The entire premise of me going on a fucking tangent trying to reclaim my privacy and identity is because of the invasiveness of AI. I didn’t sign up to Mozilla to be fed more AI bullshit, I did it quite the inverse. The fact that I can’t be left the fucking god damn alone from AI enshitification infuriates me.
Am I going to need to build my own fucking web browser to avoid this shit?! Rhetorical question, the answer is yes, yes I will.
Quick, I got 5 weeks of break before classes start for me again, if any developer wants to build a web browser from scratch with me let me know and ill make the github repo.
Edit: on second thought we could implement our browser as a fork of gnome web instead of from scratch. GNOME web isn’t a derivative/fork of Firefox or chromium, however there are components from apple, like it’s rendering engine. Besides that, it’s not a bad idea to use
First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it. Second: our business model must align with trust. We will grow through transparent monetization that people recognize and value. Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
Are the first and third points not contradicting? Having control over AI in the browser means that the browser cannot be AI first. Maybe they need to step back and look at their core audience and a shifting user preference for less big tech and more control.
I think the biggest thing that they can do is look at what the Firefox forks are doing and try and implement the features that led to people leaving. I’m using Zen not only for the addition features and UI elements it brings, but also the things that it chooses not to include.
They can also look at what IronFox and LibreWolf do to create a new built in profile that maximizes privacy and security trading off convenience.
Finally, they have failed to capture new users when google is blocking ad blockers. When you have a smaller market share you need to take advantage of your competitor’s mistakes.
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I’ve already switched to librewolf because of the ai update
It’s really just a matter of trust and they’ve clearly chosen to trust ai first and users second. That’s why you must turn it off instead of having to turn it on.
sad state of affairs
“Modern”, “AI” - buzzwords for shareholders
AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.
How about you make it something people have to turn on, and make it useful enough that they will enable it?
Right, opt-in not opt-out.
Or add it to the list of onboarding steps at the very beginning. Otherwise, it’s either on by default or off by default, and our (or Mozilla’s) definition of “easy” is entirely open to interpretation.
Or, better yet, step down as CEO. Pick someone who is in touch with what the project’s dedicated userbase actually wants.
a userbase that is largely shrinking?
Gee, our userbase is shrinking. What should we do? learn what the users want and cater to their needs? No, definitely what we must do is double down and force more unpopular features. That will surely bring back the users that left because of our previous decisions.
/s
Most of the “abandon Firefox” rhetoric I’ve seen is due to their sudden focus on cramming in AI while simultaneously ignoring or half-assing long wanted features (e.g PWA support).
And to think that shoving in AI will fix any pre-existing userbase shrinkage is like thinking having a baby will save one’s failing marriage.
it’s been shrinking for well over 10 years, nothing to do with ai
Last data I saw showed user base pretty flat for the past 5 years.
https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity
230,000,000 in 2021 204,000,000 in 2025
I don’t go to the website you linked to. Sorry.
Does that include those who have switched to a Firefox fork like Librewolf?
Those who use Firefox are more likely to be tech savvy. They’re therefore more likely to be comfortable switching to a Firefox fork as well.
Firefox keeps getting worse, why would those with the know how stick with it when they can use a fork which is better?
Mozilla is a lost cause, and Firefox is too big to be rescued by one singular web-browsing development entity (that’s because the web has become too complicated so as to allow for terminal capitalism).
The solution is, honestly, for a well-constituted organization to hard-fork the web standards model as a whole package, to start a sort of “re-web” project. Pick up something like gemini but iterate it to a level where it can actually be useful (gemini, nifty as it is, is actually less capable of layout and styling than the printing press from the 1500s and that’s saying something). Maintain a “convertible subset” of HTML+CSS as an input option for people who want to maintain and develop simple sites that might want to eventually convert to re-web.
gemini, nifty as it is, is actually less capable of layout and styling than the printing press from the 1500s and that’s saying something
it’s like that by design, that’s the point of the protocoll
Yeah but that doesn’t really help much if the goal is “the web, but mote vintage of it”. My impression of gemini is it’s more like, to publish things you’d read on a beeper from the 90s.
Everyone hated that
Gross.
You either die a hero or live long enought to become the villain
Dear AI Techbros.
Why is AI in my browser something desirable for the common man?
It helps shareholders. Obligatory, I’m not a techbro
Mozilla’s a non-profit so what shareholders need to be please by bolting on this garbage to their browser?
Google’s.
What a douche.
Boo this man!
BOOOOOOOO
Fucking yikes.
What I want: a secure browser that does just that and nothing more.
I’m so sick of AI everything.
No. One. Wants. That.
We have nowhere better to go. But that’s only for now, you short-sighted dumbass…
