I don’t really mind AI features where it makes sense. That being said, as someone else commented, this should have been a plugin.
I’ll add on top of that: this should have been a plugin wholly developed by Mistral.
Mozilla should stop spending time and money on side features and focus on the browser and its engine. It still is way slower than any chromium based browser, lacks features that have been standard on chromium for years (eg. HDR video playback) and it’s way less efficient on battery than the competition.
Complaining about Firefox doing this and groveling on “I’m good, I’m on <random fork>” is spitting upwards: even the most modified forks like Zen still rely on Mozilla’s aging engine.
Firefox actually picked up on good improvements at around the same they started with the AI stuff. Tab groups and vertical tabs were something people wanted forever and they implemented excellently. Firefox does have HDR.
I don’t know if firefox is slower than chromium in benchmarks or something but it’s certainly not noticeable to me in real usage.
By all means criticize AI features, but please don’t lie about everything else.
I am on the latest version of FF on Linux and I don’t have HDR working, not on YouTube, nor on standalone players like Jellyfin. Yes my display is HDR and Wayland+gnome is exposing HDR properly to games and Helium (chromium fork).
Since some govt and utilities sites only work on “chrome” (borked even with user agent switcher set to chrome+win on FF) I had to get this other browser, and the speed difference is noticeable on most sites, even tho theoretically FF should be faster since its stripping a lot of crap with uBlock Origin.
Tried flatpak’d Brave and also runs snappier than FF.
Exactly. The Blender foundation has stated that it is a tool by humans and for humans, so no AI functionality is planned. However, there are still MCP extensions and the like. There’s nothing stopping anyone from using AI with Blender, but the Blender Foundation funding goes to core development. Not sure why Mozilla isn’t doing the same. If I really want a LLM controlling a browser, playwright-cli works fine anyway.
It still is way slower than any chromium based browser, lacks features that have been standard on chromium for years
I don’t think its slower at all. Most of the time same if not faster. Maybe it depends on where you go?
Features in chromium are often there because they are going their own way and not being standard, is that Mozillas fault?
HDR video is in Firefox, HDR images is experimental. Personally I don’t care, why would I watch videos in a browser that I think should have HDR?
I will agree that Mistral should have done the lifting, and Firefox need not be working so hard on adding AI. However, if they don’t people on the other side of the fence will complain that Chrome gets all the AI, why is Firefox so lazy?
IMO the browser wars have been lost, and Mozilla isn’t a competent web browser anymore. 30% of sites I visit, straight up don’t function at all on Firefox. They don’t even satisfy their original mission statement of privacy focus.
I switched to Vivaldi and didn’t look back. I don’t want some LLM “assistant” scanning every webpage I visit.
I’ve been using Firefox for many many years, and the only sites that haven’t worked were M$ sites explicitly coded to break on Firefox, or were using a technology that Firefox simply doesn’t implement like web serial api, which is admittedly more than one, but it’s an extreme minority.
Yeah, if switching user agent fixes it then it just means the website developers are piece of shits not even bothering to check if the site work on gecko
Yeah I wondering if I was just lucky because I never have problems on Firefox or librewolf (which is Firefox).
Usually when I’m asked for computer help by friends or family, I can often save us both a lot of time by just asking, “you’re using chrome again aren’t you?” Or edge?
But sometimes in a great while Firefox is the “culprit” because it doesn’t let abusive sites spy on them and collect so much telemetry.
You’re college Web admin sucks. I would use a jailed chromium browser in that case or have a separate cheap computer for browsing shitty websites that I “have to” use.
I admit I didn’t have mobile Firefox in mind when I made that comment. I will point out though that iOS Firefox isn’t their proper engine, it’s essentially just safari under the hood.
Apology rejected. I’m glad you still enjoy Firefox, but I’m not lying about my experience. So many websites kept breaking constantly, and in extremely bad ways.
Things like, the final step of a 40 page government form failing, and I then need to call them and wait on hold for 90 minutes for them to fix it. Or, payments being charged, but not receiving the product; again having to call support. Or more subtle things, like specific features on websites not working, weird canvas glitches, you get the idea.
In comparison, the amount of problems I’ve had in Vivaldi is zero, compared to daily. I cannot recommend Firefox to average users anymore. I think using Firefox is admirable, but it’s increasingly similar to trying to play games on Linux without Proton. Good luck.
I have not ever had any of those issues you’re describing, but it sucks that that happened to you. (If it actually did and you’re not just some paid troll to poison public opinion)
You got me. My code of honour dictates that if someone correctly calls me out, I must acknowledge it. I was paid A$10,000.00 by Vivaldi themselves to spread discord and lies on Lemmy, the most popular social media platform; for maximum outreach.
I had to take the money, though. I deeply wanted to reject it, but I had to. My pet unicorn needs rainbow replacement surgery, and my magical beasts insurance wouldn’t cover it. I can’t go on in a world without Captain Sparkles.
I can only hope the community will forgive me one day. I’ll build my renowned reputation back up, brick by brick.
I’m glad you found a browser that you love, but you’re still stuck with chromium base and Manifest v3 with Vivaldi, and any further upstream abuses.
I have run ironwolf, waterfox, fennec, floorp. And several other variants of mozilla’s Firefox browser over the past two and a half years of deGoogling, and I would say that less than 2% of the sites I visit give me trouble , less than 1% actually have me falling back to using Safari if I’m on a mac, or spinning up a VM that has Vivaldi installed on it for use with a PC. .
Privacy costs. I’m now paying for my email services and self hosting several others. It’s taking me literally years to do Google 90% of my life, but it would have been I impossible if Mozilla is tech stack wasn’t mature and extremely available
Again, Vivaldi is a very sexy browser and I’m glad that you are satisfied with it, but it’s not going to meet the needs of those of us that want to be free to use full fat third party ad blockers and tracker privacy solutions.
I don’t really mind AI features where it makes sense. That being said, as someone else commented, this should have been a plugin.
I’ll add on top of that: this should have been a plugin wholly developed by Mistral. Mozilla should stop spending time and money on side features and focus on the browser and its engine. It still is way slower than any chromium based browser, lacks features that have been standard on chromium for years (eg. HDR video playback) and it’s way less efficient on battery than the competition.
Complaining about Firefox doing this and groveling on “I’m good, I’m on <random fork>” is spitting upwards: even the most modified forks like Zen still rely on Mozilla’s aging engine.
Firefox actually picked up on good improvements at around the same they started with the AI stuff. Tab groups and vertical tabs were something people wanted forever and they implemented excellently. Firefox does have HDR.
I don’t know if firefox is slower than chromium in benchmarks or something but it’s certainly not noticeable to me in real usage.
By all means criticize AI features, but please don’t lie about everything else.
I am on the latest version of FF on Linux and I don’t have HDR working, not on YouTube, nor on standalone players like Jellyfin. Yes my display is HDR and Wayland+gnome is exposing HDR properly to games and Helium (chromium fork).
Since some govt and utilities sites only work on “chrome” (borked even with user agent switcher set to chrome+win on FF) I had to get this other browser, and the speed difference is noticeable on most sites, even tho theoretically FF should be faster since its stripping a lot of crap with uBlock Origin.
Tried flatpak’d Brave and also runs snappier than FF.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/HDR#Firefox
Always amusing you people gravitate to the cryptoscam browser.
Kindly fuck off
LOL very mature! Have a nice day, friend
Exactly. The Blender foundation has stated that it is a tool by humans and for humans, so no AI functionality is planned. However, there are still MCP extensions and the like. There’s nothing stopping anyone from using AI with Blender, but the Blender Foundation funding goes to core development. Not sure why Mozilla isn’t doing the same. If I really want a LLM controlling a browser, playwright-cli works fine anyway.
I don’t think its slower at all. Most of the time same if not faster. Maybe it depends on where you go?
Features in chromium are often there because they are going their own way and not being standard, is that Mozillas fault?
HDR video is in Firefox, HDR images is experimental. Personally I don’t care, why would I watch videos in a browser that I think should have HDR?
I will agree that Mistral should have done the lifting, and Firefox need not be working so hard on adding AI. However, if they don’t people on the other side of the fence will complain that Chrome gets all the AI, why is Firefox so lazy?
IMO the browser wars have been lost, and Mozilla isn’t a competent web browser anymore. 30% of sites I visit, straight up don’t function at all on Firefox. They don’t even satisfy their original mission statement of privacy focus.
I switched to Vivaldi and didn’t look back. I don’t want some LLM “assistant” scanning every webpage I visit.
I’m sorry, I call bullshit.
I’ve been using Firefox for many many years, and the only sites that haven’t worked were M$ sites explicitly coded to break on Firefox, or were using a technology that Firefox simply doesn’t implement like web serial api, which is admittedly more than one, but it’s an extreme minority.
Yeah, if switching user agent fixes it then it just means the website developers are piece of shits not even bothering to check if the site work on gecko
Yeah 90% of sites that “don’t work” definitely work with a user agent change. Didn’t realize they added web serial, that’s awesome.
Oh, I have to teat this! It’s one of the only reasons I keep Chromium around.
Used it yesterday to test an xiao esp32 s3. Workes a treat :)
Yeah I wondering if I was just lucky because I never have problems on Firefox or librewolf (which is Firefox).
Usually when I’m asked for computer help by friends or family, I can often save us both a lot of time by just asking, “you’re using chrome again aren’t you?” Or edge?
But sometimes in a great while Firefox is the “culprit” because it doesn’t let abusive sites spy on them and collect so much telemetry.
There are plenty of over-designed, heavy “Web apps” which don’t work correctly in Firefox. My college’s Web portal is one.
If you create a support ticket, they tell you to use a supported browser
You’re college Web admin sucks. I would use a jailed chromium browser in that case or have a separate cheap computer for browsing shitty websites that I “have to” use.
Yep, it does. All the websites that don’t work in Firefox also tend to suck
Well, there is (edit:are idiot) issues on the mobile ff (which I still use), but the desktop version has no issues (if you don’t block scripts).
I admit I didn’t have mobile Firefox in mind when I made that comment. I will point out though that iOS Firefox isn’t their proper engine, it’s essentially just safari under the hood.
Apology rejected. I’m glad you still enjoy Firefox, but I’m not lying about my experience. So many websites kept breaking constantly, and in extremely bad ways.
Things like, the final step of a 40 page government form failing, and I then need to call them and wait on hold for 90 minutes for them to fix it. Or, payments being charged, but not receiving the product; again having to call support. Or more subtle things, like specific features on websites not working, weird canvas glitches, you get the idea.
In comparison, the amount of problems I’ve had in Vivaldi is zero, compared to daily. I cannot recommend Firefox to average users anymore. I think using Firefox is admirable, but it’s increasingly similar to trying to play games on Linux without Proton. Good luck.
It’s either a problem with extensions you’re using or you’re straight up lying, and everyone knows it.
I have not ever had any of those issues you’re describing, but it sucks that that happened to you. (If it actually did and you’re not just some paid troll to poison public opinion)
You got me. My code of honour dictates that if someone correctly calls me out, I must acknowledge it. I was paid A$10,000.00 by Vivaldi themselves to spread discord and lies on Lemmy, the most popular social media platform; for maximum outreach.
I had to take the money, though. I deeply wanted to reject it, but I had to. My pet unicorn needs rainbow replacement surgery, and my magical beasts insurance wouldn’t cover it. I can’t go on in a world without Captain Sparkles.
I can only hope the community will forgive me one day. I’ll build my renowned reputation back up, brick by brick.
I’m glad you found a browser that you love, but you’re still stuck with chromium base and Manifest v3 with Vivaldi, and any further upstream abuses.
I have run ironwolf, waterfox, fennec, floorp. And several other variants of mozilla’s Firefox browser over the past two and a half years of deGoogling, and I would say that less than 2% of the sites I visit give me trouble , less than 1% actually have me falling back to using Safari if I’m on a mac, or spinning up a VM that has Vivaldi installed on it for use with a PC. .
Privacy costs. I’m now paying for my email services and self hosting several others. It’s taking me literally years to do Google 90% of my life, but it would have been I impossible if Mozilla is tech stack wasn’t mature and extremely available
Again, Vivaldi is a very sexy browser and I’m glad that you are satisfied with it, but it’s not going to meet the needs of those of us that want to be free to use full fat third party ad blockers and tracker privacy solutions.