To be fair people liked the translation feature too
Comment on Firefox 148 introduces the promised AI kill switch for people who aren't into LLMs
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
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.
Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Orygin@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Ssshhh don’t say that too loud or the “no one wanted this” crowd may hear you. They would be very scared if they could read.
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
When Firefox 118 was announced, they didn’t call it AI. They didn’t even call it machine translation, which is what it was.
They called it local, automated translation.
Maybe you should have read what I wrote and what Mozilla said.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
When I turned it off the translation thingy went away, so I’m not sure if it was AI all along and they were lying about it or not. Just as well, there’s an extension that works fine and it doesn’t reload the page every time I toggled it like the built in one did.
Orygin@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
And?
Because the term AI was not in vogue at the time, even though it’s clearly the same technology, it doesn’t count? It’s literally packaged under the same umbrella now.Anyway, the big issue is still tech ppl thinking their viewpoint is the only one valid, and that every generic user will have the same exact needs as them.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
TWP does it better.
CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
TWP dumps your pages to google translate, no thanks. FF is on device
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
You don’t have to use google translate (there are 2 other services included), and TWP doesn’t reload the page when you toggle the translate function off and on like the built in one did.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I tried FF translation a couple times, and it woefully poor compared to Google’s. What am I doing wrong?
Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Firefox’s runs locally while google’s runs on their (much more powerful) servers, for something similar to chrome’s I’d just get the deepl extension, which does the same thing just better.
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
Problem is Mozilla needs money and shoving AI features into shit is how you get investors these past few years.
Feyd@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
You think VC is putting money into firefox? Wtf?
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Funnily enough, it’s the other way around: Mozilla has been dumping money into AI VC startups.
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
I don’t think the vietcong are doing much of anything for the past couple decades.
4am@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
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
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah it’s a catch 22.
They either fail to get a big enough use base because their core users are not enough and they fail from a lack of funding.
Or they try to follow trends to increase their appeal and user base, and annoy their core users.
Most users don’t realize that Mozilla is doing what Google is doing with Chrome with an engineering team 1/4 the size of the chrome team. And that the grand majority of their costs are engineering related.
Browsers are expensive, and Mozilla needs to find revenue streams to pay for it.
raldone01@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I believe Firefox could raise a lot of money through donations. If they make it clear that Firefox donations will be solely used for Firefox development. Also ideally add a quick survey to donations to see what the “donating” userbases values are. My issue with donating to Mozilla is that it is too broad and they have many products I don’t care for.
I use Thunderbird and donate to it because I feel it’s more focused. I believe Mozilla still can use the funds for other stuff but at least I am donating for a clear project.
VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Firefox donations will be solely used for Firefox development
This might be a stupid question… but how much developing does a browser actually need? I get security updates and such but how much resources does that stuff really need? Full disclosure: I’m a dumb lorry driver I have no idea how these things work. Some years ago I realized I hadn’t updated my browser in at least a year, maybe two and I had no issues lol
doug@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
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.
stoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
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
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
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.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That prospect becomes less and less likely the more government is bought and paid for by Big Tech.
Engywuck@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Funding FF? Maybe. Funding Mozilla? No way, not with my money.
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Why?
raldone01@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah I really hope there will be some way to tie donations directly to FF development.
kunaltyagi@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Maybe funding components would be better than funding mozilla. Eg: 2 engineers for Gecko
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
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.
Tehhund@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m pretty sure you can donate to Mozilla, are you saying that donations to Mozilla don’t accomplish what we might want? I only know a little about how much Mozilla sucks so I’m ready to learn more.
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
There are two interlinked Mozillas: the Mozilla Foundation is what you can donate to, but the Mozilla Corporation is what develops Firefox.
Mozilla’s recent history includes privacy flub after financial management misstep, so here’s a few links in no particular order of severity or chronology:
Each of these are a little rabbit hole on their own.
Would you like to know more?
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I recommend Waterfox
They have to not fill their browser with AI slop features.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
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.
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
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 they missed a major ESR release before another one came out.
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I have used it for twitch for years without issue. I also have ublock origin with twitch adblock.
pipe01@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
If everyone switched from firefox to waterfox, Mozilla would kill firefox which would in turn will waterfox
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah ofc they are chasing the buck.
It’s either they find alternatives revenue streams or we no longer have Firefox as a viable alternative anymore.
Browsers development is crazy engineering heavy, and this, expensive.
ElectricAirship@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Ladybird browser looks promising!