The most 2024 things to do are laying off staff and eyeing up AI – Mozilla's doing both Firefox maker Mozilla has laid off "approximately 60" staff, or around five percent of its workforce. "We're scaling back investment in some product areas in order to focus on the ones that we feel have the greatest chance of success," a spokesperson told The Register. We understand Mozilla's VPN, Relay, and mozilla.social on …
What the fsck does a web browser (any web browser) need (so-called) "AI" for?
This is just tulip-mania stupidity (and at least tulips have some aesthetic value…).
Are they going to announce next week that they're planning to incorporate some adVANCeD bLoCKcHaiN tEchNOloGy too?
Just stick to making a good web browser, please.
[Different AC]
I believe they've got a new CEO
So this is a combination of them "Making their mark" by pushing AI into everything because everyone they talk to on LinkedIn is pushing AI into everything despite none of them knowing anything about it
And "New broom sweeps clean" by laying off a chunk of the workforce, it immediately reduces the wage bill, makes the profit margin look better, rouses the remaining workforce who now fear layoffs & is a traditional action taken by many CEO's who step in to an established organisation
I suspect many of the remaining staff are polishing their CV's & putting out feelers as you read this, it's what I'd be doing
Firefox has begun the process of enshittification, I suggest looking for alternatives, Waterfox is a Firefox fork & available for android, i've no idea if it's any good though as I've not tried it yet
Despite the vocal minority of web users who lecture the rest of us about Firefox being a "better" browser, the market says otherwise. Firefox is the Betamax or OS/2 of today, but for different reasons. Firefox was never technically "excellent". It was a memory hog back in the day, and they never solved that. I occasionally try Firefox and there is nothing in there that makes me say "gee, I really needed that". It's a pity, but Mozilla went down so many side streets and alleyways, while ignoring the high street.
If anyone can give me a compelling reason to use Firefox, and not "it's not Chrome", I am prepared to listen. Don't double down and say "that is the reason, it is not Chrome". That's not good enough.
Sorry (not sorry), it is still a good reason. Let me phrase it in reverse: Firefox lets you do what you want with the pages you're viewing, and that includes actually blocking ads (i.e., add-ons are not artificially hobbled), blocking JavaScript as you see fit (via NoScript), and genuinely doing its best to avoid tracking if you ask it. This is reason enough for me.*
*And it's not Chrome. Diversity in the ecosystem is vital if we are to keep the web open rather than allowing Google to dictate standards as it sees fit for its business model, and Firefox is all we seem to have left as a decent alternative to Chromium.
You should work for Mozilla. They don't listen either. And look where it's got them. What is wrong with people that they cannot give a good reason to use something, other than it is not something else?
You should buy this Ford. Why? Because it's not GM. Salesman of the Year award coming up.
"They don't listen either."
Says the pot calling the kettle black. Too bad the morons have gone the enshitification route everyone else has with the garbage AI. They seem to forget they are non-profit supposedly for their users, not the first time either, with no hope of the gold rush scamming of the investors/speculators to line the pockets. That is unless I miss something about the no way to manipulate the stock for gain of the company a non-profit implies.
I'll agree 100%. I've stuck with 100% FF on desktop / 90% on mobile but doing so is, well, a constant burden of some level of pain, I won't lie. Enshittification is exactly right with Mozilla just constantly turning a blind eye to what users want, doing what they want regardless. There are only 2 reasons I stay with FF: NoScript and it isn't MS or Alphabet. Sadly that means a certain level of sadomasochism, but luckily I'm into that anyway so maybe my tolerance is just too high?? -_-
That reply *did* give good reasons to use Firefox. You apparently just didn't want to hear them.
Look, the simple fact is that Firefox does not do some of the things which Chrome does. Some people view the *absence* of those behaviors as a desirable feature.
You apparently do not. That's fine. Your choice. But try to understand that not everyone makes the same choices, and discounting them doesn't make your own any more valid.
Despite the vocal minority of web users who lecture the rest of us about Firefox being a "better" browser, the market says otherwise.
It's not a fair market, the others:
1. Bundle their browser with their own OS with no browser choice screen.
2. Making their own OS complain mightily when the their own browser isn't used.
3. Making their own web properties complain mightily or artificially work worse when their own browser isn't used.
4. Paying to bundle their browser in with third party software.
Safari is an absolute albatross - it barely has any redeeming features apart from a bunch of privacy options which are also in Firefox. Nobody in their right mind would proactively choose Safari but it's included by default on Apple devices.
Edge as usual is almost mandatory at work as it plays best with Microsoft's login, some would almost say by design.
Chrome achieved critical mass on desktop by throwing money at antivirus vendors and Adobe and Google aims to keep it that way by making it the browser which works best with Google's websites and Android phones and Chromebooks.
The market is not a level playing field and people's choice of browser has very little to do with Firefox's feature set but how well entrenched corporations and force their browsers onto users.
[quote]
"opportunities that could be socially critical but remain under-incentivized in the field at large."
[/quote]
Someone who comes up with this no so brilliant wording is a living example of unintended side effects of human reproduction.
Anyone here on this forum who is closer to this field of expertise would be so kind to enlighten us ? How is this possible ?
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