Oh good they’ve protected me from the evil AI that they chose on their own to introduce. I am immensely thankful
Come on this is pathetic, They’re the ones that cause the problem in the first place. They don’t get credit for correcting their own messes.
I’ve already switched over to LibreWolf a month or two ago. Clean, simple, and it just works.
Mozilla has released so many self-described AI features in the past few years, but this is the only one that has:
- been requested by the community
- received broad critical acclaim
I hope Mozilla learns their lesson. I doubt they will, but I hope.
I think they’re desperate to make money since they’re losing userbass AND Google is probably not happy that most users change the default search engine away from them.
Does anyone really think the current administration is going to break up Google? Lina Khan almost did it but like most of the rest of this timeline we just didn’t quite get there
sadly I’ll likely support them through any shitty decisions they make as they are the only viable non-chromium alternative these days.
I get they’re chasing the buck and trying to stay relevant, but uhhhh… if they could be less Steve Buscemi-teen about it, that’d be great.
I recommend Waterfox
They have pledged to not fill their browser with AI slop features.
Last time I tried Waterfox some sites like Twitch that actively block usage on old browsers, refused to work because the latest Waterfox release was based on a Firefox like 20+ builds behind.
Firefox was on like version 142 and the latest Waterfox download was based on build 128.
Waterfox right now is built on ESR 148, which is on par with the latest Firefox release! ESR releases will lag several versions behind, but that’s normal (even on Mozilla’s side), and I’d be kind of shocked if it was such a big gap
Edit: there was a big gap. 128 to 140 was the right jump, but Waterfox non-betas took a little less than two months to implement the change after Mozilla released it.
I strongly believe that the EU should fund Mozilla, or a fork of Firefox.
Gecko is the only viable competitor to Blink/WebKit, and it is needed
Govts around the world should be funding all sorts of FOSS projects. I know they do to some degree but not much. It benefits the whole world and only hurts big tech.
That prospect becomes less and less likely the more government is bought and paid for by Big Tech.
Funding FF? Maybe. Funding Mozilla? No way, not with my money.
This is probably common knowledge to you and many others, but it bears repeating: You cannot donate to fund the development of Mozilla Firefox.
Google can, unfortunately.
Ladybird browser looks promising!
I personally don’t HATE ai but I don’t want it in my browser or email or anything like that. I have a local llm I use for random stuff all the time but I don’t need or want a company viewing everything I’m doing, adding buttons in places I’m likely to accidentally push, or training their shit on my dumb behavior. ai has destroyed much of the Internet already to the point that you almost need to use an llm in order to get any useful information during a search. Otherwise you’re just filtering through ai generated webpages with the highest seo possible.
I’m curious, what do you use that local LLM for?
My typical reason is I need to sound less casual than I am in professional emails. Or I’ll ramble. I don’t copy paste but I’ll write an email in my normal tone, let the llm look at it and then fix it up. I’ve also used it to help me find new books when I’m in a draught. List ones I like and it’ll spit out suggestions. Today I couldn’t figure out a website issue so I copied and pasted the html and it generated a snippet of css for me that fixed the problem.
Search pages, they removed easy answers to questions from the search pages, the summaries just list part of the question and then… and you either have to click on those websites, usually garbage webistes written to hit those results not be useful, restating the question every which way, saying the same questions in different ways to hit the results, they will keep restating different forms of a question in different manners; then they will explain in exhaustive detail why someone would want to know the answer to that question, then give you a two sentence answer buried deep in the page if you can even find it.
Almost all of them written by machines, and ai themselves. But the only answer on the search page is now the AI summary, it’s presumably their way of forcing us to use it.
Also, the kill switch does not fully remove the AI slop. Remember to uncheck perplexity from the search engine list, and also uncheck AI suggested tab group name.
I started using Zen Browser, it’s a fork of FF. Sick of this Mozilla nonsense
WaterFox
I’m going to unblock telemetry just long enough for them to see me hit this kill switch
The Translation feature seems to be classified under AI. Idk what technology does it actually use, but it’s done locally on device
They’re using something that technically is AI, but it was broadly never marketed as such, because it was built before “AI” became a marketing buzzword.
all you have to do is click on Settings > AI Controls. You’ll then see a very bold and prominent option called ‘Block AI Enhancements.’
I don’t see it on mobile though.
I can’t see it either.
I’m on 147.0.4 but there’s no option to update it on play store.
How can I update it to 148?I just opened setting on a firefox tab on my computer, clicked on the three lines in the upper right, and the settings. There is not AI controls in there, and searching settings didn’t pull up any ai thing.
This is like when I tried to take gemini off of my phone, it’s hidden, instructions online didn’t work, the links didn’t exist on my phone. It’s still on there, but hasn’t turned itself on multiple times when I somehow swiped or hit something as it did a year ago or so a bunch.
It should be opt in not work to opt out and we hid the way to do that.
Maybe the article was written by AI that hallucinated the setting.
I can vouch for the page being there on my Firefox 148 on the desktop.
Huh, maybe I need to wait for firefox to update or for me to restart the computer if they just did it. I’m also running an older version of windows I think, I don’t even know which one actually but they tried to upgrade me for free and I told them no a couple of years back.
I think they just did it. Menu > Help > About will tell you if you’re on 148 and probably help you update if you want.
I was also presented with a giant “you can opt out of AI” tab after I updated.
On Android or iOS? I’m pretty sure the iOS app is just a re-skinned Safari, isn’t it?
It is!? Noooooooo! TIL
All iOS browsers are webkit under the hood (aka “reskinned safari”)
To be fair to most people who use phones, I don’t think they understand what a browsing engine is, let alone a browser half the time. I got my family to use Firefox, and they don’t know it’s a browser either.
Are you on FF148?
Supposedly. Says 148 in About.
Yeah saw this morning, turned the kill switch on immediately.
Wait so where is this AI on my firefox? I haven’t seen anything, is it running by default, and what’s it doing?
How do I shut it down then? Everyone hates AI so I don’t understand what mozilla had to gain by bringing in AI, or what they had it doing in the first place?
- Local translation which only happens when you trigger it I believe (and is cool)
- Smart tab groups which i don’t think anyone cares about and only happens when you ask it to
- Link previews which I think happens on link hover which is undesirable if you don’t want to accidentally do it (edit: see correction in reply)
- A sidebar chatbot integration which you’d have to use on purpose
- Someone said perplexity in search engine options which you’d have to do on purpose
Link previews happen if you hold click on a link or choose it in the right click menu. By default it shows pretty much just the title of the page and a banner asking you to enable ai summaries.
It’s kinda annoying, but not because of the ai. And you can easily disable it
Everyone hates AI so I don’t understand what mozilla had to gain by bringing in AI
Same as everyone else
FTA
If you don’t want to see AI on Firefox anymore, all you have to do is click on Settings > AI Controls. You’ll then see a very bold and prominent option called ‘Block AI Enhancements.’ Hit that, and every AI tool gets disabled.
