from serge@babka.social to firefox@fedia.io on 28 Feb 2025 14:59
https://babka.social/users/serge/statuses/114082105679390859
My Thoughts on the Firefox situation
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I've used Firefox since it was Mosaic, and when it was called Netscape Navigator.
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I agree that the removal of the promise not to sell your data is bad, and the new EULA is bad.
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I worry about the long term product development of Firefox
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I question the role of the fork in development, meaning I don't know how much they can do on their own without Firefox proper.
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Firefox sync is an important feature to me. I'm open to self-hosting but not losing it.
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I'm open to new browsers for the future, but this is a huge effort.
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Brave is NOT the solution. No way, no how.
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We need an alternative to Webkit based browsers.
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Firefox will have lessons for us about FLOSS sustainability. We don't know what those lessons are yet.
#firefox #mozilla
threaded - newest
@serge I'm really looking into self hosting sync, for me.
BUT, it's a technology bar to entry and isn't really a solution to the underlying problem because that just says "if you privileged (tech, money to host) you can get out of a bad deal"
@peribotsarah
I've self-hosted services for decades and my positions are slowly evolving as the needs, tech stack, and political landscape change. I'm more than happy to share my thoughts with you on this.
As this relates to Babka... there's for sure a component of wanting to be sure the site has extremely high availability, reliability, and for sure in essentially the expense of running the site vs its income and its use.
@serge Yes!
What I said is more of an observation that the general availability of tech is toxic, there are ways out of it, and you and I can probably navigate it Better than Most.
Actually, Kudos to you (and many Fedi-hosts) for making that escape possible for more than yourself.
I'm much more than happy to hear what you have to say on this!
@serge
what about syncing the Browser profile folder? works for me Quote sufficient for Firefox. should be adaptable.
@peribotsarah
@jakob_thoboell
How does that work on Android?
@peribotsarah
@serge
I have not tried. For Kombination of different OS Desktop systems it works without trouble.
@peribotsarah
I think it is not too early to start drawing some lessons about what happens to a free software project when it's run by an organization that's controlled by a greed-oriented CEO who fills the executive team with like-minded people from places such as Meta and Twitter.
@serge
If you find the time — as I'm typing this I'm trying out Brave: What's your issue with Brave? Sync?
@DCR
If we worry about Firefox because of its funding model, Brave exists because a very wealthy man with very problematic actions in the past wants to use Brave to support a crypto-backed ad network.
That's not wild speculation- they're clear about that on their website.
@serge
Thank you for your fast answer! =)
@serge total nostalgic! My wife asked me: what is Netscape😂
@kofanchen
I have no idea how old you are, but now I know you have a young wife.
@serge Agreement on all thoughts!
@serge
I'm not sure I understand the last point
@calispera
Mozilla is a very strange entity and the Mozilla Corporation is tasked to make money. The way it does that has changed over time but largely through deals- for example by having Google as the default search engine, Mozilla is paid millions of dollars. By making deals with VPN providers and others, it makes other money.
We know that over time Firefox has gotten worse and worse for users.
We don't know why.
It will be interesting to understand what happened in depth so we can learn lessons from it.
@serge @calispera I've pondered this for a while. It's not hard to assume that the financial cart will start to pull the FOSS horse. But maybe there's a second strand of enshittification caused by focus-group based design. Though that said, FOSS also sometimes suffers the opposite way too- dev chosen features that are based around their own preferences and interests, but may not match user needs.
@terryb @serge
Why do you think that focus-group based design is a venue for enshitification ?
Doesn't that sound good ?
@calispera
I won't speak for @terryb but there's are two polarities. On one hand you have a singular vision, and on the other, a group.
There's an expression in English "A camel is a horse designed by committee".
There's an idea that a thing made purely by focus groups will have no identity and no spirit.
Of course sometimes hearing the views of others will help inform and make a better work, but if it's not done thoughtfully then you get "mush".
Imagine if Leonardo da Vinci had a focus group. We'd have paintings of cats. :)
@serge @calispera And also, a focus group- unlike a committee - doesn't even get to direct the discussion or make a final decision. Someone (or another group) listens and then decides what they really meant was......
@serge @calispera @terryb I mean that's a good description of the pros and cons of singular (individual) vision versus groups. But I'm not sure you are going to get a lot of traction on this network running against the cat paintings. (Speaking of which, I wonder if @dailymedievalcats is planning on cycling through their collection again. As I understand it, they've posted each of the paintings in their database once).
@serge Heh, I don’t get the whole “switch to Brave” crowd. They are even worse about finding money making angles than Mozilla. Also, Brave sucks, functionally. Sorry, not sorry, Brave.
#Mozilla #Brave