- Firefox 149 is adding a built-in free VPN starting from March 24
- It has a cap of 50GB of monthly data in the US, UK, Germany, France to start
- Mozilla is also rolling out a set of new tools to boost productivity
Removed by mod
Firefox: introduces helpful, completely opt-in feature
Firefox users:
True. But also fuck spez
What spez gotta do with this?
Look a little closer
Mozilla has always had a VPN offering; this is just doing the same thing that Vivaldi did with Proton. It’s not designed for power users; it’s designed for regular users to introduce them to more private browsing.
Vivaldi is an apt comparison because in my experience, it is really bloated compared to any other Chrome-based browser. Bloated to the point of feeling laggy on desktops.
Yeah they have TOO many features at this point.
It’s entirely optional folks. No need to get all bitchy. FF is our only option against google, we need to stop criticise all they do. We asked for an AI opt-out option and they listened. Mozilla is far from perfect but we need them to keep developing, no forks are possible without FF.
Sometimes the only real options are “bad” and “less bad”. An uncomfortable echo of something else we’re all familiar with, perhaps.
This does not mean that we should not criticise the less bad option, only that we should not switch to the the bad option.
50GB per month would be fine for me. But I’d want to know if it quietly turns off the VPN when the data cap is reached.
Does it have a kill switch that disconnects in time when the VPN fails? And what would happen if authorities demand user data from Mozilla. Do they keep their logs?Also, what’s the current recommendation for a paid VPN?
Other comments kind of allude to it, but Mullvad is the go-to recommendation for private VPN services in general. It’s not very cheap, but it’s also not compromised like most of the ones you’ll see on sketchy review sites and sponsorships.*
* Edit: including the VPNs TechRadar promotes in the middle of their own article.
Mullvad is dirt cheap though? $5 a month? Isn’t that just like the minimum amount a vpn can even cost these days?
set of new tools to boost productivity
I can’t WAIT to hear what inane bullsh*t this will be. Haven’t seen anything good from the 'Fox since the new CEO started steering the company at the nearest iceberg.
- To-do list and timer on the New Tab page
(why couldn’t this be an extension?) - Tab Notes
(why couldn’t this… wait, this already is a recommended extension!)
LOL
- To-do list and timer on the New Tab page
Sorry Mozilla, I just switched to waterfox.
Im so lazy and I’ve been pushed towards waterfox myself
Personally, I use Zen, and I wonder if the VPN will be included & accessible to the FF mods like Zen, Waterfox etc
First peddling AI. Now vpns. My money is on they include world of tanks with popups from hello fresh or whatever next.
Our metrics show that you drive the car to the grocery store once a week… So we started growing kale in your back seat. Just wait until you see our new model the chicken coupe.
The VPN that Mozilla (Firefox) has sold for years was rebranded Mullvad. Assuming they’ll still use Mullvad for this, I wouldn’t worry.
EDIT: I’ve since seen somewhere else that Mozilla may not be using Mullvad for this (just to be clear for anyone reading this later).
I’ll be honest. If it were mulvad that’d be a definite plus… But I’m still pretty opposed to a browser building in hard coded things that should be leveraging their extension / plugin function.
It reduces attack surface, bloat, and base resource usage and I’d imagine would simplify code. It improves visibility on what has been “added” for users not reading patch notes and neatly dodges potential regulation issues to boot.
I daily drove firefox right up until the AI issues. It was efficient, transparent, and reliable. I have no issue with them taking money from wherever they can get it. I do take issue with bloatware being opt out: especially when I need to go digging through settings for a new toggle… Only to find out its still wasting resources until you dig in about:config for several more flags.
Looking forward - I think regardless of our views on where features go and what they do… We all can agree that especially now we should have developers looking to make their apps as efficient as possible. Because at least for the foreseeable future - resources aren’t getting cheaper.
Gambling is pretty popular these days. I vote for a gambling sidebar. And if you don’t like it, you can just turn it off…
Ugh. Sidebars. I feel like UI/UX ran out of good ideas and is staring to go full Caligula. A few more years and we’ll be back to chonky xp UIs with 40% less space for the content you are trying to interact with.
We are already at chonky UIs, every webpage/app has 80% less information on the screen at any time than they did 20 years ago.
Not if youre on your phone!
Why their desktop version needs to look good on your phone, I’ll never figure out…
We can sell 80 percent of the screen WITHOUT inducing seizures!
If it’s free, you’re the product.
Or it’s supported by donations and volunteer time.
But that wouldn’t be a memorable meme 😜
Typically, yes. But, unless things have changed, the VPN that Mozilla (Firefox) previously offered was rebranded Mullvad. Assuming they’re going to use Mullvad for this offering as well, I don’t think that saying will apply here.
EDIT: I’ve since seen somewhere else that Mozilla may not be using Mullvad for this (just to be clear for anyone reading this later).
What are they going to do with all those VPN data?
Pay rent.
