They should never have rolled out any of these AI features without this already implemented. I think it really speaks to their priorities that they rolled it out in this order.
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I think it's a good thing: we complained and they listened. FF is far from being perfect and I'm definitely not a fan of some of the decisions they made recently, but it's still the best browser out there. It's great that there is forks but they are only possible if FF base keeps being updated.
There should never need to be a “kill switch” for a feature the developers have full control over.
Just make it opt-in. An AI kill switch makes me think that they’ve got a setting that will block all known AI interfaces and generated content, which is not what this does.
appreciate how it's not buried in the options; it's right in the main menu in the settings page.
I'm just using the Firefox ESR client until its phased out.
Did they ever tackle all the data collection they introduced? iirc it was opt out not opt in
Nope.... And ads built in is still a thing
Sponsored stories, sponsored top shortcuts, even the weather is sponsored. There used to be an "off" switch directly in the NTP settings, but they pushed it into the settings menu.
There a bunch of sponsored stuff on the new tab page they get paid for.
... Those can be removed with a few clicks, mate.
They sure can.... They shouldn't be there at all however
I'm curious how you think Mozilla should provide a 100% free product with the things everyone wants without paying any developers?
Are you serious? Mozilla gets almost a billion dollars a year from Google. Stop posting if you are this clueless.
And why do they get this money?
Partially to keep Google as the default search, isn't it?
more than partially actually. 85% of Mozillas income comes from search engine deals.Then when you look at the revenue reports for the year, its stated in it that.
Approximately 85% and 81% of Mozilla’s revenues from customers with contracts were derived from one customer for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Receivables from that one customer represented 70% and 64% of the December 31, 2023 and 2022 outstanding receivables, respectively.
I'm no accountant and while Google is not specified. That sounds like the signs are pointing at google being 85% of the projects income.
Are you a bot?
Show me the adverts that GNOME or the KDE project pushes. How do I block ads in my Linux kernel? Where are the ffmpeg adverts? What about the curl ads? Where do you go about finding adverts in LibreOffice? I've never seen any ads in nginx, but maybe I've missed them.
There's so much free software out there.
Mozilla gets money, they can also apply for funding if things get that tight. Given that they're pouring money into useless projects no one has ever asked for, that's widely unpopular and has lost them a tonne of goodwill among their userbase, I don't think money is a massive problem for them.
What the hell, i didnt know about that, i guess im still happy with Librewolf
The fact that they can’t find enough utility in AI to make people want to use it is telling.
Moz: We're an AI first browser. There's AI in everything now!
Everyone: Boooo *uninstalls*
Moz: We're not an AI first browser. We've added these control features so you can reduce the AI.
Disable the AI*
After all that's the only reason for a "killswitch", no?
My question is whether or not disabling the AI feature also disabled the feature that have had AI integrated into them. The article is unclear on that.
i don't think they claimed to be ai first i think they claimed about pushing responsible people first ai, which is a noble goal.
Too little, too late for me. I've already moved to Librewolf on everything with a GUI. Ironfox on my phone
As a Firefox user, this is not long-awaited. It's a tepid excuse for a dead project. The forks of Firefox are the only real alternatives if you value privacy over convenience. If you don't, then there are faster browers than FF anyway.
As a 10-year FF user, do you have any recomendations to what to switch to?
Waterfox if you want something that still feels like a modern browser, LibreWolf if you don't mind having stricter defaults. If you want the nuclear option, Mullvad browser is good, it is very inconvenient thoygh. At least for desktop. On mobile I use Vivaldi/Fennec/Vanadium depending on need
I tend to like Zen browser. It looks and feels a bit different, but to me that feels refreshing.
I haven't personally yet, but a lot of people suggest switching to LibreWolf on PC and to either Fennec or Waterfox on mobile. At least on Android, since I can't be bothered to look up the availability on iOS.
I went to Librefox. It has some harsh defaults that I ended up tuning, but so far it works well. Could just port over bookmarks and such.
Alternative interpretation: the CEO had the focus on pushing the imaginary game-changer and so the controls came later.
Better nate than the lever at least, especially when you look at chrome in comparison.
this is cool to see, Mozilla is not being perfect, but its better than chromium still, personally using Zen because thats the best browser for me, if firefox dies, so does it, and I personally don't want that, this is a win, even if having it be opt out sucks
where is the single user data collection and selling kill switch
I've always seen "kill switch" being used in a negative tone, so with how the headline is written, it sounded like some AI feature that could kill the browser itself was implemented.
I'll use it, but I know that doing so will put me on some sort of asshole list and you will fuck me over.
And I'm fine with that DO IT put me in the alligator camp or whatever, I'm done and done
what's the fedi opinion of ung00g chromium flatpak these days
That's good, but it would be better still if AI was opt-in instead of opt-out.
I didn't even know Firefox had AI features.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Albert’s suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
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