Mozilla's Firefox 145 is heeeeeere: Buffs up privacy, bloats AI

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@lproven I wonder whether I live in a bubble where many Firefox users are mad at Mozilla for schmoozing with Big Tech and forcing more and more AI in the product. But maybe the majority of Firefox users out in the real world don't mind or don't care about these features.

@theregister

[kaasbaas@mastodon.africa]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister for myself, I care, but alternatives are... not always optimal.

lesser of the evils

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@kaasbaas Likewise. But Mozilla spins these AI features as something the community is eager to use, so I'm wondering.

@lproven @theregister

[stepheneb@ruby.social]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister

I appreciate the local translation support — and do not like any of the other AI additions.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@stepheneb Yes that's handy.

@lproven @theregister

[razemix@mamutovo.cz]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister To be fair, they usually make it rather trivial to turn these features off.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@Razemix It's moderately easy despite the moving target as the about:config entries may change. But to call it trivial I'd prefer actual options in the settings along with all the others.

@lproven @theregister

[razemix@mamutovo.cz]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister Well, in this case you simply remove the Perplexity search provider (if it's even present - I didn't get it with this update). Or am I missing something?

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@Razemix Yes, I've just removed it and the Perplexity search provider is indeed trivial to find and disable in the main Firefox settings. I misunderstood your previous post and thought you were meaning other AI features.

@lproven @theregister

[thomastospace@phpc.social]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister I think I'm outside that bubble but see a lot from yours. I just turn the AI feature off and go on with my day. My Firefox is free from any AI and after this update it will be again within a minute.

Meanwhile I'm still running the best possible browser on the open web.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@thomastospace I also turn off AI features. But, given Mozilla's trend, at some point they may join the Big Tech bandwagon and ship such features with no options for turning them off.

@lproven @theregister

[razemix@mamutovo.cz]

@amoroso @lproven @theregister There is also "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups" in Tabs section and "Show sidebar" in Browser Layout. But yeah, if you want the chat completely disabled, you need to set some `browser.ml.chat.*` entries in about:config to false.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@Razemix Yes, I turned off a bunch of those. I recently came across a complete list of such settings in a GitHub repo but can't find it anymore.

@lproven @theregister