Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI: Read the memo
After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is making some major changes to its product
Mozilla will focus on bringing “trustworthy AI into Firefox.”
As soon as AI/ML crap is added to Firefox, I'll uninstall it immediately. I'm already sick of seeing "AI" built in literally everywhere.
I hope Librewolf will be able to provide binaries without this nonsense.
Another beloved thing is getting enshitificated...
depends on the implementation, article states it's based off the acquisition of fakespot which is trained to detect scams and fake reviews. if it could be expanded to detect misinformation that could be a really helpful tool depending on how its configured and information is relayed to the end user.
Well, I guess I'm just one of those people who wants a browser that's just a browser. I don't want it to chat with me, generate images, or analyze what I'm browsing, even if it's done completely local.
Preach! 🙌
I told myself I'd switch to Librewolf next time I do an OS reinstall.
I already tried it abit on Windows back in 2020 to make sure my add-ons and CSS tweaks still worked but was too lazy to fully move. I'm ready to jump ship especially if they can keep an Ai-free fork maintained.
Donate to Mozilla guys. We should be grateful they didn't shut Firefox down.
I will quote a comment on HN from a Mozilla employee:
You shouldn’t donate. The donations don’t go to MoCo which is the for profit subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation under which FF is developed. All the donations go to MoFo, where they barely covered Mitchell’s salary and what was left went to her pet political projects. People are pretty unaware/misled about how Mozilla is structured/funded. The only way you can contribute to FF directly is to keep and use Google as the default search engine.
[...] scale back its investment in its mozilla.social Mastodon instance.
NOOOOO STOP
We need more development energy going into federation, not less.
Woo, focusing on the stuff I actually use and not trying to be everything to everyone. Over-diversifying is killing so many big players.
Personally I really liked the focus on privacy-based services as a way of monetizing outside of their revenue based on which search engine is the default (basically making them Google's b*tch financially). Maybe it wasn't enough or not viable, and that's why they're scaling down..
The idea of using AI to process more stuff locally (ie: Firefox Translate) is nice and I hope they find more use for it, but that's not the kind of thing that will make Mozilla last over the years.
I hope the interim CEO and the next CEO are heading towards a cohesive vision for Mozilla's future.