Firefox to go full AI with new CEO

POSIX.1 · 2025-12-17T15:52:37+0000

cracauer@ you did omit this for purpose, which is not ok and is not fun:

First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it.

fmc000 · 2025-12-17T15:58:56+0000

POSIX.1 said:
First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn ON IF THEY SO WISH. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it.

Fixed that for you.

Jose · 2025-12-17T16:09:49+0000

cracauer@ said:
I dunno. I have a strict rule to not use software made by madmen. It never leads anywhere good, even if the initial direction looked promising.

The Hans Reiser lesson?

POSIX.1 · 2025-12-17T16:31:03+0000

fmc000 said:
Fixed that for you.

fmc000 that is acting bad, as a cite cannot be "fixed". Although you are free to add your opinion. That makes a difference.

kpedersen · 2025-12-17T16:49:32+0000

cracauer@ said:
I have a strict rule to not use software made by madmen. It never leads anywhere good, even if the initial direction looked promising.

I'm not sure we have a choice. Sure, in open-source, they don't have corporate logos to hide behind. The rest do.

cracauer@ · 2025-12-17T16:54:05+0000

POSIX.1 said:
cracauer@ you did omit this for purpose, which is not ok and is not fun:

First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it.

These switches appear with the beginning of controversial changes and then disappear over time.

mer · 2025-12-17T17:10:43+0000

kpedersen said:
I'm not sure we have a choice. Sure, in open-source, they don't have corporate logos to hide behind. The rest do.

Who defines "mad"? Some would consider Mozart "mad" but hard to deny his music.
I've seen stuff that basically says "all engineers are on the spectrum" simply because of typical engineer habits. (Stereotype of the "mad genius")
Perhaps everyone is on the "mad" spectrum.

But for me there is a difference between mad and evil. The implied examples in this thread to me are more evil than just mad.

Just my opinions

fmc000 · 2025-12-17T17:22:10+0000

POSIX.1 said:
fmc000 that is acting bad, as a cite cannot be "fixed". Although you are free to add your opinion. That makes a difference.

Do you know the word irony ?

rbranco · 2025-12-17T18:07:29+0000

cracauer@ said:
I dunno. I have a strict rule to not use software made by madmen. It never leads anywhere good, even if the initial direction looked promising.

I also have this rule and that's why I'm proud of having removed the last bit of Reiserfs from FreeBSD. But in the case of Ladybird I think the person in question has been the target of character assassination and we should avoid perpetuating it.

Wrt Firefox, I think the whole thing it's being blown out of proportion. It's all doom & gloom these days for clicks.

blackhole · 2025-12-17T18:32:02+0000

cracauer@ said:
These switches appear with the beginning of controversial changes and then disappear over time.

Yes, Mozilla has been doing this for years.

Also the bundled in google telemetry/spyware/whatever you want to call it, has always been opt out, but without any UI elements to enable/disable (about:config only) and it's likely this will be no different.

This "AI" direction was announced a few years ago. I remember being not at all surprised - and I'm sure google are happy enough so long as Mozilla don't place any emphasis on developing a credible alternative to their chromium monoculture. So long as Mozilla do that, google will continue to throw money at it and Mozilla will continue down the same path as with the previous CEO...

RetroComputingCollector · 2025-12-17T19:39:40+0000

I already got away from Firefox after they added the ads and the telemetry. It turned into what feels like a Microsoft product now.

6502 · 2025-12-17T20:07:14+0000

Maybe future versions of Firefox will need 1GB RAM for every tab. And versions will go 10x faster (after version 160 will jump on 170).

cracauer@ · 2025-12-17T20:17:06+0000

blackhole said:
This "AI" direction was announced a few years ago. I remember being not at all surprised - and I'm sure google are happy enough so long as Mozilla don't place any emphasis on developing a credible alternative to their chromium monoculture. So long as Mozilla do that, google will continue to throw money at it and Mozilla will continue down the same path as with the previous CEO...

I dunno. From what I see here the new CEO is even worse at corpspeak than the previous one.

RedGreen925 · 2025-12-17T23:15:21+0000

cracauer@ said:
Waterfox has an answer to that blog post:

No AI* Here - A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter - Waterfox Blog

Mozilla's pivot to AI first browsing raises fundamental questions about what a browser should be.

www.waterfox.com

Indeed I just switched last night to it a very painless process of firing up Waterfox logging into my Firefox account to sync all my settings and away I have went with it. Just minutes ago I created a .desktop file for it to have it in my menu for easier launching. Kind of sad about it really going on twenty eight years of use when I checked the date of the fork from the Netscape code that became Firefox eventually, that is when I first started to use it and stuck with it all that time. But enough is enough with them clowns at Mozilla my frustration has been building for a number of years now with them and that was the straw that broke the camels back as they say.