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Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)
(infosec.pub)
Just pick one - All the Fox functionality without bloatware
Librewolf - https://librewolf.net/
Waterfox - https://www.waterfox.com/
Zen Browser - https://zen-browser.app/
More browsers here - https://alternativeto.net/category/browsers/firefox-based/
You can also use this add to disable the ~~shitload~~ ai function in many search engines in one go
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-ai/
GitHub page - https://github.com/jruns/disable-ai
You can find all the links on Mastodon<
I'll try to give an out-of-the-loop answer to this, if that helps. Concerning "AI" tools, I think the chunk of people who don't want it included in the browser on any level come in one or both of two forms. One is a moral opposition -- for example, a pro-environmental or pro-artist stance. I don't think those need much explanation, but feel free to say otherwise.
The other is in my opinion is in response to exhaustion. Pro-"AI" features have proven themselves to be untrustworthy at nearly every turn with thoughtless or downright irresponsible implementations. A worthwhile use-case is the exception rather than the norm and It's tiring to have to constantly check if this time I want it on or not. As a result of opt-in-by-default changes to privacy policies or account settings, my trust in any site or app publishing an "AI" implementation has been broken and it's nice to have options I don't have to worry about wherever I can get them. I found it irritatingly tone-deaf that Mozilla wasn't considering a kill-switch with their first swing at this.
If it seems unreasonable or hard-to-understand, I think taking a step back and looking at the broader software industry rather than just Mozilla will help.
These are all valid reasons. I'll also add that I personally desire manual control over my computing experience. A huge part of the reason I run Linux is that it does exactly what I tell it to and nothing more. When you start introducing other agents to my user agent, it ceases to be a user agent. Something else is arranging my tabs. Something is popping info up into in my face that I didn't ask to see (and which might be incorrect). I just want these things to go away so my browser can be my browser again and not be under the control of a random word guesser.
Yes, I have turned these features off, but I don't even want them installed. They've been force-installed onto my system through software that didn't used to do that. If I lose my config, I have to go turn it all back off again. I'd rather just not have the feature anywhere in the software. I'd rather Firefox just not smuggle AI features onto my PC at all.