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Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

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Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#31

Post by stephenr »

throwmeoutplzdo wrote: post #12
Aeglaecia wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You’re mixing up funding with control. Mozilla Corporation takes money from Google for search placement. That doesn’t turn it into a subsidiary. Google doesn’t own it, doesn’t run its roadmap, and doesn’t ship its code. Mozilla negotiates search deals the same way Apple does for Safari. Revenue deal ≠ corporate control. On telemetry: you’re overstating it. Firefox ships with telemetry on, but it documents what it col…

> Mozilla negotiates search deals the same way Apple does for Safari. Revenue deal ≠ corporate control.

Google search revenue represents about 75% of Mozilla's total revenue.

Google search revenue represents about 4% of Apple's total revenue.

If you think those differences don’t matter, make that case directly. But don’t blur financial distinctions into “basically the same.” They’re not.

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#34

Post by altairprime »

Ironically, I bet that a significant majority of the users that turn on the AI kill switch — which must have some kind of phone-home telematics attached — will also be users who have disabled Firefox metrics collection and so will not have their opinion counted.

So, the most effective path here for y’all to be heard is not flipping the switch off yourself (do so anyways!) — anyone who cares at this stage has probably opted out of being counted already, after all — but instead to ensure that news of this switch spreads to absolutely as many non-tech people as possible. Don’t argue that they should run some script that shuts off their metrics and phone home and updates. Just convince them to shut off the AI and explain that this is why their browser got slow about a year ago! They’ll flip off the switch gleefully, their phone-home will count them, and y’all will have the strongest possible impact on the telematics graphs at Mozilla.

I already ran the disable process manually on the computers I have friends and family IT duties towards, so I’ll go back and do the AI switch to be sure it’s counted next week. Yes, this is a crap way to be heard. But making a mark on feature opt-out graphs is probably the only hope we have left to get their executive leadership to stop drowning the browser for its own good.

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#35

Post by bpavuk »

last time when I updated Firefox, the package manager began building ONNX Runtime from source, which my "minuscule" 16GB of RAM couldn't handle. I want that during install time, as I don't like the idea of rebuilding ONNX every time Firefox updates, period.

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#37

Post by tbossanova »

shevy-java wrote: post #19
throwmeoutplzdo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re mixing up funding with control. Mozilla Corporation takes money from Google for search placement. That doesn’t turn it into a subsidiary. Google doesn’t own it, doesn’t run its roadmap, and doesn’t ship its code. Mozilla negotiates search deals the same way Apple does for Safari. Revenue deal ≠ corporate control. On telemetry: you’re overstating it. Firefox ships with telemetry on, but it documents what it col…

That is not a mix-up though. Mozilla became dependent on the Google money - everyone sees this.

Still better though right?

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#38

Post by LiamPowell »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

I'm torn on whether to see this "AI Kill switch" as a win on respecting the users, or something to keep us distractewd while they ship through "Trusted Types" API that sounds like further restriction of end-user computing freedoms.

I would absolutely love to hear your reasoning that leads to type systems being considered a "restriction of end-user computing freedoms".

For those that don't know what trusted types are: Simply put, it splits the string type in to unsanitised_string_from_user and safe_escaped_string where unsafe strings can not be used in function parameters that only take a safe string That's heavily simplifying of course, but it's the basic idea.

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#39

Post by petesergeant »

Aeglaecia wrote: post #8
bartvk wrote: post #7

Firefox is the only holdout against the ad companies, and I'm counting Microsoft amongst those. It's a very good browser, independent with its own renderer, with decent ad blocking and decent performance. It continually amazes me how people use a Google product on their desktop, as if they don't send enough data to an ad company. Actually, I'm not sure why I type this, any rational arguments are definitely not winnin…

[flagged]

You're being down-voted because it's a low-effort comment which comes with a large burden of proof that you've not included. Specifically:

> mozilla is basically a google subsidiary

"Everyone" knows that Mozilla has a heavy financial reliance on Google. So are you bringing this up to suggest that Mozilla also consistently acts to benefit Google and its ad network? If so, where's the proof? If not, what's the point you're making?

> firefox telemetry is almost comparable to chrome

Comparable to Chrome what? Telemetry? Something else? What is Firefox using that data for? In the service of or against users? What's the point you're trying to make? If you're making assertions, where's the proof?

You're making a lot of imprecise comments, most of interpretations of which carry a large burden of proof, and then complaining that people are just down-voting and moving on.

Re: Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements

#40

Post by tgv »

BrenBarn wrote: post #20
shevy-java wrote: post #15

Why wasn't this there from the get go? Many people dislike the AI spam; I do too. I use chrome-based browsers usually (I also hate how dependent I have become on Google; default firefox refuses to play audio on my linux system as they claim we need pulseaudio, chrome instead makes no such assumption and audio plays just fine, so one can go and figure out why mozilla acts worse than Google here - all the google-bribe…

> Why wasn't this there from the get go? Even better, why was the AI feature ever added in the first place?

Because a browser needs users, and some people like AI features. Firefox can't win the battle, or even survive, on an AI hating, nerdy user base.
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