501
Just the Browser: tools to remove AI and other bloatware from Chrome, Edge and Firefox
(justthebrowser.com)
Just use Librewolf
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
501 points (98.5% liked)
Technology
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Grumpy ken thinks "Just use Foo" meming is promoting mindless use and I think should therefore be discouraged. Even in jest I think this affects us subconsciously to feel more comfortable with not thinking deeper for ourselves. Even if X is the right one. "Use Foo already!" is nicer~!
If I may illustrate:
Use Konform Browser^1^ already!
^1^: Disclosures: Am dev; is LibreWolf fork
I really like the Zen browser. It's Firefox-based, open source and privacy focused with AI removed but it's also really pretty and is built around vertical tabs
Zen browser my beloved 🥰
I love zen browser and its workspaces. I just cannot use any other Firefox forks anymore without it. It's more than just containers in Firefox.
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For those interested
https://librewolf.net/installation/
https://codeberg.org/librewolf/issues/issues/1919
Thanks to @acockworkorange@mander.xyz for the context below.
The settings that Mozilla packaged in were the main big ones, Claude, ChatGPT etc, it didn’t look like any of them were locally hosted or even if a locally hosted model could be chose. Local AI… where the model itself and all the token are processed on either your own machine or another machine controlled by you certainly isn’t violating privacy, but as I said the choices on offer were none of these.
LibreWolf by default gets rid of anything that seeks to abuse your right to privacy, you won’t even find Google or Bing in your search engine. Naturally this will also apply to AI providers. Unfortunately, at the moment, we can’t trust Mozilla and by extension with AI items so these things were removed. That doesn’t mean you can’t install third party AI extensions.
Also you can host your own search engine for even more privacy.
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As a libreworlf user, I'd have to advise some caution to regular users. A lot of sites are broken as images won't load and "fancier" web apps don't work super well either. Yes it's an easy fix, but expecting someone to go look in the config files to get an image to load is too much for a lot of people
That's why I recommend Waterfox instead to non technical users
I haven't experienced this behavior. Can you provide a URL for me to test against.
Same. No issues at all.
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I think even with Librewolf you need to open the about:config page and disable browser.ml settings.
afaik is that fixed by now - the team strongly opposes ai and stated that they want to keep it as clean as possible
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FYI if you want to edit the Firefox policies directly and save it in /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json, this is the file they are using
"policies": {
"DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
"DisableTelemetry": true,
"DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
"FirefoxHome": {
"SponsoredStories": false,
"SponsoredTopSites": false,
"Stories": false
},
"GenerativeAI": {
"Enabled": false
},
"SearchEngines": {
"Remove": [
"Perplexity"
]
}
}
}`
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given what "edge" means among the teens these days, microsoft really should go back to the old browser name.....microsoft goon
I don't get what was wrong with the name of Internet Explorer.
They don't want you exploring anymore. Exploration would take you away from their profitable walled garden.
I think we should go back to Netscape.
You know, like Landscape or Manscape, this is Netscape, where it automatically trims out all the AI, Trackers and Ads.
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Marketing sucks, IE was forever tainted. Like now, even if Copilot ran entirely on solar power and cured cancer, solved all hardest math problems, somehow achieved world peace and solved hunger, etc, people would still hate it.
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I switched to Watefox myself. It is comfy and no AI.
Same
Great move for those that don't want to migrate, but I'd recommend just switching to Vivaldi if you like chromium browsers, librewolf if you are used to Firefox, and if you use edge you aren't even reading this so whatever.
Edit: I guess if you can get this to work on a work computer where edge is your only browser option perhaps, that would be nice.
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I learned how to turn off the AI search mode and chrome immediately logged me out and pretended not to know my device. C'mon bro, just give it up already, we do t want your shitty product shoved down our throats. Waterfox it is, and they easily let me transfer all my bookmarks and passwords.
Shopping features: coupon codes
This feature doesn't seem like the others.
It kind of is. For example, Edge will automatically pop up in the corner at checkout and offer coupon codes, most of them will never work, then they'll steal the affiliate revenue from whoever actually sent you to the site in the first place, or add an affiliate link where it didn't previously exist, so that the site now has more expenses that are just... paying Microsoft for no reason, making everything you buy more expensive in the long run.
It pops up whether you want it or not, it's convoluted to disable, it slows down your browser when it's running, it financially harms the shops you buy from, and it often just lies about having coupons to waste your time while pretending it's helping you.
If you're familiar with the controversy around the Honey coupon addon, there are a lot of parallels in terms of privacy, ethics etc.
Or just use Waterfox.
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