Firefox feels like an organization where the leadership is more focused on enriching themselves than the mission.
Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
741–750 of 851 posts
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#742Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like many others, the ability to run uBO is the main reason I use Firefox. Otherwise I'd use Chrome or Safari.
I have used Firefox as my default browser through thick and thin for damn near two decades. If Mozilla killed andblocking extensions I’d switch to Helium Browser in a heartbeat since they’re maintaining manifest v2 support for uBO and even ship it OOTB. The web is unusable without a proper Adblock.
I tried switching to Ungoogled Chromium lately but had to switch back because, even on 32 GB of RAM, having another chromium process running meant that all my apps were getting killed left right and centre. Do too much browsing and VS Code gets killed. Restart VS Code and do a build and Slack gets killed. Open Zoom and Chromium gets killed.
Now I'm back to Firefox again and nothing has died so far.
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#743Story as old as free software, non-profit gets put in charge, original creators ousted, non-profit extracts max value while software rots.
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#744Earlier quoted context omitted.
> From what I remember, it's not addon-users, as most users never have used even just a single addon. If most users who install Firefox do so for superior adblocking and those same users are also very likely to turn off telemetry (which I think some privacy/adblock extensions probably do by default?), then at Mozilla's end one might get the impression that "most users don't use extensions" - even though the vast majo…
Update-checks are not included in telemetry. And I would think most people using addons still do update their addons from time to time, or even have the auto-check active. There is also the download-stats from their server-side, so I would think they do have a good enough picture of their numbers. Might be they could be 10% off, but surely are there not tens or even hundreds of millions of stealth-users around. > It'…
> Don't think so, most people don't give a f* about this.
Most people are not Firefox users.
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#745I think people are wildly overreacting. There is a new CEO and he wants to make a splash so the throws around "AI" that's it. Of course there will be AI related features in firefox, there already are! Wait and see what the actual specifics are before reacting? Also, a small minor detail here: We're not paying for firefox! why are so many people feeling entitled? Mozilla has to do something other than beg Google to su…
I don't give a shit about the specifics. I don't want AI in my browser period.
Yes, AI is already in Firefox. That does not on any way make more AI any less unacceptable.
I don't want to opt out. I don't want to dismiss nags. I don't want to fuck around with internal configs and hope that the options do what they say (they often don't).
I want a browser that renders websites. That's it. Anything else is detracting from Firefox's core value proposition: being a good web browser.
I want a web browser. I do not want, need, nor am I interested in entertaining an ""AI browser"", whatever the hell that even means. I want to browse the goddamn web, not interact with "AI". We've had AI shoved into literally every conceivable corner of every piece of software. Nobody, nobody needs more AI in more places. We have ten million ways to access AI in absolutely every other program.
Just give me a fucking web browser. This is not that complicated.
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#746Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh wow TIL. Thanks, that is amazing. I just looked it up. 2023 was when it started. I'm surprised Android even allows something like this.
Yeah at some point it wasn't possible. I think Mozilla did some workaround by having a bunch of wetted extensions?
Pretty sure even back then, uBO was on the list of vetted extensions. I remember using it prior to 2023 (since like 2019), on my old OnePlus 6. There may have been a period it wasn’t available, but surely it wasn’t gone for too long.
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#747Anyone in a position to short sell from the inside?
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#748Earlier quoted context omitted.
You wouldn't calculate the expected RoI of killing adblockers if killing adblockers was never considered.
Part of being CEO/running a business is considering all options, but it doesn't mean it will ever move beyond the ROI/risk phase. Ever read one of the risk assessments in a companies public filings? It's the same thing.
Yes, the problem is that it is considered an option at all. Are they running ROIs on harvesting passwords, blackmailing users and infecting all clients with malware?
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#749Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The web is unusable without a proper Adblock" Unusable for the commenter perhaps, based on his choices, but not unusable in an absolute sense For example, I have been using the web without an adblock for several decades.^1 I see no ads Adblocking is only necessary when one uses a popular graphical web browser When I use an HTTP generator and a TCP client then no "adblock" is necessary When I use a text-only browser…
Why do people make posts like this? You know that your long-winded and patronizing response in no way is a solution to the problem that you claim it is for the audience you're talking about. Why do you pawn off an obviously non-solution as a solution? What does this get you?
The GP comment was excellent and exactly the sort of unconventional but informed thinking (about tech) that I like to see on HN
Re: Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
#750>> He says he could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that’d bring in another $150 million, but he doesn’t want to do that. It feels off-mission. > It may be just me, but I read this as “I don't want to but I'll kill AdBlockers in Firefox for buckerinos ”. Yes, that does seem like a pretty uncharitable interpretation of that quote. I read it as "we won't do it, even though it would bring in $150M US…
The interpretation is not the problem. Whether he will do it, is actually secondary to the fact that he thinks cutting adblock can bringing in money. No, it will just kill the browser. The fact he thinks otherwise tells me how out of touch he is.
> No, it will just kill the browser. The fact he thinks otherwise tells me how out of touch he is.
Believe me when I say this but 99.99999% of the human population does not give a shit what is Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave, whatever.
Their survival is completely detached from how "good" it is. As long as it runs, opens a page, opens picture, plays video.
We all live in the tech bubble, to them its an "app" that is "annoying me with ads". And that if they know its an ad, not just part of the page. That is if they even know its a page, not just something my son told me to click if I want to go to "Facebook".