• early_riser@lemmy.world
    5·
    7時間前

    personally I bounce between FF and Brave. Neither are ideal, FF for the reasons cited here and Brave because it stinks of crypto bro. I personally want FF to survive, it’s the only non-chromium browser with any significant market share. I’m looking forward to Ladybird though.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
    5014·
    2日前

    Unpopular opinion: the Firefox hate is completely out of proportion.

    Whether we like it or not, a lot of users are interacting with the internet through AI agents. Every browser larger than Firefox already has AI agents locked into the browser. Firefox is providing an option for people who would like to use it, and that’s it. They’re providing it in a better and safer context, in which users can define the scope of access that the AI has, which AI agent they want to use, or even use a local AI model.

    A lot of people here will start simping for the Google-backed Chromium browsers, or for crypto mining browsers, or for browsers that are essentially reskinned Firefox.

    I’ve used the beta version that’s out now. There’s a little pop-up when it updates that says, hey, would you like to set up your choice of AI agent? If you don’t want one, you just click no thanks and skip it and everything else still works the same.

    Maybe I’m the one with the clown makeup in the last panel, but I just don’t see what the big deal is for everybody.

    • Tilgare@lemmy.world
      2·
      5時間前

      I like your take. An optimistic me would be fully onboard with it. But this isn’t a single change in a vacuum. I think the reason people aren hating is because they’re seeing it as yet another symptom of enshitification, and I don’t disagree.

      There are rare examples of outstanding companies like Steam that talk the talk and walk the walk. But with Firefox, they’re headed the wrong direction. They cut 30% of their staff this time last year, cut their internet freedom advacacy group, and I think that was the point where they started a hard shift away from who they were. They’re harvesting and selling user data now (removed the old “Nope. Never have, never will” [sell user data] from their FAQ), they’ve got a CEO that’s taking an absolute fortune off the top of a struggling company, and they’re steadily removing long time features like pocket integration and compact mode.

      The last straw will be if Google ever pulls their deal as Firefox’s default search engine… Mozilla will very likely pivot hard to nasty, modern money making practices to keep themselves alive if they lose 80% of their revenue all at once like that.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
      1·
      6時間前

      So while I generally agree with everything you have to say here, there are only two things I want to add.

      Firstly, and potentially my more salient point, a lot of end users doing something is nearly never a reason to do something, if that thing itself is bad.

      Bringing to my second point, AI is being done in the worst, and nearly most unethical, way. Participating in that front is only encouraging this behavior amongst heinous tech leaders to continue this farcical push to oblivion.

      And while this isn’t a point of contention worth discussing, since it’s entirely my already decided opinion that I have no interest in reconsidering, but AI injection is a step further into enshittification of the last true competitor to google. It erodes mindshare and trust among the loyal and evangelizers. I know personally I’m now a little conflicted on recommending FF. On the one hand, it’s still the best recommendation, but we’ve also watched this type of decline many times before and it generally spells the end when a product goes the direction of trendy fads and enshittifying for short term gains at the expense of long term gains and user trust.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
      19·
      1日前

      The backlash is over the CEO’s comments of “evolving into an AI browser” instead of the current implementation

    • Zagam@piefed.socialEnglish
      46·
      2日前

      I like Librewolf on my PC. It shuts down a bunch of stuff right off he bat.

      I’m looking for some recommendations for android devices.

      • url@feddit.frOPEnglish
        3·
        14時間前

        Go with ironfox on android. Can’t recommend fennec they skip updates

      • felbane@lemmy.world
        21·
        2日前

        Can second LibreWolf, though you have to be aware that it tweaks quite a few things in the name of privacy that you may want to turn back on.

        For example, I was unable to use my FoundryVTT webapp until I re-enabled WebGL in the settings. Which reminds me, I need to see if that feature can be whitelisted per-domain or if it’s all-or-nothing…

      • ttyybb@lemmy.world
        4·
        2日前

        Libreworlf(PC) /waterfox & fennec (phone) right now. Have my eye on ladybird for the future

      • nublug@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        51·
        2日前

        fennec is the best ff fork on android imho and pretty much exactly like librewolf with it’s defaults, it’s on fdroid. i also see ironfox recommended but i haven’t tried it personally. it’s prolly good, too.

    • Vogi@piefed.socialEnglish
      21·
      2日前

      I unironically use https://servo.org/ from time to time for light surfing like researching something on wikipedia.

      It breaks on most modern websites especially SPAs of course its like super alpha but its heading in the right direction its great to have a alternative showing up in times like this.

      Still have Firefox with all AI disabled for heavy usage and stuff like banking.

      • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
        10·
        2日前

        I might use that for an app.

        I want a spreadsheet app that uses SQLite and runs with GUI on both macOS and Linux.

        This feels like it would get the job done. I don’t want to use electron for the obvious reasons.

          • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
            7·
            2日前

            Yeah, I love spreadsheets, I love databases.

            I hate Excel. Numbers is the only spreadsheet software with a good presentation layer, but it has awful functionality. I don’t want a db table viewer/editor, I want a spreadsheet.

            Why not have a non-proprietary open format (SQLite) back my spreadsheets. You could port it to any front end you want, and the format will never go away.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      14·
      2日前

      There are a few browsers/browser engines in the works, but right now you could try a Firefox fork

          • Kichae@lemmy.caEnglish
            18·
            2日前

            And now it’s not. The original developer bought it back a couple of years ago.

            The bigger issue is that, like with all of the Firefox forks, it’s still using the Firefox code base and security updates, which is what’s about to go absolutely sideways. Removing the AI translator is one thing, but it sounds like they’re planning on totally fucking it all up at its core.

            With no usable Firefox to use as a base, all of the forks are set to die on the vine.

            • other_cat@piefed.zipEnglish
              1·
              1日前

              Good to know about the change in ownership. I wonder if that’s why they were so radio silent on updates for so long. During that time, I flipped to Floorp, which I’ve been pretty happy with.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      7·
      2日前

      Waterfox.

      Uh, in lieu of a mascot that I do not think they officially have:

      (Author unknown, someone on Pinterest somewhere?)

      Beyond a functionality/usability focus, check out that built in Oblivious DNS, DoH solution.

    • Auster@thebrainbin.org
      6·
      2日前

      Firefox forks seem decent. Besides the aforementioned Waterfox, Fennec so far seems good too, people seem to like LibreWolf, and likely I’m forgetting some other fork.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        2日前

        Fennec has been working well for me on Android, I I’ve been using Waterfox on Bazzite via flatpak for almost a year, good stuff, and I think the other fork you’re forgetting is maybe… IronFox?

        • Auster@thebrainbin.org
          3·
          2日前

          Possibly. Also about Waterfox, they also have a portable version for Linux, which for me is pretty important.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    36·
    2日前

    Can someone cue (or is it queue? que?) me in on what all the fuzz is this time around? I feel like I hear a pitchfork mob at least once a year without actually noticing anything different.

    Just for the record: I’m not claiming that there’s much ado about nothing, merely that I am severely out of the loop as usual.

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
    27·
    2日前

    These would be great with added text

    My candidates are:

    1. We can survive without Google’s money
    2. People want Pocket by default. So what if shares your data and fills your homepage with ads.
    3. We want expand Firefox into a suite and make it AI first
    4. We’re giving up $150m/year by not blocking ad blockers
  • wia@lemmy.ca
    15·
    2日前

    What alternatives exist that aren’t so locked down 90% of sites don’t load?

    Is it only ff forks and chromium forks? All dependant on two terrible companies?

    • iterable@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      101·
      2日前

      If you stay with Firefox forks use LibreWolf, if you stay with Chrome forks go Vivaldi do not use Brave, Sucks that Safari folded so many years ago for at least Windows it was a way to use Konqueror.

        • nialv7@lemmy.world
          1·
          9時間前

          Yes. It was revived recently (two years ago??) by Linux foundation Europe because there is some renewed interest in!it.

    • Wrdlbrmpfd@feddit.org
      71·
      2日前

      At least there is a project that tries to be the 3rd option, but no idea how useful this will be: https://ladybird.org/

      Opera with Presto was already not 100% compatible with websites back then and that was the last alternative Option I remember (and not open source).

    • ApertureUA@lemmy.today
      3·
      2日前

      Right. Nowadays we only have ff and chromium forks, some really tiny browsers that only render HTML/XHTML 4, and two huge unoptimized & unfinished pieces of software that render ok for some sites and really really wrong on others.

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
    288·
    2日前

    From what I’ve been noticing, they’re going downhill since they started being supported by their competitor and monopoly. Could they be suffering from sabotage, I wonder…

      • Auster@thebrainbin.org
        31·
        2日前

        Now I’m not sure so will have to check. But even if so, they still kept gradually advancing in their support for Mozilla.

        • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
          10·
          2日前

          /u/Nora is right. There was a short period when Yahoo! made a better offer to be the default search engine a long time ago, but Google was already there and came back to Firefox swiftly.

        • not_woody_shaw@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          2日前

          Started going downhill when they kicked out Brendan Eich for being a creep. The creep’s a competent engineer tho.

    • lps2@lemmy.ml
      121·
      2日前

      You’ve got it backwards. It’s the threat of anti-trust against Google’s ownership of Chrome that puts Firefox at risk. Google has pretty much always supported / paid Firefox either to have Google as the default search or more direct support to stave off the anti-trust claims.

      However, if Google has to sell / spin-off chrome, there is no longer as big of a reason to fund Mozilla and that’s why you’re seeing Moz scramble to find new ways to find funding. This AI push is no doubt a desperate attempt to lure in investor dollars as they’re reading the room and see that their current funds will likely disappear in the coming years

      Edit: spelling

      • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
        31·
        2日前

        You take out the c-suite and other top executives and the demand for funds in Mozilla diminishes dramatically.

        • lps2@lemmy.ml
          31·
          2日前

          If by dramatically you mean by <1% then sure. Their problems are much larger than executive compensation

          • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
            4·
            2日前

            In 2018, Baker received $2,458,350 in compensation from Mozilla.[16] In 2020, after returning to the position of CEO, Baker’s salary was more than $3 million. In 2021, her salary rose again to more than $5.5 million,[17] and again to over $6.9 million in 2022.[18

            That’s just one of the C-dipshits.

            According to Mozilla, roughly 2/5 (that’s 40%) of its expenses were to pay leadership.

            And what do we get from this highly paid leadership workforce? Gross mismanagement, failure to capitalize on services, services that are cancelled prematurely eroding customer confidence, terrible marketing…

            But I’d love to see how you arrived at less than a percent.

            • lps2@lemmy.ml
              21·
              2日前

              Nowhere in this financial statement does it state leadership / executive compensation just that overall payroll expenses for 2023 were $328 million - I fear you’re misreading the financial statement

                • lps2@lemmy.ml
                  21·
                  1日前

                  I fear you have no idea how to read a financial statement

                  Total expenses for 2023 were $496 million (plus income tax puts it at $511 million). Total salary expenses were $328 million, approximately 66% of all expenses. On the financial statement, there is absolutely no mention of executive compensation so no clue where you’re pulling this line that executive compensation made up 40% of all expenses.

    • hubobes@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      4時間前

      No and neither should you be worried about FX. Lemmy is absolutely amazing at spreading FUD regarding anything Mozilla does. So far they have added AI very cautiously and respecting our privacy.