| ▲ | someothherguyy 6 days ago |
| This feature can be easily disabled with policies: https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/#generativeai https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/#preferences https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/browser/app/profil... https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/modules/libpref/in... |
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| ▲ | bigstrat2003 6 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| This is like when people defend Windows 11's nonsense by saying "you can disable or remove that stuff". Yes, you can. But you shouldn't have to, and I personally prefer to use tools which don't shove useless things into the tool because it's trendy. |
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| ▲ | calvinmorrison 6 days ago | parent | next [-] | | not to mention firefox routinely blows up any policies you set during upgrades, incompatibilities, and an endless about:config that is more opaque than a hunk of room temperature lard. | |
| ▲ | someothherguyy 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Well, you aren't the only person using a tool, and it probably matters more to those who are making things "trendy". In general, how else would people "learn" about a feature unless it was enabled by default or the product nagged them? | |
| ▲ | fsflover 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The difference is that on Windows all unwanted features eventually become mandatory, with no way of switching them off. With Firefox, it never happens. | | |
| ▲ | Orygin 5 days ago | parent [-] | | If you listen to the doomers in this thread, it will. They "will" remove the option from settings, hide it in about:config, then later on remove it from there! Of course none of that is true... | | |
| ▲ | Lord-Jobo 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | They already have hidden these in about:config! Right click anywhere, (ask an AI chatbot) right there. Go to settings, search AI or search Chatbot, nothing. | |
| ▲ | nottorp 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It's plausible because the team working on the settings screen will be reassigned to the "AI". | | |
| ▲ | Orygin 5 days ago | parent [-] | | That's just doom saying at this point. | | |
| ▲ | johnnyanmac 5 days ago | parent [-] | | Mozilla hasn't had the benefit of the doubt for quite a while here. This isn't just one small kerfuffle coming out of nowhere. They say trust takes a lifetime to build and seconds to break ". We're years into it at this point. | | |
| ▲ | fsflover 5 days ago | parent [-] | | > Mozilla hasn't had the benefit of the doubt for quite a while here In contrast to Google Chrome? This is just FUD. Ublock Origin is still working and will be working. Full customization is still there and isn't going away. All of that is unlike in Chrom(ium). | | |
| ▲ | nottorp 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | This is not a thread comparing Mozilla to Google. This is a thread where we worry about how a non google browsing alternative stays alive. Of course none of us posting here trusts Google. | | |
| ▲ | fsflover 5 days ago | parent [-] | | > we worry about how a non google browsing alternative stays alive > This is just FUD. Ublock Origin is still working and will be working. Full customization is still there and isn't going away. | | |
| ▲ | nottorp 5 days ago | parent [-] | | > This is just FUD. Ublock Origin is still working Correct. > and will be working. How do you know? > Full customization is still there Correct. > and isn't going away. How do you know? How do you know this new "AI" CEO won't let both support for Manifest V2 and extensive settings rot because "AI can do it for you" for example? Or as I said earlier, because they'll run out of money to pay for non "AI" features? | | |
| ▲ | fsflover 4 days ago | parent [-] | | > How do you know? Extrapolation. Also, because it's FLOSS and can be modified by anyone. |
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| ▲ | account42 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you need to compare yourself to the literal devil then you're probably far from a saint yourself. | | |
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| ▲ | derekdahmer 6 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | How is this different from linux? People happily spend hours customizing defaults in their OS. It’s usually a point of praise for open source software. | | |
| ▲ | PunchyHamster 6 days ago | parent [-] | | Bad defaults are bad defaults, and "you can turn them off" is not a good excuse for bad defaults continuing to be bad defaults | | |
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| ▲ | beached_whale 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Easy for who? 99% of people are not going/able to setup firefox policies. |
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| ▲ | someothherguyy 5 days ago | parent [-] | | More than 1% of humans can read and create a file on computer. Others know how to read and use a search engine, and way more can be instructed by a LLM on how to do so. I would say it is nearly as easy as installing waterfox or some other privacy focused fork of Firefox. |
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| ▲ | phyzome 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Even if we ignore things like "they're chasing AI fads instead of better things" and "they're adding attack surface" and so forth, and just focus on the disabling feature toggles thing... ... Mozilla has re-enabled AI-related toggles that people have disabled. (I've heard this from others and observed it myself.) They also keep adding new ones that aren't controlled by a master switch. They're getting pretty user-hostile. |
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| ▲ | koolala 6 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Is it really in all 4 of those places? Just need to change it in the first two, right? I hate the new AI tab feature and wish they had a non-AI option. |
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| ▲ | someothherguyy 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | You can disable the one option. I included links to the source code to show the level of preferences you can customize, and how it is processed. | |
| ▲ | nitwit005 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | They absolutely know people want that, and absolutely aren't going to add it. | | |
| ▲ | minitech 5 days ago | parent [-] | | There are already user-facing preferences for all of the AI features currently in Firefox. Some of them you don’t even have to go into Settings for, just right-click > Remove AI chatbot. They’re annoying, but I appreciate that they still need to be explicitly approved by the user to be enabled (for now). | | |
| ▲ | nitwit005 5 days ago | parent [-] | | I'm aware of the settings. I've toggled them. I'm suggesting a convenient global "AI off" toggle won't be provided. |
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