Fuckkkkk.
Can Mozilla just fucking stop licking Google’s asshole for like 1 god damned week?
It's their biggest source of revenue, AFAIK.
firefox lives and dies by google giving them money.
Why though, it could run as a stable project with little support outside volunteer and donations...which they ask for already.
It's probably because non-profit execs are brainwashed by the promises of AI too. Also, Google has donated over $1 billion to Mozilla according to this website.
Looks like right now it just blocks their AI features. Don't threaten me with a good time Mozilla. Though I do worry about it spreading in the future
The token is used to access Firefox’s server-side AI tools, like Smart Window, for rate-limiting purposes, ensuring only unmodified, > Play-installed copies of Firefox on Google-certified devices use Mozilla’s1 compute infra.
Last I knew, Google provided like 3/4 of their total revenue, so... Google unfortunately gets to call some shots. Only way to really fix that is to give them a substantial alternative income stream.
or let them slip into obsolescence.
And then your entire range of browser options becomes Chrome and a half dozen reskins of Chrome. I'm pretty sure a huge reason Google provides the funding is to avoid having Chrome branded a monopoly.
That would be worse.
Guess it's nice I run graphene and can just block that, man that sucks though. I'm tired of Mozilla being only slightly better than the competition
I’ve the feels that Firefox only exists to avoid monopoly on chrome.
Google funds its own antitrust competition
on one hand, fuck Mozilla's enshitifiation.
on the other hand, this is a pro for custom ROM users. you get the AI automatically stripped out.
it's almost like firefox wants everyone to migrate over to waterfox, librewolf, or mullvad-browser
Mullvad isn't on Android. I checked when I started using the VPN. Literally irrelevant to this discussion.
Last I checked, LibreWolf also wasn't on Android. I use IronFox on e/OS
(I bought a Fairphone 4 through Murena a few years back as my first foray into custom ROMs. Still debating what I will do for my next phone when the time finally comes. I do not need to be told about the concerns about Murena, that is already factored into my indecisiveness about my next phone.)
This is first time hearing about IronFox. Is it a distinct browser or just a repackaging of Firefox?
It's another Firefox fork (well, based on a Mull fork, which is from Firefox), similar to LibreWolf. No AI, similar built-in security and privacy features. You can find the repository and install instructions here: https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox
What was the issue with mullvad-browser that it required a fork? Did they lose it at some point?
Mull browser, not Mullvad; the Mull browser project was discontinued, hence why IronFox picked it up. I actually don't know if the Mullvad browser is also a Mull fork; the name would suggest a connection, but I can't see it mentioned anywhere in a quick search of their site.
What i'm learning about these firefox derivatives is they are just applying some patches, putting lipstick on that pig, and calling it something else. So might be time to just list the patches and compare which patches we like. Like trading baseball cards or cheering our favorite team (patch).