This is unpopular opinion, but for Firefox to live, Mozilla, as it currently operates, needs to die.
They forgot their core user base hates cloud and AI features. They want a simple browser that connects to web servers and displays pages. Meanwhile, executive are getting fat salaries and bounces while begging users for money on AI and other privacy intrusion projects like adding perplexity directly to Firefox. They lost their vision long time ago.
The Perplexity AI will track users for targeted Ads while showing some Gen AI content when you search for something.
The whole point of using Firefox on Linux, or even Windows/macOS or mobile, is to avoid tracking and to maintain safety. How hard is that to understand? Why do they have "tech bro" style executives at a non-profit? They are treating it like a Silicon Valley app where you do everything to collect money. It makes me sick seeing how they are ruining their reputation.
@nixCraft 100% agree
I would like to add that a substantial part of the funding for Firefox is coming from placements, mostly Google for beeng the default search engine.
Alphabet is interested in keeping Firefox alive only so that they dont get slapped on the wrist for having a monopoly with Chrome. They certainly dont want Firefox to be any better.
As long as there is no more ethical funding source i dont have much hope for Mozilla going in a better direction.
@sco_tty The #EU is putting money in #OpenWebSearch but it takes time to develop it: https://openwebsearch.eu/
They are also investing in #openSource solutions: https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/eu-oss-catalogue
@alper_yeg That's because not everything must be made by the state. 😉 Search for #EuropeanAlternatives or follow @european_alternatives to get more European stuff before you cry about a shame.
We have two browsers made in Europe, @Vivaldi (Norway) and Mullvad (Sweden): https://european-alternatives.eu/category/web-browsers Mullvad VPN which can be combined with the browser is also on Mastodon @mullvadnet
@NatureMC @european_alternatives @Vivaldi @mullvadnet @sco_tty
I am not crying about anything. Let me rephrase to make it clearer, I wish there would be a browser engine developed in the EU. I am living in the EU and support EU developed tools. Additionally, I am aware of the alternatives.
There is a browser engine being developed in Europe, it's called Servo and it's being built by Igalia.
https://linuxfoundation.eu/newsroom/servo-web-rendering-engine-joins-linux-foundation-europe
People from Igalia are already contributing a lot to the development of other engines like Chromium, Firefox and WebKit.
https://www.igalia.com/technology/browsers
But Servo is not ready yet, it'll take some years (?). They are accepting donations though: https://opencollective.com/servo
Interview about Servo: https://www.igalia.com/chats/servo
@NatureMC @alper_yeg @european_alternatives @Vivaldi @mullvadnet
To be fair, both Vivaldi (based on Chromium) and Mullvad (based on Gecko) are great browsers, but none of them develop a browser engine of their own nor can they afford to deviate too far from their upstreams without causing much more maintenance work.
This will only keep going well as long as the engines themselves are not enshittified (remember Chromiums change from Manifest V2 to V3 and implications on Adblockers?)
nixCraft 🐧
ScoTTY
Petra van Cronenburg
AlperY
All Europeans 🇪🇺