Mozilla under fire for Firefox AI "bloat" that blows up CPU and drains battery
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At this point I'd honestly even pay for a privacy focused mozilla browser that is clean of all this crap, just to keep them afloat, but fat chance of that happening.
As much as I'd love for something like that I don't think it's even remotely possible. I don't think enough people are willing enough to pay for a browser that respects them, heck the amount of people who remain on Chrome shows that people aren't even willing to take a small step to stop using a browser that's actively working against their interests. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
wrote last edited by [email protected]This. It costs hundreds of millions per year to develop a web renderer. The security expertise required in particular is immense.
People have made clear they will not pay for browsers. At the same time, Mozilla doesn't want to hoover up mountains of personally identifiable information like Google and MS do.
People hate Mozilla for doing what they can to make money, and they also hate the idea of paying.
I understand the frustration, but I genuinely don't know what the community expects.
Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with or see sense in every Mozilla decision, but people act like they're satan incarnate and it's just ridiculous.
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Now, several users have taken to the Firefox subreddit to complain about high CPU usage when using the feature, as well as express their disappointment in Mozilla for adding AI to the browser.
I don't think it even downloads the model if you never enable or use it.
Isn't this enabled by default? And don't you have to manually edit the config settings in the browser to disable it?
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Instead of capitalising on Google pissing off power users with its crusade against adblockers, why the hell is Mozilla fucking up so hard here? Seriously, which chain of command green lit all of this and didn't even think this would be remotely an issue?
The company is doomed with this kind of leadership
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Isn't this enabled by default? And don't you have to manually edit the config settings in the browser to disable it?
It wasn't for me
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled = false -
Firefox has little financial motivation for this, though?
Other than getting "AI" investor money, if that's the plan... But otherwise it just feels like they're following a meme.
It makes a lot more sense when you realize that the Mozilla corporation is a for profit run by the same techno-fascist aggrandizing bait-and-switch narcissists as the rest of SV.
I've been saying it for years, but I will never donate to Firefox until it is freed from the shackles of a for profit corporation that can use your donation for any profit motive it sees fit; not even related to Firefox.
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Now, several users have taken to the Firefox subreddit to complain about high CPU usage when using the feature, as well as express their disappointment in Mozilla for adding AI to the browser.
I don't think it even downloads the model if you never enable or use it.
I don’t think it ever downloads any models. It’s just a a webview for the external chat interface, no?
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Mozilla does it again, adding useless crap.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Make a stable, privacy respecting, robust browser with a powerful extension environment? No let's try do do chrome 2
Mozilla could solve all of it's issuesby just removing all of the executives
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Did a project several years where the customrr required that the server we delivered specifically for the project never use more than 50% CPU or RAM. No requirements about how fast it actually performs its intended function, just that it can only utilise half the available resources while doing it.
My software does that anyway because I can't be arsed with multithreading or a 64 bit version
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This. It costs hundreds of millions per year to develop a web renderer. The security expertise required in particular is immense.
People have made clear they will not pay for browsers. At the same time, Mozilla doesn't want to hoover up mountains of personally identifiable information like Google and MS do.
People hate Mozilla for doing what they can to make money, and they also hate the idea of paying.
I understand the frustration, but I genuinely don't know what the community expects.
Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with or see sense in every Mozilla decision, but people act like they're satan incarnate and it's just ridiculous.
Honestly if that is it, it is understandable. This AI nonsense, however, is plainly a waste of money and resources, Mozilla's and their users'.
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I don’t think it ever downloads any models. It’s just a a webview for the external chat interface, no?
That's the sidebar thing
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You can just ..turn it off tho.
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I wish Mozilla would just debloat the browser, focus on performance and making browsing a good experience. But unfortunately their revenue situation is bad. At this stage, they won't even manage to survive through donations after annoying their main user base.
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Which fork should I be using? I am already using IronFox on Android and I'm loving it. What about Linux? What's your favourite?
I love Zen.
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Which fork should I be using? I am already using IronFox on Android and I'm loving it. What about Linux? What's your favourite?
I can only answer that last question with Waterfox, as I've been using it for something like a decade.
My other browser is Vivaldi because of the tab stacking feature makes organising, uh, ...stuff... easier...
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I wish Mozilla would just debloat the browser, focus on performance and making browsing a good experience. But unfortunately their revenue situation is bad. At this stage, they won't even manage to survive through donations after annoying their main user base.
They aren't doing anymore for years. I moved to forks of ff instead.
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Which fork should I be using? I am already using IronFox on Android and I'm loving it. What about Linux? What's your favourite?
Waterfox on mobile and floorp on desktop.
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That's the sidebar thing
I realised that about a minute after I posted, so I deleted my commented right away
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I realised that about a minute after I posted, so I deleted my commented right away
Ah, it was still visible to me. Now it shows it's removed. My bad
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The pathological need to find something to use LLMs for is so bizzare.
It’s like the opposite of classic ML, relatively tiny special purpose models trained for something critical, out of desperation, because it just can’t be done well conventionally.
But this:
AI-enhanced tab groups. Powered by a local AI model, these groups identify related tabs and suggest names for them. There is even a "Suggest more tabs for group" button that users can click to get recommendations.
Take out the word AI.
Enhanced tab groups. Powered by a local algorithm, these groups identify related tabs and suggest names for them. There is even a "Suggest more tabs for group" button that users can click to get recommendations.
If this feature took, say, a gigabyte of RAM and a bunch of CPU, it would be laughed out. But somehow it ships because it has the word AI in it? That makes no sense.
I am a massive local LLM advocate. I like “generative” ML, within reason and ethics. But this is just stupid.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Another local LLM guy here, i fully agree with you - this is probably just a move to acquire capital in the case that the google-cashflow stops.
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Firefox has little financial motivation for this, though?
Other than getting "AI" investor money, if that's the plan... But otherwise it just feels like they're following a meme.
90% of their cash flow comes from google to be the default search engine - they are probably trying to open up alternative routes of funding to reduce the risk, since it's not guaranteed that the money will keep coming due to the current lawsuit.
