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Welp, it's taken me a few days to get round to it, but I have just now deleted Chrome (and it's associated LLM malware downloads) from ALL my Macs. Fucker was taking up 6.5Gb of space on my Macbook Neo. Utterly unacceptable bullshit on a machine that starts with 256Gb of storage, even if I *wanted* the AI features (I don't).
Took a while because I had to transfer all my extensions and continuously open tabs across into Safari (I mainly use Firefox, but some sites render badly in FF.)
@cstross Also removed Chrome following your info yesterday. Couldn't find it's AI file but as I hadn't used/updated it for a year or so I guess it wasn't installed.
@cstross Imagine the same thing on a Chromebook. They must've taken leave of their senses.
I recently switched from Firefox to Librewolf because Firefox was having issues not preventing popups, and I was getting worried about Mozilla leadership. Painless - export bookmarks, re-import. Just for your back pocket in case FF follows suit with the AI shenanigans. Congratulations on dumping chrome.
Almost 3 G's for an app I think I used once to access my energy company's website. What a waste.
@cstross on my Macs I switched form FF to Orion as a secondary browser because FF kept changing settings after updates. I don't love Orion but I'm a Kagi user so its convenient and uses FF extensions.
@cstross another endorsement for Vivaldi, but I understand you are invested in Firefox and can't easily switch.
Safari is the most energy efficient browser on macOS, thus a good fit for your Neo. Unfortunately, in line with Apple's collapsing software quality, it is rife with web standards compliance bugs. Apple is also all-in on advertising, and the corrupting influence is seeping through the company. For instance, in a "one rule for thee, but not for me", they exempt themselves from the advertising ID opt-in they impose on others because "we're not a third-party", the EU is taking a dim view on this, but according to a classmate who works at the EC's antitrust division, Apple is the most arrogant and entitled of the FAANGs.
I myself switched to Linux, and use Vivaldi fully locked down (cookies disabled by default unless allowlisted, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Global Privacy Contol turned on), and a vanilla Firefox for the sites that won't render on Vivaldi (typically Javascript-heavy ones that break if cookies are disabled, grrr), but I have a button that nukes all cookies and state in Firefox.
@cstross to deinstall chrome on macOS, is it really as simple as dragging the app into the trash? (As I did) Does one also need to go and explicitly root out the LLM crap too?
@mhedney Deleting the app is a start, but you also need to go into ~Library/Application Support/Google and delete the crap it leaves there, too.
@cstross If Charlie-SCIENCE-FUCKING-FICTION says it, you know it's on! Kick Chrome to the Churb!
Good move, but can imagine it was quite the pain...
Having to use Chrome on my employer's Win machine has inoculated me experientially, so that my Macs at home have never had Chrome installed on them.
(Safari for my main, and Firefox as a backup, plus it has a few privacy-related extensions I find handy that Safari doesn't, though I'm thinking of trying out Waterfox sometime as well.)
@cstross On one hand, I didn't update my CPU earlier when I should/could, and I am still running my PC from 2012. OTOH, Chrome can't bloat on my hard disk because it can't update. LOL.
@cstross I likr waterfox.
@cstross I had planned to do some writing today but nooo, I'm following your example.
@ParadeGrotesque @salixlucida No, it's the *opposite* of helpful.
@cstross @ParadeGrotesque @salixlucida I am curious, I don't use zen browser but is there something wrong with it?
Thanks for posting this. I have Chrome installed everywhere as a backup browser. Time to find a new backup.
@cstross it really is a hassle for a lot of people, and if you have left it, the thing will be constantly eating into your processing speed... in a very big way. It would essentially dominate your machine.
This really is sinister. The company has reached a stage in their development process where they have nothing new to train the model on.
So now they need to train it directly from you, on your machine.
It's all that's left for reach.
@cstross question: how did you transfer all your open tabs and extensions? I think that’s what is holding me back…
@Dr_Bombay Manually, with some effort!
@cstross @Dr_Bombay Hmmm. Most browsers have a "list of open tabs" function, which *implies* (big 7 letters!) a file containing that list (dynamically generated).
Which if you could find it would be half the battle.
@cstross @Dr_Bombay open tabs you should be able to use OneTab across both, then export and import.
@cstross Good for you Charlie. I was at the same point last night (using Vivaldi as main browser) but had doubts. After you‘ve done it, I will join you tonight. Google-free Mac it shall be.
I was an early adopter of Chrome. Sad to see it become such garbage. I bailed on it sometime last year and went with Vivaldi.
@cstross I've been using FF, Brave, and DuckDuckGo, with occasional tangents into less functional browsers like Mojeek, Swisscows, and Ecosia. What drove you to pick FF exclusively?
@SomeVeganCheeseIsOk I don't use FF exclusively. But I've been on FF since it replaced Mozilla and I've been on Mozilla since it replaced Netscape Navigator, and I switched to NN from NCSA Mosaic circa 1995.
@cstross the rabbit hole I just went down based on this: https://youtu.be/PytMdvuAWDU?si=Ii2wQ1qPCUInkCDO
@cstross I remember thinking the Netscape Navigator icon was SO FANCY back in the day. Very nautical. Thank you for answering.
@cstross you might try those misbehaving sites in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled_Chromium ?
@cstross I've done the same on Windows. I've switched browsers to Brave for now. Sigh...
@cstross 6.5 GB for an internet browser! How ridiculous!
@JustinMac84 Actually it's 1.5Gb for the browser ... and another 5Gb for a sodding local AI model I didn't ask for *which is non-removable and Chrome re-downloads it if you delete it*. Hence nuking the app completely.
@cstross @JustinMac84
"Another great victory for Marketing."
Coming soon - Alphabet Inc renamed Phyrrus Inc.
@cstross At least it's local I guess, but that's an outrageous amount of space for a feature you can't opt out of.
@cstross If Google is doing this to offload CPU to the hapless users, perhaps some enterprising individual can come with a poisoned version of the file. Your computer, your rules?
@cstross Good choice, and if you want FF without AI, then switch to Waterfox. You can still use your firefox profile btw, so no need to download all your plugins again.
@cstross I switched to Vivaldi a few months ago and I am pretty happy with it.
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