2003
The Firefox browser now has a built-in page translator that works even without the Internet
(gadgettendency.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Only these languages though:
That's really not good. Literally all of these are European languages.
I'd rather have it connected to a better translation service than have it be offline. I don't understand why the translator working offline is even a plus. It's a web browser.
I assume there must not be any FOSS translation services they can use so this offline translator is just a consequence of that.
It's for privacy purposes. An online translator requires that all the text you're reading be sent to a third party, which may or may not use it for nefarious purposes. E.g. maybe you translate your bank account's web page because there's a word you don't know, and now Google knows how much money you have in your bank account.
If you don't care about that kind of privacy, then there's no reason you couldn't use an existing online translator. Firefox has always supported that.
That makes sense, thanks.