Quick, less edited video to talk about the #Mozilla and #Firefox issue with their recent terms of use, and lackluster explanations:
@[email protected] I’ve supported a waterfox developer that was awhile back I use opera I know it’s proprietary and all, just love the features it offers
@[email protected] Welp, now you’ll have to make a video on what good alternatives we have ^^’
@[email protected] If Mozilla really pivots into harvesting user data to sell to AI companies for profit then it’s time to switch but I’ll keep using it for the time being and see how it works out.
Speaking of email clients, I’ve been using Evolution for what seems like forever now. Tried Thunderbird a couple of times but always keep coming back.
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Aren’t we overreacting a bit?
Firefox has been on a declining adoption curve for years, let’s try not to discourage even more people from using it. Unless there’s a very valid, proven reason. Not just suspicion.@[email protected] They actually built in an AI assistant, or a tool that connects one to your websites. You can activate it in the Firefox Lab settings.
@[email protected] How to depend on Mozilla to keep on doing good work on Firefox without helping pushing the world more towards Chrome is my question.
I can tell the common people to use Firefox, as it works and generally is still better than the Chrome monoculture (and from a privacy point) but any name they don’t instantly recognise just gets discarded.
@[email protected] I have an hard time ditching mozilla, as I am a serious fan of the excellent email client Thunderbird…
@[email protected] while u hv mentioned that the data is likely only 2 hv come fm the browser, watt would happen if they r harvesting info fm 1s email? Is there any way we can export thunderbird private folders to say evolution or some other email client?
@[email protected] as said Churchill : Firefox is the worst browser, except all the others.
There are no real better alternatives I am afraid 🤷♂️ (and the forks are just a short time solution)@[email protected] Very timely. I just switched over to LibreWolf. Mozilla just can’t be trusted.
@[email protected] There two “nice” outcome of all this :
- mozilla is going back to sanity
- a fork is being create with most of the engineers currently working on Firefox move too
The current “forks” alternative is not a real one. They just apply some small patches on top of Firefox, but not the “real” work of maintaining/evolving the core of the browser
@[email protected] That was a useful, if depressing video. I’ve been using Firefox off and on for more than twenty years so I’ve got a lot of inertia to overcome!
Having said that, that lit a fire under me to actually try LibreWolf! First impressions after five minutes - it’s actually very similar to how I have Firefox set up. It comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed which gets a big thumbs up from me.
@[email protected] Any good alternative for Firefox? I using KeepassXC addon and Ublock Origin for sufing on net.
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It might seem obvious, but anyone who offers web browser software, their browser has access to the data fetched by requests and anything typed into a form, included files attached to POST data for upload, any bookmarks you create, and the history.Not surprised if after all the fuss it turns out Mozilla legal decided (for some reason) they needed explicitly state this, and other browser makers merely assume you implicitly accept it when you install or update a browser.
@[email protected] I’d be surprised if that was the only reason. Firefox didn’t need that since its inception, and right when they announce a pivot towards AI, they’d suddenly needs terms of use?
Way too close to be a coincidence, IMO@[email protected]
I would rather wait to see what else changes before jumping to conclusions that require assuming bad faith and saying that Mozilla must be as bad as any other until proven otherwise.Mozilla could choose to show a notification with each browser update if the terms or privacy policy of Firefox changes, statements that they won’t is also an opinion rather than a known fact.
Users still choose when/if to update browser package so musing about a “kill-switch” is pure speculation.
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You surely do accept that every browser in existence needs to access the data used to display web pages (they are downloaded and the DOM built and rendered locally).They never had published terms before but the browser is doing the same things right now to function that they didn’t legally spell out before.
Legal are famously bad at writing in plain language esp when describing technology functions unless skilled in both areas or in a joint team - Mozilla aren’t alone in that.
@[email protected] Of course a browser needs the data to build the DOM. They don’t need user data though, they don’t need to grant Mozilla a license to use that data. They also don’t need to remove all mentions of not selling data from their website. They also don’t need to focus on AI, add extensions into people’s webbrowsers, have the capacity to change terms without notifying users, or to add ad tech in the browser without notice. Mozilla has exceeded the goodwill I had for them.
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Btw How may channels have actually spoken with a contact at Mozilla to invite them to discuss this in an interview before just reporting and telling others to stop using any/all of their products?@[email protected]
I just think there’s an inherent contradiction between assuming that Mozilla are secretly planning to do bad things while making it public by publishing terms of use with constraints defined by the privacy policy.If they were really trying to be secretive about it as you and others have said they could simply not publish any terms for implicit use at all.
I’m disappointed at how many other people have jumped on the same bandwagon attacking a FOSS product without nuance.
@[email protected] And use what? All the hundred Chrome forks? Or several Firefox forks that cannot exist on their own without Firefox and Mozilla? Firefox and Mozilla are a lesser evil. It’s not ideal, but I’d rather use tweaked Firefox than any Chrome fork or all the flawed Firefox forks. That’s just the reality.
I personally can’t wait for Ladybird. A clean slate with no corporate background.
@[email protected] I’ll use a Firefox fork, better they basically have 0 drawbacks compared to Firefox and are at least not subject to Mozilla’s BS, but yeah, it’s a bad situation.
@[email protected] The problem is that in case of a web browser there is no such thing as a fork. It’s too complex and too important software to be “maintained” by a few volunteers. That’s the tragedy.
