current and future generative AI features in Firefox.
They actually listened to the community, thats very nice.
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Thanks for posting, but people will find something else stupid to complain about, because there is pretty obviously a storm of propaganda against Firefox, which I very much suspect is driven by interests that are against an open and free internet.
Blocking these features may calm some people, but in reality, none of these features were used for anything unless specifically used by the user. So the claim of it making Firefox slower or using more resources or being used for telemetry were all outright lies.
A sentiment is tried to be created that Firefox is just as bad as Chrome, Edge, Brave and Safari when nothing could be further from the truth. But even people who consider themselves IT savvy are falling for it. 🙁
Interestingly these attacks on Firefox coincide with Chrome getting steadily worse, forcing Googles own standards and preventing plugins that block advertising, while reducing functionality for Firefox on Google/Alphabet owned sites.
I wish more people realized that using a simple policies.json file can easily transform their Firefox to behave more like LibreWolf out of the box, meaning (as someone else mentioned earlier):
- telemetry disabled by default
- AI features disabled by default
- uBlock Origin enabled out-of-the-box
It is sad (and funny) that people are calling Mozilla and Firefox shady but then installing Firefox-based “forks” from random 3rd parties. I wonder how many people realize that “forks” like LibreWolf are not patching the spooky AI or telemetry source code out of the browser at all, they are pretty much just shipping Firefox with their opinionated custom configurations and a different branding.
That is what Linux distributions do too.
Some people like to install Debian and configure it how they like. That’s fine. Some people like to install a distro that pre-configures Debian. That is the beauty of open-source.
I don’t think the proliferation of bad press is anything other than a chronicle of the decline of Firefox.
I’ve been ride or die with Firefox since early, and I’ve never daily driven Chrome. But I’ve had to keep Chrome installed to look at the sites that don’t play with FF. Little by little, FF get’s worse, and most of the “worst” these days are features, not bugs. Though their are plenty of bugs. They certainly deserve praise for keeping faith with ublock. And I appreciate that they respect privacy more than Alphabet.
I want Mozilla to succeed. I just remember when Mozilla made the case with the quality of their software, rather than the quality of their ethics.
Websites not playing nice with firefox is website developers fault not bothering to test. Heck, some sites even block you from using firefox even if it would work anyway (ex: some days ago i needed to use a site that said “you are using firefox, it will not work so just use chrome” when i changed my useragent to mimic a chrome browser, the site worked perfectly…that’s just dev lazyness!)
Websites not playing nice with Firefox has nothing to do with Firefox itself, and everything to do with lazy web devs only testing with chromium based browsers and maybe Safari.
AI “Enhancements,” fuck off.
I’ll just leave this here
It’s FireFox but
- no telemetry/spying-on-you
- no AI
- uBlock Origin enabled
In other words, it’s the open source browser Mozilla was always supposed to be.
Plus it’s typically not more than 12 hrs behind any FF release.Accept one of our free tanks ! They get 100 MPG and go 100 MPH over any terrain!
people (not calling you out specifically) keep suggesting Librewolf like it isn’t driving around a city in a tank. it gets the job done, sure, but most people will not tolerate its faults. Suggest something more in-between like Waterfox at least.
Suggesting Librewolf is like asking people to browse the web via Tor. it works, sure, but the inconvenience will make most people give up on gecko-based browsers and give into Google/chrome via Brave or the million other chrome-in-sheep’s-wool browsers.
Let’s recommend viable alternatives: https://www.waterfox.com/
What kind of inconviniences? I have experienced literally none - except you may need to enable DRM. That’s one then
DRM is one. On Windows it doesn’t auto-update by default (maybe that’s changed now?). I recall you have to whitelist some sites to work properly. It’s just not something I can set up for my parents and expect most/all websites to work without intervention.
more in-between like Waterfox
is that one still owned by an advertising company?
The original creator owns it again. That’s why I use it. If he sells it or whatever then I’ll switch to librewolf. I just don’t want ai bs in my browser but I am not a privacy nerd either.
I’d say Mullvad’s browser is more like browsing the net via TOR, but Librewolf is only about 2 steps behind it.
But yeah there are so many others that will still feel usable to someone who doesn’t think the everyone isn’t part of their threat model
most people will not tolerate its faults
What faults?
Let’s pull some obvious ones from the feature list!
- Include only privacy respecting search engines like DuckDuckGo and Searx.
- Always force user interaction when deciding the download location of a file
- Disable autoplay of media.
- Disable search suggestions and ads in the urlbar.
- Disable Firefox Sync, unless explicitly enabled by the user.
For some other ones:
- Logs you out of everything every time you close the browser.
- If memory serves, it letterboxes by default. If it doesn’t, ignore this line, I haven’t used it in a while.
I’m not saying I don’t like these features. I do. I only accept login cookies from services I host myself.
Most people will see that as an extreme annoyance the first time it happens, close the browser, uninstall it, and never try another Firefox fork again.
Most people care enough about privacy to want convenient ways to increase it. Most people do not care enough about privacy to have to log into Facebook every single time they restart their browser.
All of these are disableable, very few people will even bother looking into how to disable them. They will stop using the browser.
Most website-breaking features can be re-enabled in the Settings menu, in a special Librewolf section
Most people will see that as an extreme annoyance the first time it happens, close the browser, uninstall it, and never try another Firefox fork again.
I need FOSS people to understand that most people will not do that.
All of these are disableable, very few people will even bother looking into how to disable them. They will stop using the browser.
Also I did say that
You listed a lot of very interesting features and probably convinced me to install it and give it a try, thanks, but again, what faults?
If these features interest you, that’s great! But you’re not the average user. Congrats tho. Librewolf may be perfect for you.
These are faults for most people. They’re benefits to some! Myself included! I use an even more strict browser for most websites. I am not most people, neither are you. Most of the people I know, and most of the people I interact with, would uninstall that within 5 days because it’s missing features that have been standard in web browsers for at least a decade.
I’ve been using it for a while, and it feels almost indistinguishable from regular Firefox. Broken sites are not a common problem.
Tor
No, it is very different from suggesting TBB or even just TB.
A few websites may have some rough edges. Some of that will come from uBlock Origin. Some will come from LW defaults like letterboxing/anti-fingerprinting.
And some websites will have issues with vanilla FF, because it’s not Chrome.
Yes, for some sites you may need to turn off a privacy setting. I have run across 2-3 such, usually an over-engineered Django or custom-coded WordPress site. 98%+ of the time, I don’t notice.
And as always… There is no actual “AI” being used here.
It’s especially hilarious how translation programs, which have existed for decades, are suddenly considered “AI”. Likewise with all of “AI”.
It’s also pretty funny how mad people get about translations, image classification, grouping… These are just like basic 101 programs with zero “AI” involved. Not much to get mad about.
Agreed that it’s not really AI, but forcing a thing that doesn’t really do what is promised and uses a lot of energy to do it might might be something to be irritated about.
None of what is considered ‘AI’ is actually AI, it’s just a rebrand of machine learning tech that has been around for a few years now (and is genuinely useful in certain circumstances). It’s all ‘AI’, only the generative AI is worth getting mad about.
Disabled. By. Default.
Waterfox is a great alternative
I’ve been using it on my phone for a few months as a trial run before putting it on my PCs. I like it a lot so far!
I mean, there is a single button to disable all AI
Librewolf as well!
Hell year more slop
You mean like translations of text? People mad about this?
So I can use AI to group my tabs but I can’t even group tabs in the first place on mobile? Epic prioritization
Nah, there is no “AI” grouping your tabs. It’s just a grift.
I mean this was announced months ago. I remember I think it was about a month ago there was articles on here talking about it and I specifically went on both blue sky and Mastodon and roasted Firefox for making this decision.
All ready left that version of Firefox over a month ago.
They actually listened to the community, thats very nice.
No. Listening to the community would involve not polluting the browser with that shit in the first fucking place.
Translations? Tab grouping? Link previews?
These very simple features (which have nothing to do with imaginary “AI”) are probably useful to lots of people.
Can someone please put a responsible adult in charge of that damned organization?
Pepperidge Farms remembers when Firefox had a control like that to turn JavaScript on and off. The rest of you are supposed to have forgotten. Oops.
Javascript? Y’all aren’t using text only browsers??!?! Sellouts. \s
There is still NoScript, which is arguably much better than that, since it offers more granular control
I wrote myself a little plugin for firefox.
It runs nice, and I want to install it permanently. It does something I want.
Can I? No. Why? Because Firefox… Apparently I’m not adult enough to control my own browser. WTF.
I have to either get their developer build or become a developer with an account. WTF.
So I think, I don’t want their developer build, I just want this plugin— I make a mozilla plugin developer account- because apparently that’s how I’m supposed to do it- I try to create the plugin upload —
Can I? No. Why? Because they want my phone number before I can make a plugin just for myself. WTF.
So - I ask ChatGPT if there is any work around for this, can it search, I just want to run my own plugin, I don’t want the developer build, I don’t want the developer account, I just want to run my own plugin- ChatGPT says it can’t help me because I’m not adhering to Firefox’s EULA. WTF.
So I give up on the plugin - and today, I just happen to notice Mozilla silently turned on SYNC for my web history for that fucking Mozilla plugin developer account. So I guess I’m sending them everything I ever do on the web. WTF.
I go and try to find out what information they’ve stolen from me, can I find it? No. The have some link, to another link, to another link, to another link, which eventually ends up on some page where I can ask them to pretty please send me what information they stole. Why can I not see this without writing a letter! WTF.
WTF WTF WTF. I hate Mozilla.
Please let them burn in software hell.
/rant
@blaggle42 @solrize
https://www.w3tutorials.net/blog/firefox-add-ons-how-to-install-my-own-local-add-on-extension-permanently-in-firefox/There er multiple ways but yes they don’t make it easy cause the want to make the attack vector aka ( a “friend” sent you a email with the “hottest new” firefox extension ) as small as possible.
I understand what you are saying - but - if I want to install a program on my computer - I should be allowed to do so - the same with firefox — maybe it might need me doing the equivalent of sudo, entering some password - or just clicking through, “ok, yes I know, extensions can do bad things.”, “yes I really know that I shouldn’t install an extension if I don’t know exactly what it is” 10 times, but — etc…
I just don’t buy the “attack vector” argument. There are many ways to mitigate, without removing the ability.
Anyway, in a way this was a good experience - I am going to try to ditch firefox sooner than later now.
don’t enable unsigned extensions. It’s there for good reason.
upload your addon to addons.mozilla.org. there’s an option to not publish, but only upload for signing. then you’ll get back a signed xpi you can install properly.
Doesn’t work. Try to do it without giving them a phone number or installing some other application. You can’t. Or I couldn’t.
Then, after you can’t and you think, “I’ll go to the forums, see if there is a way.” You’ll find out Mozilla has problems with sign in. I mean come on… But this is irrelevant, this whole flow is dumb. And it presumes that I shouldn’t be able to control my own browser.
We need a new firefox - just like the original firefox showed that Mozilla was bloat and dumb, we need another that shows the current is bloat and dumb.
Doesn’t work. Try to do it without giving them a phone number or installing some other application. You can’t. Or I couldn’t.
how did you try? did you try registering a mozilla account?
You’ll find out Mozilla has problems with sign in.
It’s probably temporary, it doesn’t have problems usually
And it presumes that I shouldn’t be able to control my own browser.
they do it so that malware cant install unvetted addons to your browser. and if someone signs a malware addon this way, and some people report it, mozilla can disable it for everyone.
We need a new firefox - just like the original firefox showed that Mozilla was bloat and dumb, we need another that shows the current is bloat and dumb.
what you need is a footgun. you have it in about:config.
Using dev edition is the equivalent of sudo.
Firefox can just install an extension from clicking a link, combine that with tech illiterate people just panic-clicking “ok” on every popup, that really is an attack vector.
I mean, billions of people click yes on a “hey we’re gonna take all your data and sell it to everyone, are you okay with that?” screen multiple times a day…
Again. You are saying you shouldn’t be able to install applications on your computer.
I mean, if that’s what you believe. I don’t. I think I should be able to decide what I run and where I run it.
Especially if the company thinks of itself as open source.
Why ask chatgpt? Did you want a fake answer?
Meh, no script does that quite well, not?
No it doesn’t, you want to be able to turn off JS while it is running, and that is now impossible. Noscript stops it from running in the first place and that breaks too many sites.
You can do it. F12->debugger->cog->uncheck “Show paused overly”, click the pause button. Very very few sites still work well that way. It just doesn’t make sense to have this functionality in a HTML5 world.
Hey let’s do the thing no one wants because our management is incompetent.
One more gotcha in the AI booster arsenal: wrong model, wrong prompt, not enough agents, just don’t look at it. While none of those things addresses the actual issues of watching everyone piss away their money into the pit for no reason other than psychosis.
