Matt Hayes
@mattjhayes@techhub.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 19 hours ago
@gabrielesvelto @TimePencil
Divergent opinions can be useful to avoid group think, but I suspect the issue is divergent values. As a way forwards, could there be two feature builds of #Firefox? The default build being lightweight and focused on all the traditional values, and then there would be another build called #FirefoxExtra (working title) where the product people could go wild, adding new features with carefree abandon (LLMs everywhere!). Both builds would share the same same core code the reduce overheads. Who knows, some of these features might become mature and morph into browser table stakes, and could be back ported later. Let the download and user-agent stats tell the story of what people actually want.
Fuse Views
@TimePencil@infosec.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
@gabrielesvelto

I can't wait for #Firefox to have a large, obvious, red button in settings that, when clicked, applies the "Turn OFF all the b.s. AI/LLM machine learning crap that I didn't ask for and will never want" setting.

@mattjhayes

jbz
jbz boosted
activity timestamp 2 days ago

😇 Zen Browser — What Mozilla Firefox Should Be?

｢ While it inherits much of the underlying AI features and call-home telemetry present in Firefox, Zen developers have chosen to disable most of that stuff by default — and are currently debating whether to strip them out entirely ｣

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/08/zen-browser-is-what-mozilla-firefox-should-be

#zenbrowser #firefox #ai

alcinnz
alcinnz boosted
R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: 🍵
@rl_dane@polymaths.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

I can't believe it myself, but yes, I've made #Dillo my default browser on my personal laptops. It's never been my default, even though I've used it occasionally, off-and-on, for 25 years. XD

I still fire up #LibreWolf ( #firefox fork) occasionally on those machines, but #DilloBrowser fits in this neat space between terminal browsers and "full-fat" browsers like Librewolf and #luakit.

I'm just wishing it had a "follow mode" for following links from the keyboard, and wondering if there was some way to make it use the clipboard by default, instead of primary selection. I don't quite understand why classic X11 programs use primary selection so much. XD

#SmolWeb
R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: 🍵
@rl_dane@polymaths.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

I can't believe it myself, but yes, I've made #Dillo my default browser on my personal laptops. It's never been my default, even though I've used it occasionally, off-and-on, for 25 years. XD

I still fire up #LibreWolf ( #firefox fork) occasionally on those machines, but #DilloBrowser fits in this neat space between terminal browsers and "full-fat" browsers like Librewolf and #luakit.

I'm just wishing it had a "follow mode" for following links from the keyboard, and wondering if there was some way to make it use the clipboard by default, instead of primary selection. I don't quite understand why classic X11 programs use primary selection so much. XD

#SmolWeb
Gabriele Svelto
@gabrielesvelto@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago
@mattjhayes yes though a lot of it depends on where the change is happening. Some features can be implemented in a way that's very isolated from the rest of the code - they might ship as extensions - which poses little risk and thus require little coordination. Changes that affect the web platform code on the other hand require far more oversight and attention because of the sensitive nature of that code. So it really depends on where the feature is being added.
Matt Hayes
@mattjhayes@techhub.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
@gabrielesvelto
Interesting. As a regular user of #Firefox on my home #Linux desktop, I am concerned about the push to build more and more features into the web browser. Keep fighting the good fight to maintain Firefox as a fast, reliable and secure browser that values privacy, and push back against unnecessary default #AI features. If people want these features they will be happy to opt-in, rather than being forced to find out how to disable them.
jbz
@jbz@indieweb.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

😇 Zen Browser — What Mozilla Firefox Should Be?

｢ While it inherits much of the underlying AI features and call-home telemetry present in Firefox, Zen developers have chosen to disable most of that stuff by default — and are currently debating whether to strip them out entirely ｣

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/08/zen-browser-is-what-mozilla-firefox-should-be

#zenbrowser #firefox #ai
⁂ Kaleb
@kaleb@fedi.haugenh.us  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

Recently I got sufficiently annoyed at authoring posts in two places so that they were visible both here and on HaugenHus: Now – this is also in part because I prefer to write in Markdown which GoToSocial handles marvellously – that I decided to start looking at options. Of course there are many, but I chose to pursue an exclusively client-side solution with a static pageset to lighten the load on my little Raspberry Pi.

I landed on a solution built on HTMX + GoToSocial:RSS + XSLT which can be seen on HaugenHus: XSLT Test, but was horrified to find that after 26 years Firefox hasn’t managed to solve for HTML within an XML node. Of course it’s easy to get frustrated with a second-rate browser like Firefox 😁 – WebKit all the way baby! – but why bother when someone else has keep the flame war burning for 24 years Bug 98168 🤣. Of course with every ugly battle there are some heroes, and Scott Trenda was clearly one of these both offering a viable workaround and serving as a calm voice of reason.

So with a viable workaround to my XSLT woes, why haven’t I finished this little project? Well, there are two reasons: the first is that a workaround should never be allowed to become a permanent solution; and secondly, my WebKit enthusiasm may have been misplaced. It turns out that the fine folks over at Apple – @annevk – have expressed interest in killing my XSLT dreams 🥺.

With all of that said, what I found most interesting about this whole thing is that while I have been aware of XSLT for years, I unknowingly decided to play with it just as a storm appears to be brewing. Eventually I will get over my desire to minimize my dependence on JavaScript, but until then I’m sure there many other ways to solve this problem. I might just need to change the constraints.

(Maybe @gotosocial@superseriousbusiness.org would give us JSON Feed . . . feature request incoming after a bit more research 🤓.)

Additional Reading

XSLT Debate Leads to Bigger Questions of Web Governance

#Now #XSLT #Firefox #WebKit #GoToSocial #HTMX #RSS #JSONFeed
⁂ Kaleb
@kaleb@fedi.haugenh.us  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

Recently I got sufficiently annoyed at authoring posts in two places so that they were visible both here and on HaugenHus: Now – this is also in part because I prefer to write in Markdown which GoToSocial handles marvellously – that I decided to start looking at options. Of course there are many, but I chose to pursue an exclusively client-side solution with a static pageset to lighten the load on my little Raspberry Pi.

I landed on a solution built on HTMX + GoToSocial:RSS + XSLT which can be seen on HaugenHus: XSLT Test, but was horrified to find that after 26 years Firefox hasn’t managed to solve for HTML within an XML node. Of course it’s easy to get frustrated with a second-rate browser like Firefox 😁 – WebKit all the way baby! – but why bother when someone else has keep the flame war burning for 24 years Bug 98168 🤣. Of course with every ugly battle there are some heroes, and Scott Trenda was clearly one of these both offering a viable workaround and serving as a calm voice of reason.

So with a viable workaround to my XSLT woes, why haven’t I finished this little project? Well, there are two reasons: the first is that a workaround should never be allowed to become a permanent solution; and secondly, my WebKit enthusiasm may have been misplaced. It turns out that the fine folks over at Apple – @annevk – have expressed interest in killing my XSLT dreams 🥺.

With all of that said, what I found most interesting about this whole thing is that while I have been aware of XSLT for years, I unknowingly decided to play with it just as a storm appears to be brewing. Eventually I will get over my desire to minimize my dependence on JavaScript, but until then I’m sure there many other ways to solve this problem. I might just need to change the constraints.

(Maybe @gotosocial@superseriousbusiness.org would give us JSON Feed . . . feature request incoming after a bit more research 🤓.)

Additional Reading

XSLT Debate Leads to Bigger Questions of Web Governance

#Now #XSLT #Firefox #WebKit #GoToSocial #HTMX #RSS #JSONFeed
Steven Zekowski
@steve_zeke@freeradical.zone replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago
@dangillmor
Another example today. I can no longer log into #Costco without using a Private Window in #firefox. To be clear, I think this works because I do not load my add-ons, eg, #PrivacyBadger and #uBlockOrigin when I use a private window.
Sebastian Matyszczak
@smatyszczak@pol.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Twórcy przeglądarek internetowych mają często interes w tym, żeby nakłaniać do korzystania z tej czy innej wyszukiwarki. Nie bez powodu któraś konkretnie jest ustawiona jako domyślna. Ale możecie zrobić z tym porządek i ustawić, jako domyślną, dowolną wyszukiwarkę. Wystarczy postępować zgodnie z instrukcją (przykład opisany na #Firefox). Ja na przykład ustawiłem sobie teraz #Qwant. Wcześniej miałem Startpage, Ecosia i DuckDuckGo. Nie przywiązuję się do jednej konkretnej. Ostatnio bardzo mieszam i sprawdzam, która jak sobie działa.