Post by @jwz@mastodon.social

RE: https://social.vmbrasseur.com/@vmbrasseur/115922995190919975

Mozilla wants your input. Here's mine:

Mozilla should be doing two things and two things only:

1: Building THE reference implementation web browser, and
2: Being a jugular-snapping attack dog on standards committees.
3: There is no 3.

Mozilla should have NOTHING to do with AI. Nobody wants it. Stop forcing AI into every corner of every project because your VC-brained management have completely lost the plot.

https://mozillafoundation.tfaforms.net/201

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz oof, that survey: the last section is a tone deaf ‘how shall we prioritize AI’ sea of checkboxes, lacking a “fucking DON’T!” Option. SMH.

Urban Camera

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

Done that, and then comes the begging page. .. They do AI? I don't donate.

jwz

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@uc Correct decision!

Anders Stenberg

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz I don't disagree really, but it's not necessarily clear cut. Where's the line for what just a browser is? Does that include password management? Extensions? Themes? Tabs? Translation? Developer tools? Bookmarks?

jwz

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@SonnyBonds Side quests worth considering after declaring the main mission well under control.

Sandip Bhattacharya ☮️

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz
I might sound a bit underducated on this, but I also wish they could make the Gecko rendering engine more independently usable. It pisses me off that every new browser is based on Chromium. imo if we make the rendering engine more popular, it will get way more attention and people jumping in to fix issues lying around for years because of lack of staff.

@iveyline

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz Make everything AI free Mozilla. We already have human intelligence. AI is simply regurgitating stolen human intelligence

Tushar Chauhan

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz But look you can run it locally on your machine, and it helps to code better and faster, and it really doesn't consume as many resources as you think, I have the maths on it that I copied off a neutral website, and why would you not use it come on, do it, do it ?

oldguycrusty

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

Well said. Can't think of anything I would add or change.

But yeah, inherent AI functionality is the LAST thing I need or want. Keep it out of the core build. Make AI plug-ins for those that desire it maybe..

Cheers.

Kevin McFadden

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz Firefox market share is <6%. Zen is trying to port the much-loved features from the now stagnant Arc, but the result so far is clunky and I've returned to Arc because it's more perfect right now for how I work and play.

Mozilla needs a mission bigger than just a standards-based browser. It should be experimenting with new UX. Not Liquid Glass UI/UX, but Arc-like UX.

Perhaps they should be experimenting with AI, with the goal of making AI invisible to the user without boiling the oceans.

jwz

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@n3bulous NO

Kevin McFadden

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz What is accomplished with an irrelevant Mozilla? What are FF and Mozilla in 10 years being only a standards based browser?

My original post agreed with points 1 and 2, but I trimmed them due to length. I believe those are noble goals, but you are effectively killing FF. Maybe you want EFF but for the Web.

That said, I didn't really agree with any of the question choices so I posted only a comment.

jwz

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@n3bulous How you judge the success of a commercial product is by counting users and counting ad revenue.

How you judge the success of a reference implementation is by standards compliance and code reusability.

I guess you think Mozilla should be a company making a product rather than a nonprofit whose mission is the open web, with a reference implementation existing only in service of that goal.

Kevin McFadden

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz I see where you are coming from. I was operating from where they are now, and you are saying they shouldn't be doing most of it? That would be fair.

At one point, as you know, people were concerned with being compatible with Firefox/Navigator. My perspective is that was because a significant marketshare used it. Right now, it seems most companies target only Chrome and hope for the best with others (while forcing excessive amounts of React down our tubes).

Deborah Preuss, pcc

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz @gdinwiddie NoBoDy WaNtS iT 🤬

Simon Lucy

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

sayrer

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz it's already done and detached if you look closely. speaking as someone that had their name under yours on that monstrous Makefile https://servo.org/

Scott Michaud

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

Answer: Not wasting your time with AI. To me, The Web was about sharing and preserving art, especially for communities (ex: LGBQT) that are constantly at risk of government abuse. You are abandoning them.

Sassinake! - ⊃∪∩⪽

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

I forgot to add: get a decent spell-check. 5/6 suggestions are just letter-salads, not words.

Sebastian Lasse

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz

jo. same
https://digitalcourage.social/@sl007/115923403744995268

ewhac

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz My response in the third block:

---

There is no #3. GET THE FSCK OUT OF THE LLM CESSPOOL!

"But everyone else is adopting AI..."

Oh, so I suppose if everyone else jumped off the Empire State Building, *you* would have to jump off the Empire State Building.

LLMs are the 3D movies of tech. A novelty. It *seems* cool, but in truth it's a *dead end.* Save your reputation. Save your *MONEY!* Get off the bandwagon before it sails off the cliff.

slash

@[email protected] · 7 months ago

@jwz I would happily pay the Foundation IFF they do those things you list. I want my browser to be my tool, not someone else's. I never mind paying for things of value. But I *won't* pay for things which victimize me to enrich someone else.