Live data from Hacker News

Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

bugzilla.mozilla.org

41–50 of 56 posts

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#42
post #38
post #19

> My new tab window should have no advertisements in it, because you are a nonprofit. "Non-profit" doesn't mean that money magically appears out of nothing. > pushed me ever closer to just giving up and going to Chrome, where at least they exploit me in predictable ways. Chrome is worse, and the ways are much more intrusive. They aren't even predictable. If people keep attacking Firefox like that, there won't be any…

> "Non-profit" doesn't mean that money magically appears out of nothing. It appears already from Google's pockets. First why dont they try to be lean instead of shoving ads to users all year long? How many millionaire execs do you need to run a non-profit?

Because Google could cut funding from them at any moment. I literally use Firefox in order to not be dependent on Google's whims, so I think it makes sense for Mozilla to move towards a position where they too are not dependent on Google's whims.

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#43
post #7

Mozilla is in a tough spot. An ad for their VPN might be amongst the least bad options they have. Mozilla plays an important role in providing platform diversity. Any user that wants Mozilla to succeed but protests by using a WebKit based browser is achieving only a pyrrhic victory.

Mozilla would be in a much less tough spot if they didn't keep rearranging their deckchairs every six months, and actually let us fund the browser team directly.

That is exactly the root of the problem. Yet they keep pretending its not.

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#44

> So let me be really clear: STOP PUTTING ADS IN THE GOD DAMNED WEB BROWSER! I DON'T WANT YOUR VPN! I WILL NEVER WANT YOUR VPN! YES. How can Mozilla be so out of touch? Do they not understand the fact people use their browser because it supports uBlock Origin? We need to repeat this loud and clear until they get it.

I use Firefox. I don't use an ad blocker, but I do use Firefox's tracking protection, and first party isolation. If Mozilla doesn't track with this ad, I'm _okay_ with it.

> I don't use an ad blocker

Why not?

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#45

Mozilla is in a tough spot. An ad for their VPN might be amongst the least bad options they have. Mozilla plays an important role in providing platform diversity. Any user that wants Mozilla to succeed but protests by using a WebKit based browser is achieving only a pyrrhic victory.

Mozilla could be in a much better position if they focused more on that platform diversity instead of all those other types of "diversity". Alas, their multi-million dollar CEO - who is keen on using the platform for censorship purposes [1] - seems to crave the warm embrace of the diversity crowd over success in the marketplace.

I was there when the Netscape source was released and stated building the same day. I followed the burgeoning Mozilla project from the start and have used first Netscape, then Phoenix, then Firebird, then Firefox and every now and then Seamonkey ever since. I want there to be a strong competitor to Blink (the engine behind Chromium) but I think it has become clear that Mitchell is not the right person to lead this project, being more interested in politics and progressive causes than keeping the competition at bay. Mozilla needs to scale down its organisation and focus on those aspects, creating a number of interoperating projects and products which can compete with Chromium and the infrastructure - sync etc - behind it. Those projects should be platform-neutral and not reliant on central hosting, i.e. it should be possible to easily self-host a Mozilla auth/sync server. Given those conditions Mozilla could become a key component of the drive towards a more decentralised internet.

Get rid of Mitchell and her lackeys and use her copious remuneration (more than $3.000.000) to hire 10 to 20 full-time engineers, set them on this task and get that ball rolling.

[1] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat...

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox. I don't use an ad blocker, but I do use Firefox's tracking protection, and first party isolation. If Mozilla doesn't track with this ad, I'm _okay_ with it.

> I don't use an ad blocker Why not?

The cost-benefit isn't there for me.

Benefit: Removing ads isn't much of a benefit for me, since having tracking protection and first party isolation.

Cost: Ads blocker require high privilege permissions that I choose not to grant.

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#47
post #31
post #19

> My new tab window should have no advertisements in it, because you are a nonprofit. "Non-profit" doesn't mean that money magically appears out of nothing. > pushed me ever closer to just giving up and going to Chrome, where at least they exploit me in predictable ways. Chrome is worse, and the ways are much more intrusive. They aren't even predictable. If people keep attacking Firefox like that, there won't be any…

I'd normally agree with you, but Firefox has so many knobs in the about:config and they change often enough (and e.g new ones appear) that it's a game of constant surprise, thinking you turned off all of x, only to find something very similar popped up somewhere else and you didn't know about it because it's a buried about:config preference

Mozilla hasn't always made the best decisions in the past few years, but there are better ways to communicate things to them than lashing out and threatening to on quit every update. People regularly do that even for things that are easily turned off in the normal settings. If Firefox disappears, it's going to result in a far worse outcome.

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't use an ad blocker Why not?

The cost-benefit isn't there for me. Benefit: Removing ads isn't much of a benefit for me, since having tracking protection and first party isolation. Cost: Ads blocker require high privilege permissions that I choose not to grant.

> Removing ads isn't much of a benefit for me

Why not? I'm genuinely curious... The web feels completely different without ad blockers, at least to me.

> Ads blocker require high privilege permissions that I choose not to grant.

That is perfectly understandable. I agree with you. I think these blockers should be built into the browser themselves in order to eliminate this problem. Sadly, conflicts of interest prevent that. Firefox is funded by Google.

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#49
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy concept but what if you just paid for the browser then?

I'd love to pay for Firefox. Not Mozilla or anything else. Just the Firefox team. Can I?

Here's one way to support them. https://fpn.firefox.com/

Re: Firefox 94 advertises VPN in new private browsing tabs

#50
post #49
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to pay for Firefox. Not Mozilla or anything else. Just the Firefox team. Can I?

Here's one way to support them. https://fpn.firefox.com/

Nope. This is not supporting the browser, it's supporting their VPN that they develop, that takes time and effort from the browser work.
Post reply on HN