Mozilla is accusing Microsoft of using Windows design choices and Copilot integrations to steer users toward Edge and make Firefox harder to use, raising fresh concerns about browser competition and platform control.
There’s a lot of people on the Mozilla hate train, and they do deserve a bit of ire for some of their more puzzling decisions. All I wanted from Firefox was a configurable browser with sane defaults, that lets me block ads and does all the normal browser things without being a total black box of corporate telemetry and profiling. To a large degree Firefox has been the best mainstream browser for people who can’t dance with the devil and use Chrome. In many aspects, it has made better decisions than Chrome.
With that said, I didn’t want Pocket, I didn’t want AI, and I’m mildly annoyed that this sort of thing is in the default build. It feels like a windows installer asking you to install 10 additional programs, but the ticked boxes are greyed out. I just want a browser, no crypto wallets, no ai assistants, no built-in mail client, no biometric scanning.
Firefox has been around long enough to have been both god tier and trash tier at different points. I don’t think the AI focus is going to go well for Mozilla. I’d like them to focus on browser stuff.
I had an ad in my Firefox settings for “Solo AI Website Creator”. It’s a product from Mozilla for using AI to build your website. Note that it’s not open source, and you must rely on them to host your website (no export functionality, and recurring fees outside a basic free tier).
I agree with you, I wish Mozilla would focus solely on their mission instead of trying to build all these side projects people don’t want.
I meeeean…. I kinda agree with you, but where exactly do you expect funding to come from? “Focus only on the browser. That they make no money off. Also stop accepting money from Google.”
Like I get it to an extent, it would be nice. But how exactly is “make no money” a viable business plan?
That’s fair. I wouldn’t reject money from Google but instead build up an endowment with it for when it eventually disappears. If you can recover your market share (maybe by investing in your browser - the peformance is lagging) then you can also demand more money from Google to set them as default. Finally, Mozilla is a non-profit and I wouldn’t be opposed to them just asking for donations, like most non-profits.
There’s a lot of people on the Mozilla hate train, and they do deserve a bit of ire for some of their more puzzling decisions. All I wanted from Firefox was a configurable browser with sane defaults, that lets me block ads and does all the normal browser things without being a total black box of corporate telemetry and profiling. To a large degree Firefox has been the best mainstream browser for people who can’t dance with the devil and use Chrome. In many aspects, it has made better decisions than Chrome.
With that said, I didn’t want Pocket, I didn’t want AI, and I’m mildly annoyed that this sort of thing is in the default build. It feels like a windows installer asking you to install 10 additional programs, but the ticked boxes are greyed out. I just want a browser, no crypto wallets, no ai assistants, no built-in mail client, no biometric scanning.
Firefox has been around long enough to have been both god tier and trash tier at different points. I don’t think the AI focus is going to go well for Mozilla. I’d like them to focus on browser stuff.
I also don’t remember asking for a Firefox Account or Firefox Profiles.
Because yay, that’s one more fucking thing to keep track of on top of a hundred things that make you register these days.
I had an ad in my Firefox settings for “Solo AI Website Creator”. It’s a product from Mozilla for using AI to build your website. Note that it’s not open source, and you must rely on them to host your website (no export functionality, and recurring fees outside a basic free tier).
I agree with you, I wish Mozilla would focus solely on their mission instead of trying to build all these side projects people don’t want.
I meeeean…. I kinda agree with you, but where exactly do you expect funding to come from? “Focus only on the browser. That they make no money off. Also stop accepting money from Google.”
Like I get it to an extent, it would be nice. But how exactly is “make no money” a viable business plan?
That’s fair. I wouldn’t reject money from Google but instead build up an endowment with it for when it eventually disappears. If you can recover your market share (maybe by investing in your browser - the peformance is lagging) then you can also demand more money from Google to set them as default. Finally, Mozilla is a non-profit and I wouldn’t be opposed to them just asking for donations, like most non-profits.
3 out of those 4 are not even a thing in firefox