Are they TRYING to speedrun losing their credibility?
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Remember: Mozilla killed mozilla the app long before it killed Mozilla the company.
No no, guys Mozilla are the good guys. They never did something nasty like bundling tons of spyware and 3rd party calls with Firefox nor adding unique IDs to every installation. Mozilla also acquired an ad analytics company recently for some reason.
adding unique IDs to every installation.
I wasn't familiar with that so I did a quick search. For anyone else interested here is some info about it:
- Each Firefox download has a unique identifier -ghacks, Mar. 2022
"Internet users who download the Firefox web browser from the official Mozilla website get a unique identifier attached to the installer that is submitted to Mozilla on install and first run."
[...]
"Firefox users who prefer to download the browser without the unique identifier may do so in the following two ways:"
-
Download the Firefox installer from Mozilla's HTTPS repository (formerly the FTP repository).
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Download Firefox from third-party download sites that host the installer, e.g., from Softonic.
"The downloaded installers do not have the unique identifier, as they are identical whenever they are downloaded."
In the comments section someone says:
"It seems that getting Firefox from GNU/Linux repos (Debian, etc.), doesn’t come with unique IDs."
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bundling tons of spyware
I couldn't find any info about this with a quick search. Do you have any links to where I can read more about this?
That is blatantly false. Don't even waste your time.
Just fire up Wireshark and inspect what Firefox calls, a lot of calling home and even if you change all the settings and config parameters to something sane it will still contact a 3rd party analytics company. Mozilla also acquired an ad analytics company recently for some reason.
I have this in user.js:
// settings user-test-programm
user_pref("app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled", false);
// dont use me as guinea pig
user_pref("app.normandy.enabled", false);
user_pref("app.normandy.optoutstudies.enabled", false);
user_pref("messaging-system.rsexperimentloader.enabled", false);
// side-loading of telemetry-extension
user_pref("extensions.systemAddon.update.enabled", false);
// disable Mozillas new tracking aggragation thingy
user_pref("dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled", false,);
// almost only for tracking useful
user_pref("beacon.enabled", false); // so webpage can send (tracking) data before you close tab
user_pref("browser.send_pings", false); // hyperlink auditing (click-tracking)
Note: the last two are more nuanced.
Argument for beacon is that webpages will use a more intrusive way with noticeable delay to upload data on tab close. I personally prefer that, as a warning, but never saw one after years.
Argument for send_pings is, that trackers will use more mean and stealthier ways to track you, if they don't have that interface (same as in private-attribution). I do know however, that companies who track you have high greed and low morale to begin with, and use all they can get to generate more money.
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I genuinely believe that the Mozilla board is secretly working for Google. They already get most of their funding from that search engine deal, is a backroom agreement to slowly run the organization into the ground in order to force the last holdouts over to Chrome that hard to believe?
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If Mozilla really starts to go downhill, what are the chances we get a Linux kernel-style community fork that we can rely on instead? Curious why that hasn't happened before -- perhaps because Mozilla has always toed the line of not-quite-awful enough?
I just hope we can keep an alternative browser engine alive. Would be nice if some rich person would just set up a funding model that can pay a few devs to keep it going indefinitely without ads or spyware.
Librewolf is kind of like that. It pulls a lot from Tor
Check out AlternativeTo
I've been thinking of different browsers as well, but not sure which.
Def not Chrome or Safari though.
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Jesus isn't rule number one of an employee suing you is to NOT FIRE THEM?
Seriously Monty Burns did this. Monty fucking burns. A cartoon villain
EEO court here we come
Teixeira worked for nearly 14 years at Microsoft in areas including developer tools and technologies, before serving as Facebook’s director of program management and design, and Twitter’s vice president of product.
According to the suit, Teixeira joined Mozilla in August 2022 with the understanding that he would ultimately be positioned to succeed Baker as Mozilla CEO.
[...]
Teixeira, 52, was diagnosed in October 2023 with ocular melanoma, a rare but treatable form of cancer. He took an approved 90-day medical leave through early February under the Family Medical Leave Act, the suit says.
Shortly before Teixeira returned, in early February, Baker stepped down as CEO, returning to the role of executive chairman. Chambers, a Mozilla board member, was named to serve as CEO for the remainder of the year.
So he's basically fine, he just missed his chance to become CEO.
You missed this paragraph, which is curious.
After he returned, the suit says, Teixeira was asked to carry out and falsely take responsibility for a decision to make job cuts that were planned in his absence. He questioned the need for the layoffs and raised concerns about the potential to disproportionately impact women and people of color, the suit says.
Mozilla was trying to use him as a scapegoat, putting profits ahead of people.
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It's truly wild how hard of a heel turn mozilla has taken. I'm going to cancel my recurring donations to them, and get off all of their products.
People are digging up a bunch of old shit right now
September 18, 2024 is "old shit"?
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It's almost like they are intentionally trying to get in trouble.
I feel like the CEO of Mozilla is paid by Google to be as fucking stupid as possible.
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Honestly. Even my most cynical assumption was that Mozilla would subtly pressure him to leave the company, making life harder for him in ways that wouldn't be possible to legally prove.
I haven't seen anything this egregious since Elon Musk fired Halli.
Ok wtf is Moxilla doing? They know their company is built on good community perception, right?
They honestly have a monopoly in the sense that they are the only think not Chrome
I mean they've been pedaling AI crap for a while without negative backlash.
Similarly they tried to ride the Blockchain train back in the crypto scam days and also didn't face any backlash.
They've publicly vouched to become an AI company and an advertising company without backlash.
I think most Firefox users don't care
What they mean with AI features is also their offline website translation feature, which is something I've wanted for years. The alternative is online Google website translation.
I think most Firefox users don’t care
Oh we care, but there's no alternative besides Chrome and Safari and those companies are even worse (Google definitely is, anyway, Apple is debatable)
Luckily there's still alternatives like Librewolf that unfortunately still use Mozilla's browser engine.
I do hope the Servo project will be ready to use in a production browser soon.
We are stuck with Firefox based browsers for a few years at the minimum as it takes a really long time to develop an engine.
Also Servo is very much not the only thing around. Ladybird exists as well
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I just canceled my MDN Plus subscription. Man, Mozilla has been so disappointing recently. I have to wonder if Google infiltrated them or something.
It doesn't really matter if they've been infiltrated, because they're so dependent on Google's cash. The money corrupts, even if there are no specific moles.
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