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PayPalJust like Google plan with Chrome, Mozilla aren't sitting still on expanding Firefox into something resembling a web browser but with more AI.
As announced today on the Mozilla blog, they've got a new CEO with Anthony Enzor-DeMeo. Here's a short but important excerpt on the future of Firefox from the post (emphasis ours):
As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. This is not a slogan. It is a direction that guides how we build and how we grow. It means three things.
- First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it.
- Second: our business model must align with trust. We will grow through transparent monetization that people recognize and value.
- Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
You should read the full post to form your own opinion on it, but regular readers will know my thoughts on AI quite well by now. Companies everywhere are scrambling to force AI into where it isn't needed, or wanted, and all it ends up doing is causing the complete enshittification of whatever it is.
If they really wanted to give us privacy and agency in how we use it, they would give us a very simple opt-out for all AI features. But like other companies and organisations - they won't, because they need to force people into it to make numbers go up. They say we should be able to easily turn it off, but I'll believe that when I see it as a clear option to disable it all.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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I'd rather see them replacing Gecko with Servo and implementing Vulkan rendering instead of all this AI nonsense.
Hopefully Servo based browser will become a thing eventually, with Mozilla or without.
Last edited by Shmerl on 16 Dec 2025 at 7:44 pm UTC
Hopefully Servo based browser will become a thing eventually, with Mozilla or without.
Last edited by Shmerl on 16 Dec 2025 at 7:44 pm UTC
5 Likes
What does that even mean.
1 Likes
Liam Dawe 4 hours ago
Quoting: kuhpunktWhat does that even mean.It means you will use AI and you will like it. There is no escape. Consume!
12 Likes
I don't care about their third commitment, provided they're true to their first commitment which will allow me to turn all that AI shite off.
However, even the commitment to AI is depressing. As another comment before this noted... there are so many better ways to use their resources than cram unwanted AI features into what's almost the last bastion of non-Google browsers.
Edit... I've just read the post and their "double bottom line" manifesto, and it's clear that their going all in on AI. Goddamit. Time to look for another browser.
FUCK! (sorry) So angry.
Last edited by scaine on 16 Dec 2025 at 7:55 pm UTC
However, even the commitment to AI is depressing. As another comment before this noted... there are so many better ways to use their resources than cram unwanted AI features into what's almost the last bastion of non-Google browsers.
Edit... I've just read the post and their "double bottom line" manifesto, and it's clear that their going all in on AI. Goddamit. Time to look for another browser.
FUCK! (sorry) So angry.
Last edited by scaine on 16 Dec 2025 at 7:55 pm UTC
11 Likes
CharlieTheMadHatter 4 hours ago
It's sad to see Mozilla making the same bad choices. Prioritizing shareholder profits seems to come above everything else.
Lest we forget:
- Rewriting Firefox Terms of Use / Privacy Notice with broad licensing language (appeared to grant Mozilla rights to user input; caused major user backlash; subsequently revised)
- Moving toward increased ad revenue and partnerships (adding sponsored content/ads in Firefox and related services), raising concerns about monetization vs. privacy
- Heavy financial dependence on Google search-default deals (large portion of revenue from Google), raising conflict-of-interest and independence concerns
- Leadership controversies and contentious executive appointments (e.g., Brendan Eich 2014 CEO appointment controversy over prior political donation)
- Removing or deprecating user-favored features and products (e.g., Pocket shutdown, Fakespot removal, UI changes like Proton tab removals) that alienated loyal users
- Product regressions and reliability/performance regressions reported by users (pages/apps breaking, higher memory use, regressions in performance)
- Accusations of questionable third‑party partnerships (e.g., monitoring/identity services, ad/analytics vendors) and integrations that conflicted with earlier privacy commitments
Lest we forget:
- Rewriting Firefox Terms of Use / Privacy Notice with broad licensing language (appeared to grant Mozilla rights to user input; caused major user backlash; subsequently revised)
- Moving toward increased ad revenue and partnerships (adding sponsored content/ads in Firefox and related services), raising concerns about monetization vs. privacy
- Heavy financial dependence on Google search-default deals (large portion of revenue from Google), raising conflict-of-interest and independence concerns
- Leadership controversies and contentious executive appointments (e.g., Brendan Eich 2014 CEO appointment controversy over prior political donation)
- Removing or deprecating user-favored features and products (e.g., Pocket shutdown, Fakespot removal, UI changes like Proton tab removals) that alienated loyal users
- Product regressions and reliability/performance regressions reported by users (pages/apps breaking, higher memory use, regressions in performance)
- Accusations of questionable third‑party partnerships (e.g., monitoring/identity services, ad/analytics vendors) and integrations that conflicted with earlier privacy commitments
4 Likes
The article say it already:
"AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off."
if they allow one to turn on or off the AI, all fine to me
AI can be useful, but it is not something any one keeps always on and too dependent
Between a TLDR article that i read only the top lines and a "summarize this" (only when i want)... guess what is better!
it is just like the translator, not needed most of the time, useful on some situations.
Now lets hope is that adding AI do not break other stuff, something is a optional feature, other is shove in your face
"AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off."
if they allow one to turn on or off the AI, all fine to me
AI can be useful, but it is not something any one keeps always on and too dependent
Between a TLDR article that i read only the top lines and a "summarize this" (only when i want)... guess what is better!
it is just like the translator, not needed most of the time, useful on some situations.
Now lets hope is that adding AI do not break other stuff, something is a optional feature, other is shove in your face
0 Likes
browsers I've found that don't seem to have AI plans.
https://servo.org/ (rust, new rendering engine, in progress)
https://ladybird.org/ (c++, new rendering engine, in progress, founder may be sketchy)
https://apps.gnome.org/Epiphany/ (gnome, WebKitGtk)
https://www.falkon.org/ (kde, qtwebengine)
https://apps.kde.org/konqueror (kde, qtwebengine)
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/w3m (text mode)
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/ (text mode)
forks of firefox
https://www.torproject.org/download/ (says they'll remove AI, intended to be used with Tor)
https://mullvad.net/en/browser (fork of tor browser, but can connect to regular internet via VPN)
https://librewolf.net/
I'm not sure what's up with chrome/chromium based forks.
I haven't really tried the KDE options in a while, epiphany was able to log into some work websites that used duo for 2 factor.
https://servo.org/ (rust, new rendering engine, in progress)
https://ladybird.org/ (c++, new rendering engine, in progress, founder may be sketchy)
https://apps.gnome.org/Epiphany/ (gnome, WebKitGtk)
https://www.falkon.org/ (kde, qtwebengine)
https://apps.kde.org/konqueror (kde, qtwebengine)
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/w3m (text mode)
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/ (text mode)
forks of firefox
https://www.torproject.org/download/ (says they'll remove AI, intended to be used with Tor)
https://mullvad.net/en/browser (fork of tor browser, but can connect to regular internet via VPN)
https://librewolf.net/
I'm not sure what's up with chrome/chromium based forks.
I haven't really tried the KDE options in a while, epiphany was able to log into some work websites that used duo for 2 factor.
10 Likes
If they really wanted to give us privacy and agency in how we use it, they would give us a very simple opt-out for all AI features.No, they would deactivate all AI features, until we simply (without dark pattern shit) opt-in for them.
3 Likes
Now that i came to love it - can anyone forecast what this would mean for a fork like librewolf?
They surely would take that out, will they? Can they?
I never got this. If i want a hammer, i want a hammer that does one job: hitting nails to where i want them. Nothing else. These amalgamations of one thousand different "features" can never do one thing well.
If this keeps on happening, i'll be back on mutt, lynx & irssi. Oh, and my C64 should arrive soon, they can do interwebs too, i guess.
They surely would take that out, will they? Can they?
I never got this. If i want a hammer, i want a hammer that does one job: hitting nails to where i want them. Nothing else. These amalgamations of one thousand different "features" can never do one thing well.
If this keeps on happening, i'll be back on mutt, lynx & irssi. Oh, and my C64 should arrive soon, they can do interwebs too, i guess.
2 Likes
They better stick to that part about letting people disable that stuff. If they try to force it, especially if they force it on the browsers that use Firefox as a base, like Zen (Which is what I use), then I don't know what I'm going to do because I absolutely do not want to go back to a chromium based browser.
1 Likes
I'm using Orion on my mac and iphone, and really liking it. It's made by Kagi, and uses webkit as its renderer. They do also have an AI assistant, but its totally separate and not built into the browser. I'm very much looking forward to their linux release.
0 Likes
about:config
browser.ml.enable -> false
problem solved
browser.ml.enable -> false
problem solved
5 Likes
Fuck. Is there a Firefox fork that supports DRM for Spotify, Netflix, HBO Max etc?
0 Likes
Quoting: CharlieTheMadHatter- Moving toward increased ad revenue and partnerships (adding sponsored content/ads in Firefox and related services), raising concerns about monetization vs. privacySee, they do not really want to be dependent from google, but all other alternative funding methods failed or get user revolt! Adding some default bookmarks or simple ads to the default page that have no user tracking or "personalized" is fine for me, if do give mozilla some money and don't really affect my privacy. i don't like ads, but as long as i can ignore them if i want, it is not a issue. I can't demand mozilla to stop accepting money from google and have no other funding source!
- Heavy financial dependence on Google search-default deals (large portion of revenue from Google), raising conflict-of-interest and independence concerns
i bet this AI is also another way to try to get some funds, like higher AI limits or something like that. As long it is optional, they can try it
Quoting: CharlieTheMadHatter- Removing or deprecating user-favored features and products (e.g., Pocket shutdown, ...) that alienated loyal usersAgain, when pocket was integrated in firefox, many people complained... now they they removed it, many people also complains.
- Accusations of questionable third‑party partnerships (e.g., monitoring/identity services, ad/analytics vendors) and integrations that conflicted with earlier privacy commitments
most people over react to anything that is done. For instance, the cloudflare dns... it is optional, it works really well, it have no user tracking (cloudflare do aggregate what sites people access, but not what one individual user do... and do it for security, not for ads or sell), it can be changed to any other DoH service. Not everyone need it, but for many people this is a great feature. yet, people that don't like it complain a lot while people that do like it usually are silent.
Trying to prove that a ad service can exist without tracking was a great idea... but just reading mozilla and a ad service make a agreement triggered everyone in rage without even knowing the details. No where mozilla said that they would add a tracker to firefox, but that was what people assumed!
it is easier to complain (specially when only know half of the story) than to report it is a good decision
1 Likes
Petethegoat 3 hours ago
what a load of shit. 🙄
1 Likes
I turned it off as soon as it appeared, hopefully they won't try to turn it back on (or add more AI settings that are on by default) in future updates.
2 Likes
Servo has been improving at a very serious rate in the last few months alone. Unfortunately it's still missing a few key features such as WebRTC, but its JS & CSS support is coming along nicely. I tried a few Vue and React based SPA sites and other than a few rendering issues it was basically working. I think we are a year out soonest with something usable, and then there probably will still be many issues.
Falkon is a functional stripped-down chromium clone. I've been using it as a backup test browser as it tends to be a bit behind latest chromium releases.
Biggest issue with both of them is no plugin system.
I should really look at more Firefox forks to use in the meantime as the multi-account-container feature is critical for me at this time.
Sigh. I so hate the AI fad. It's even worse than the blockchain fad.
Falkon is a functional stripped-down chromium clone. I've been using it as a backup test browser as it tends to be a bit behind latest chromium releases.
Biggest issue with both of them is no plugin system.
I should really look at more Firefox forks to use in the meantime as the multi-account-container feature is critical for me at this time.
Sigh. I so hate the AI fad. It's even worse than the blockchain fad.
4 Likes
For those looking for browsers who have actively stated they don't want AI, Vivaldi may be a chromium fork and not open source, but they have outright decried AI in browsers.
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/vivaldi-wont-allow-a-machine-to-lie-to-you/
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/vivaldi-wont-allow-a-machine-to-lie-to-you/
8 Likes
Petethegoat 3 hours ago
Quoting: scaineEdit... I've just read the post and their "double bottom line" manifesto, and it's clear that their going all in on AI. Goddamit. Time to look for another browser.thanks for bringing attention to this, didn't notice that! it's funny, the stated goals make sense on some level - diversify income from search, bring "trustworthy" open AI models to the forefront.
just no acknowledgement that AI is an enormous bubble of absolute fucking bollocks that you have to be tricked into using, which is kind of important.
Last edited by Petethegoat on 16 Dec 2025 at 8:29 pm UTC
1 Likes
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