Mozilla fires 60 people to “focus on bringing ‘trustworthy AI into Firefox.’”
Fuck you, Mozilla. No one is asking for AI in Firefox. Sadly, you’re the best we can hope for under capitalism. So if we want something better, we should look into alternative models.
We are currently witnessing the fallout from monopolization in the browser space. Back in 2007, Internet Explorer received much criticism for its phishing protection mechanism which transmitted all visited websites to Microsoft servers. Mozilla paired up with Google and designed a different system which performed most checks locally and preserved users’ privacy. That’s what healthy competition looks like.
Fast forward to 2023. Almost all web browsers in use are either Chrome or based on the Chromium browser engine. With the competition pretty much eliminated, Google is now pushing its “Enhanced Safe Browsing” down everyone’s throats – which is a nice sounding name for “every website you visit is sent to our servers.” The Internet Explorer approach from 2007 all over again, only that now it’s Google getting all this data. And they certainly won’t do anything evil with it. Yeah, sure.
Reminder: Firefox and Safari are the only remaining browsers worth noting which are not using Google’s browser engine.
Mastodon #psa: there's a post going around about #mozilla#firefox and the salary of the Mozilla Corporation CEO. This post is based on a blog post written by an openly transphobic fascist, Brian Lunduke, who has a beef with Mozilla for them treating trans employees like human beings.
It doesn't matter how true the material is; we must not take decisions based on information collated with such motives.
This is a moderation issue and it should be taken down but it's already been seen a lot.
We at @Vivaldi continue to be the only browser company all in on Mastodon and the Fediverse.
We have made our own instance, Vivaldi Social. Any user that has a Vivaldi account for sync or other services, can easily enable a presence on Vivaldi Social.
We have integrated Mastodon as a Web panel into Vivaldi.
We include links to Vivaldi Social into Vivaldi.
We also work on integrating our blogs and forums into the Fediverse.
We hope others will follow. Mozilla has talked a lot and we hope they will join us fully soon.
“Would you like to use the browser by Company X, or the browser by the company that survives on half-a-billion dollars a year from Company X, or the browser by the company that gets paid an estimated $20 billion a year by Company X even though it can survive without it?”
We desperately need a web browser by an independent organisation funded by EU taxpayer money and maintained for the common good.
Like the legend of the phoenix, we're resurrecting Mozilla Send, an end-to-end encrypted file share service, and bringing it under our wings as Thunderbird Send. In this clip from S1E5 of the ThunderCast, developer Chris Aquino gives us a sneak peek of the new - wait, old - er, reborn project!
Learn how #Thunderbird Send will help you overcome your file upload woes, respect your privacy, safeguard against abuse, and hopefully change your #email experience for the better.
All legacy technical posts will remain available so that searching for help related to the browser is still available, but henceforth and until the reddit admins appropriately reply to our concerns, the only new submissions allowed will be ones that contain the cuddly fuzzy little animals from which the subreddit indirectly received its name:
The red panda! Also known as fire foxes.
If you are looking for technical posts, we now have an official community on Kbin. Keep in mind that Lemmy also federates with Kbin. We continue to be around on Matrix as well.
The subreddit & Kbin magazine aren't run by Mozilla but are still a very important forum for the browser.
Do give them a follow on @firefox - you should be able to follow that from most of the Fediverse i.e. Mastodon, Calckey, etc etc etc
After being kneecapped by a #patents troll years ago, #Mozilla Location Services, the only somewhat trusted (non-Google/Apple) "Wi-Fi positioning system" (geolocation based on triangulating collected #WiFi SSIDs), is now shutting down: https://github.com/mozilla/ichnaea/issues/2065
MLS was how #GeoClue could get a meters-accurate location without a #GPS receiver / sky line-of-sight.
It was used by many #GNOME / #KDE apps to get instantaneous neighborhood-level location (for maps, local weather…) on #Linux laptops.
Time flies, doesn't it?
20 years ago today, a new cross-platform, open-source application called Thunderbird debuted from the foundations of Mozilla Mail.
Some of you have been with us this entire time, and we are so honored to have you on this journey with us.
Mozilla: "In a well-intentioned yet dangerous move to fight online fraud, France is on the verge of forcing browsers to create a dystopian technical capability. It would force browser providers to create the means to mandatorily block websites present on a government provided list. Such a move will overturn decades of established content moderation norms and provide a playbook for authoritarian governments"
"It’s a social network that doesn’t try to be neutral and isn’t attempting to preserve free speech. It’s trying to make the internet a nicer place to be."
"Mozilla’s content policies also make clear that the platform will err on the side of protecting people who need to be protected..."
The internet isn’t just about browsers. Browsers are a critical part of the human experience on the internet and will always be core to our work at Mozil
IMHO: #Mozilla is repeating the #OpenAI process. A growing conflict between community driven/focused products and greedy managers thinking more VC (Venture Capital) style as they become more and more decoupled from the humble origins. This conflict will explode (I mean — asking for donations while the managers take home millions has a weird smell to it) soon and money will win (again). It's really a shame in this case.
Mozilla study reveals that “modern cars are a privacy nightmare” (www.theverge.com)
All 25 car brands reviewed raised privacy concerns regarding customer data.
Mozilla's petition against in-browser censorship law (foundation.mozilla.org)
The French government is considering a law that would require web browsers – like Mozilla's Firefox – to block websites chosen by the government.
The internet deserves a better answer to social (blog.mozilla.org)
The internet isn’t just about browsers. Browsers are a critical part of the human experience on the internet and will always be core to our work at Mozil