Our product ships with a dick smashing hammer, but you can disable it if you want
I switched from Firefox because I started to have lots of issues with video playback. My gut tells me that it’s google fucking with the competition because every other browser is fine but uses chromium and has tracking.
Anyone else experience anything like that?
Or maybe they could you know, just not ship this shit. But who am I kidding, the corporation IS GONNA SHIP IT and YOU WILL LIKE IT.
Anybody used other browsers like NetSurf/w3m/LadyBird/Dillo?
Curious if anybody had any thoughts on them here that is more knowledgeable than me.
Update: using w3m, this shit is for nerds lol but it’s cool, makes me feel like some kind of 1990’s hacker. Super impractical though unless you’re only visiting text based sites.
3·26 minutes agoYeah… I really want something in-between w3m/etc. and Firefox, something that can display hexbear and isn’t running one of the three browser engines.
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Consider https://www.waterfox.com/ as an alternative. Anyone who wants a fair and free internet is probably still fucked in the mid-term unless a new FOSS engine falls out of the sky or a bunch of Mozilla devs jump ship with a hard fork because Waterfox is still downstream of Mozilla, using their engine, and reliant on them maintaining code. But Waterfox is not a bad option at present in a sea of terrible options, and it’s what I’ve switched to.
https://www.waterfox.com/blog/no-ai-here-response-to-mozilla/
Waterfox exists because some users want a browser that simply works well at being a browser. The UI is mature - arguably, it has been a solved for problem for years. The customisation features are available and apparent. The focus is on performance and web standards.
In many ways, browsers are operating systems of their own, and a browser’s job is to be a good steward of that environment. AI, in its current form and in my opinion does not match that responsibility.
And yes, yes - disabling features is all well and good, but at the end of the day, if these AI features are black boxes, how are we to keep track of what they actually do? The core browsing experience should be one that fully puts the user in control, not one where you’re constantly monitoring an inscrutable system that claims to be helping you.
Waterfox will not include LLMs. Full stop. At least and most definitely not in their current form or for the foreseeable future.
Would be interesting if this is how Waterfox really differentiates itself. From what I understand there’s been no real reason to use it over something like Librewolf or Arkenfox. Fond memories of using it for 64bit support in the early 2010s though
There was some initial confusion about Librewolf’s stance on AI, at the same time Mozilla Foundation CEO was putting his revolver into one of his orifices, that has since been cleared up: https://chaos.social/@librewolf/115716906957137196
With their clarification on why AI slop was enabled in Librewolf, I’d only caution anyone against Librewolf because they are a hardcore privacy solution for the most conservative risk tolerance. If it doesn’t break your browsing or screw with your flow, then it’s also a good consideration.
“AI kill switch” already exists. It’s called “delete firefox”
And install chromium?
sure why not
Lol they’ve clearly been getting some push back on the Ai thing, huh?
I just got on Firefox because I thought it was better than chrome
Been using Zen for about a year and it’s very nice except when I accidentally hit the clear button and lost all my tabs I was probably never going to look at again anyways.
what are some good alternatives to Firefox in case this kill switch isn’t 100% thorough?
Second Zen, appreciate the table window on the side after I got used to it.
Zen and Floorp are good. I personally use Zen, but have Floorp setup with sideberry in case I need to use another browser for some reason.
I’ve enjoyed using Zen browser lately
I’m still working with Firefox based browsers. Mullvad’s is where I’m at right now. Librewolf is my backup.
Assuming you trust them that it actually does that, and assuming they don’t just push an update that turns it back on later silently
It’s open-source. You don’t have to trust them.
I do, because I can’t go read the code and understand it. So I have to trust someone, if not them
Always funny seeing people say that for open-source stuff.
I’m assuming the AI focus is what caused them to pull the “we won’t track you harvest your data” statement from the terms of use. I had thought that would push anyone who cared enough to not use one of the bigger browsers to a firefox off shoot but I guess there’s still more people to alienate
Time for Waterfox I guess
This shit, and no gecko firefox for ios, is why I dont want a supposed non-profit to have a CEO.
