Goodbye, Firefox?

18 Sep 2024 - Robert W. Gehl

I think I’m going to stop using Firefox altogether. It was a tiny little weather app that did it.

So, one day I opened a new tab in Firefox and there it was: a weather report. A tiny little temp reading for my area. I didn’t think about it much, but someone on the fediverse noted that this little weather app is sponsored by AccuWeather, a company long criticized for its attempt to privatize public weather information. Hovering over the little temp reading revealed this to be true – it said, “Sponsored by AccuWeather.”

And that broke me.

To be fair, it’s not the only thing. Like others, I’ve started to see privacy settings being reset every time I update Firefox. I set the default search to be Startpage instead of Google – an update wiped that and set it to Google, again. I set my homepage to not have Pocket or sponsored links – an update wiped that.

Pretty soon each new tab suggested I go to Facebook. Fucking Facebook.

Mozilla bashing has become kind of a common sport, so much so that one of my favorite podcasts, Late Night Linux, has gotten bored of doing it. But once I saw the little AccuWeather thingy, I started watching for critical comments on Mozilla. And I saw what many others have already pointed out:

• Firefox browser share plummeting in inverse proportion to CEO pay
• weird ideas about integrating ad-tech
• AI bullshit
• and an end to the laudable experiment with the fediverse.

My attitude towards these critical takes has long been to ignore them. “Whatever Mozilla wants to do is fine as long as they make a good browser,” I said to myself. But lately it seems like they’re actively trying to kill off Firefox rather than continuing to make a great browser.

The thing is, with all the papercuts, Firefox is still quite good. But this is FOSS. Forks are a thing. I’m now testing out LibreWolf, a privacy-conscious fork of Firefox, and so far, so good.

What’s sad about this, though, is that I’ve been using Firefox for nearly two decades – almost as long as Firefox has been around. It was my introduction point into the world of FOSS. First it, then OpenOffice, then Ubuntu, and now I run as much FOSS as I can.

Maybe I will come back to Firefox, but if not, I’m still grateful for its role in my career.

Post Tags

• FALD
• Goal 1
• Firefox