I think Firefox should be considered dead.
They responded to this backlash yes, but only really because of historical accident. They don’t want to create a privacy-focused browser, and they don’t like their privacy-focused users. They will enshittify, it’ll just take longer because they have to play “just the tip” more carefully.
The alternative landscape is not there yet, but there’ some hope. Ladybird seems like it’s the farthest along, with the dev successfully using it to order a pizza online:
https://xcancel.com/awesomekling/status/1846607417343463524
Servo is not quite as far as Ladybird but is making good progress. Here’s a recent HN thread about the 2024 progress update which links to a general progress comparison. The numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, because Google has pushed through a number of “standards” that nobody else will implement except for them
You see this situation completely differently than I do. Mozilla is historically bad at handling things correctly. When this first showed up in the news it was abundantly clear that Mozilla was just rewording the ToS because legal definitions had changed in the areas they operate in. Users interpreted this as the ToS changing when in actuality nothing at all was changing. This is par for the course. Mozilla does something, privacy people jump to conclusions and completely misunderstand something, especially if it involves legal, and then claim that FF is going down the drain.
Nothing has changed, Mozilla is required by law to change ToS when legal definitions change, even if literally nothing about the ToS changes. I really wish people would stop jumping to the conclusion that everything Mozilla does is bad. If you want to stop using FF then stop, but leave the people that actually pay attention to what’s happening alone.
Mozilla was just rewording the ToS
No, because it’s the first time they added a useless ToS to Firefox. The ToS is not changing, and that’s the main worry, it is being created.
- There was no ToS before, for 20 year and maybe more.
- They don’t need a ToS for Firefox only.
- Its existence violates the first freedom of open-source applications: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (aka “freedom 0”).
- They refuse to explain why they need one despite developers knowing fully well that it is not needed unless you’re trying to do bad stuff.
Yes, something bad has changed. The whole organization was a mess but it never changed or involved Firefox. It has now and they pretend that we are too stupid or confused to understand what is happening.
If you want to stop using FF then stop
That’s what I’m doing because it never was that bad. I already trusted Mozilla as much as I trusted Google, but it was fine since it never involved Firefox. I wish them good luck with their ads and AI experiments.
No, because it’s the first time they added a useless ToS to Firefox. The ToS is not changing, and that’s the main worry, it is being created.
There was no ToS before, for 20 year and maybe more. They don’t need a ToS for Firefox only. Its existence violates the first freedom of open-source applications: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (aka “freedom 0”). They refuse to explain why they need one despite developers knowing fully well that it is not needed unless you’re trying to do bad stuff.
they’ve had a privacy policy for years and yet that wasn’t a problem? Only the ToS is a problem?
Its existence violates the first freedom of open-source applications: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (aka “freedom 0”).
lol no it doesn’t. stop making shit up.
They refuse to explain why they need one despite developers knowing fully well that it is not needed unless you’re trying to do bad stuff.
they literally did explain, in the first paragraph, why they need one. People like you just refuse to believe it.
We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice
lol no it doesn’t. stop making shit up.
They literally restrict the usage of Firefox by applying their policies. It’s written.
We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible
Why are they doing stuff on my behalf instead of relying on the programming language that already does everything. That’s another lie of course. Mozilla does nothing but they pretend they do in order to get more data and credentials.
Mozilla should have no fucking role when someone uses Firefox.
And stop with the Sync crap, it has already been dealt with when the user subscribed to the service.
If you dont understand why people are pissed that a company demands any kind of overreaching control that has never existed so far, you must be working for Mozilla but it’s not very convincing.
