After the controversial news shared earlier this week by Mozilla’s new CEO that Firefox will evolve into “a modern AI browser,” the company now revealed it is working on an AI kill switch for the open-source web browser.
On Tuesday, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo was named the new CEO of Mozilla Corporation, the company behind the beloved Firefox web browser used by almost all GNU/Linux distributions as the default browser.
In his message as new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo stated that Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software while remaining the company’s anchor, and that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
What was not made clear is that Firefox will also ship with an AI kill switch that will let users completely disable all the AI features that are included in Firefox. Mozilla shared this important update earlier today to make it clear to everyone that Firefox will still be a trusted web browser.
Is there nobody with sanity left? This has blown up so much the user base clearly does not want it. Focus your efforts elsewhere. You gain marketshare by putting users first. Also fuck markets.
If all Firefox users donated to Mozilla it could work. Alas, we don't.
I probably would, if the organizational structure and its spending focus(es) weren't so fucked up. They have been spending insane amounts of money on bullshit like AI instead of core browser features, and their leadership has extremely high wages for something that should be a non-profit open source organization. And it has been like this for years at this point.
Their CEO makes more than I think CEOs should earn in general, but the rest of their executives earn relatively normal to low salaries for their roles and the sector.
Non-profit doesn't mean everyone works for free.
Well to be fair they only had that or onlyfans to get paid to sit there playing with themselves.
They'd have done less damage going for the OF option.
I mean, I bet they'd make a killing off of Firefox themed thigh highs...
You can donate to Mozilla, you cannot donate to Firefox.
Which is probably a good thing. I appreciate projects like Thunderbird as well.
No money you donate to Mozilla Foundation goes to either Firefox (MozCorp) or Thunderbird (MZLA).
They are separate entities.
Pretty much this.
They are making market based decisions because they have to, and all the users bitching and moaning about them making financially driven decisions don't donate anyways.
I would donate if I ever had spare money but I never do.
$5?
Make fun of the poors yeah?
No, I just don't believe they really can't spare $5.
Maybe they can't but I'm skeptical.
Then let's
How? Where? I'll donate, take my money, and ads a voting system where paying users can vote for the next features
https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/donate/ if you're actually interested in donating.
We need valve but for browsers.
Funny. That's exactly what Mozilla used to be.
Floorp and Ladybird seem to be the two browsers people are looking towards to shakeup the browser market once they release.
Ladybird I follow since it's an entirely new browser engine and can help restore a little democracy to the web, but why Floorp? I'm looking through its website and it seems to be a more customizable Firefox, which is nice, but doesn't seem particularly revolutionary (and forks of Chromium/Firefox are kinda a dime a dozen).
Floorp misses the mark for me. Waterfox and librewolf seem to be a better fit for most people.
Always celebrate more options, though. I hope ladybird does well and doesn’t shit the bed the moment it gets some market share.
These days I’m tempted to just write myself a super minimal front end to Servo though because I don’t want 90% of what modern browsers ship with.
A very vocal portion of the user base, but we don't actually know what absolute portion cares. I'm personally unlikely to use possible AI features outside translation, but Mozilla has generally done enough that I don't feel particularly worried they're going to mess with my privacy or force me to use a feature I don't want.
They could do a survey amongst Firefox users about what they want.
But if the result is anti-AI they can't claim anymore that they weren't aware of their users opinions.
The issue is that there aren't many of us Firefox users left, so asking us while FF wants to get NEW users to expand the market share (which is badly needed, so they do not lose their seat at the table regarding web standards, and to make them less dependent on googles payments) is not helpful at all.
As long as i can switch it off with one click, i couldn't care less and will continue using FF, but as you can see many existing users will bitch and moan even if it's just one click.
This is a balancing act and Mozilla behaves like an elefant in a porcelain shop right now. Worst case they loose their current users without attracting new ones.
I'm one of them. Why not make it one click for people who want it instead?
And where to?
Ladybird, Servo and Floorp are all not useable as a daily driver and will take years to get there (and btw, the ladybird guy is a major shithead and last i heard of Servo was that they were going to cater to the embedded market, not a full blown browser).
Firefox forks can do what they want, even switch off the AI button, but i'd still say they help keeping the browser engine itself afloat, because they still depend on Firefox - there's not one fork with enough dev staff to keep up. That leaves us with chromium based browsers and safari. I'd say the commitment to the current userbase to make the changes optional is good enough to keep most of them.
I'd put current Firefox users much more in the department of "able to find the settings" than the vast majority of users. The majority wants something that works with everything they throw at it out of the box without rummaging through settings.