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Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

blog.torproject.org

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Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#211

Post by glenstein »

swills wrote: post #160
Seattle3503 wrote: post #138

It makes me a little sad we only ever see FF hit the front page of HN for stuff people are angry about. The FF team building useful features like tab groups that are improving UX. But I guess if it bleeds it leads.

Am I the only one who remembers the old tab groups that were removed before these new tab groups were added? Edit: Ah, it seems Mozilla remembers: https://web.archive.org/web/20151112023150/https://support.m... (linking archive.org in case they take it down, this is the first copy I can find)

Right, Mozilla was actually first on the block with this. And even when they removed it it was available as an extension, because their extension ecosystem was capable of UI-level changes.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#212

Post by [deleted] »

Figs wrote: post #208

Something weird I've noticed in Firefox lately -- and been wondering if it's related to these sorts of features -- is that if I leave Firefox open for a relatively long time (e.g. a few hours) NoScript will show whatever my search engine is set to as a script injection on all pages (with a "sidebar?" note). This happens even if I do not interact with the browser during that time. If I restart Firefox, then it goes aw…

[deleted]

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#213

Post by mmphosis »

dingaling wrote: post #189
netule wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to be able to open up an arbitrary web page in this sidebar. It would be super valuable for research. They can obviously do it, since the AI sidebar also loads a web page, but the functionality is locked for some reason, and vertical splitting extensions are pure jank. I really wish Mozilla would focus on addressing some of the numerous user feature requests, rather than whatever the current trend is.

Amazing how MDI is rediscovered every couple of decades. It becomes popular, then a UX counter-effort declares that it should be the job of the window manager and it dies off for a while.

I think that windowing systems need to be way more flexible. I want to be able to drag fullscreens, workspaces, windows, tabs, MDI sub-windows, and other types of views from different programs into and out of each other. I think Serenity OS has this with windows and tabs.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#214

Post by mmphosis »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #125

"Mozilla has reversed course on when the protocol portion (e.g. http or https) of the URL in the URL bar is hidden since Firefox 128. We used to have logic in one of our patches around Onion Services (which are always end-to-end encrypted regardless of the application-level protocol used) to follow whatever Firefox does for https. However, with the latest changes in Firefox, this patch became a bit gnarly to apply co…

    browser.urlbar.trimURLs         false  to display http:// in the address bar
    browser.fixup.alternate.enabled false  to enable adding www. and .com to urls
* updated the descriptions

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#215

Post by pama »

barbazoo wrote: post #10

Didn’t know Firefox had an “AI sidebar” https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot Seems to be unconnected to any model and off by default.

Thankfully they are unconnected by default. Unfortunately the sidebar can get triggered accidentally with keystrokes from muscle memory (Emacs) and then one has to deal with the side bar. It would have been nicer if by default nothing existed in the first place.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#216

Post by lenerdenator »

ryanisnan wrote: post #170
lenerdenator wrote: post #116

Mozilla's beginning to lose its way. There are far too many "luminaries" in the tech industry who've had the last 20 years of "must create value!" go to their heads, even in the FLOSS space. When profit motive does not exist (and it shouldn't in FLOSS) then you need to stick to things like the UNIX philosophy and KISS (keep it simple, stupid) in order to create good software. Trends mean nothing when you're in this m…

This is an opinion, yet you state it like fact. While I'm hesitant to want any AI features in my browser, what a "browser" does isn't necessarily a settled debate.

> This is an opinion, yet you state it like fact.

No, the market states it like fact. 15 years ago FF was the belle of the ball. Now it has minuscule market share and is looking at an uncertain future.

> While I'm hesitant to want any AI features in my browser, what a "browser" does isn't necessarily a settled debate.

That's a fairly concise definition I gave, unless I'm responding to Diogenes.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#217

Post by lenerdenator »

pessimizer wrote: post #128
lenerdenator wrote: post #116

Mozilla's beginning to lose its way. There are far too many "luminaries" in the tech industry who've had the last 20 years of "must create value!" go to their heads, even in the FLOSS space. When profit motive does not exist (and it shouldn't in FLOSS) then you need to stick to things like the UNIX philosophy and KISS (keep it simple, stupid) in order to create good software. Trends mean nothing when you're in this m…

> Mozilla's beginning to lose its way. Beginning? > If the group's leadership cannot comprehend this, then they need to be removed immediately and blacklisted from leadership at future organizations in the future. You have no power to do this. They would have to remove themselves, or Google would have to make a phone call.

> You have no power to do this.

Never said I did.

>They would have to remove themselves, or Google would have to make a phone call.

That's what happens when you have bad governance at FLOSS projects.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#218

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

mmphosis wrote: post #214
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #125

"Mozilla has reversed course on when the protocol portion (e.g. http or https) of the URL in the URL bar is hidden since Firefox 128. We used to have logic in one of our patches around Onion Services (which are always end-to-end encrypted regardless of the application-level protocol used) to follow whatever Firefox does for https. However, with the latest changes in Firefox, this patch became a bit gnarly to apply co…

browser.urlbar.trimURLs false to display http:// in the address bar browser.fixup.alternate.enabled false to enable adding www. and .com to urls * updated the descriptions

What are the defaults

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#219

Post by baobun »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #38
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly they aren't doing any/good work, if they allow popups to cover content. It's literally their job to prevent stuff like this. Mozilla needs to bring in the Bobs from Office Space: "What is it you say you do here?"

Well, what are examples of these popups? Just because a modal window exists doesn't mean it's bad for accessibility.

> Well, what are examples of these popups?

CTA to translate between languages which the translation models don't support "yet". It's disrupting for absolutely no reason.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#220

Post by mmphosis »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #218
mmphosis wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

browser.urlbar.trimURLs false to display http:// in the address bar browser.fixup.alternate.enabled false to enable adding www. and .com to urls * updated the descriptions

What are the defaults

True is the default. False is what I set these to. I have these documented.
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