this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Firefox

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I mean they've been pedaling AI crap for a while without negative backlash.

Similarly they tried to ride the Blockchain train back in the crypto scam days and also didn't face any backlash.

They've publicly vouched to become an AI company and an advertising company without backlash.

I think most Firefox users don't care

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I think most Firefox users don’t care

Oh we care, but there's no alternative besides Chrome and Safari and those companies are even worse (Google definitely is, anyway, Apple is debatable)

Luckily there's still alternatives like Librewolf that unfortunately still use Mozilla's browser engine.

I do hope the Servo project will be ready to use in a production browser soon.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Apple is definitely just as fucking terrible.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Compared to Google? Idk. Google doesn't sell any products to the end user so that says a lot about who the customers are.

Apple sells products. Apple users ARE the customers.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

No. Apple's just getting paid from both sides.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Hard agree. Apple's ecosystem is primarily completely closed-source. If you abandon them or they abandon you you're left with nothing. At least with open source-based projects like Chrome/Firefox you can fork the code and not have to start from zero against a goliath. Apple would never give its customers that kind of leverage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

We are stuck with Firefox based browsers for a few years at the minimum as it takes a really long time to develop an engine.

Also Servo is very much not the only thing around. Ladybird exists as well

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

So it's known there's also a really indev project ladybird it's a full browser from the ground up

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What they mean with AI features is also their offline website translation feature, which is something I've wanted for years. The alternative is online Google website translation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I agree with you. It's frustrating to see people lump in genuinely good AI/ML work like private on-device translations in attempts to discredit Mozilla. There are good criticisms against them. They've made mistakes. There's zero need to lump in AI/ML.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Honestly a lot of Firefox users are eyeing forks

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

They are a Silicon Valley-based foundation half-heartedly rehashing Silicon Valley's worst trends.

The truth is, you have to do these sorts of things to attract and retain talent, even if they aren't great ideas.