!waterfox@programming.dev
It's firefox minus the slop
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
136 points (84.3% liked)
Fuck AI
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"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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LibreWolf for a security and privacy focused version
This change is about preventing AI from trying to own the change. A human must own the change.
AI cannot own a Firefox contribution. AI cannot commit code to Firefox. Only a human may do that.
If a human uses AI (or autocomplete / a formatter / a transpiler / whatever else) to help them author code, that doesn't devolve them of responsibility. The human must take ownership and responsibility for the output.
For example, if we later run git-blame on a section of the code, we want to see the human that took responsibility for the code, not some AI.
Firefox's policy on AI code: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/contributing/ai-coding.html
Perfect way honestly. Same philosophy we follow. I don't care how you made the PR, you're responsible for it and you need to be able to defend and explain it. If we get a "I don't know, chatGPT told me this" reject.
Wait just a minute, that sounds... reasonable?
This won't do! I've already fetched my pitchfork and ignited my torch!
I'm convinced the Brave shills have been posting Firefox misinformation for years
That... Sounds like a good change actually??
How many human eyes of experienced programmers will have looked at the code?
A whoopsie in the web browser is significantly worse than in an... I don't know... than in a vibe-coded so-called "AI" framework/social network. /s
We can crash rockets without use of LLMs, thank you very much https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_flight_V88
That's good news! Thanks for looking into it.
Side note, Firefox now has AI settings you have to manually turn off on it's settings.
I want to trust young programmers to not abuse AI but deep down I know the answer, and so do you
I’m sure there will be some that won’t. But it will probably be a shockingly small number of them that care enough to not.
You tell people they can turn their brain off and trust the AI enough and they might just start doing it.
JFC is the new CEO a plant to burn the browser to the ground?
Nothing is stopping a human contributor from using AI without attribution already.
Let's say there's an issue and you want to include the original stakeholder about the change. Instead you hit a dead end, annotation says AI but no way to reach the human that initiated the change.
I would believe you if you told me that. There's not much else to explain it other than incompetence (which I suspect is the actual reason).
I'm really going to miss Firefox
While I think that this isn't on target, I believe it to be mis-executed rather than misguided: I think they were trying to support their AI Coding Policy by removing any notion that Claude was responsible for the work (therefore leaving the human responsible). What it does in practice of course is just hide AI-generated code. Since the commit setting can be anything you want, I believe a disclaimer that the commit was assisted by Claude but that the committer is considered the author of the code would be a better choice (and I said so on the thread). I hope they improve their choice.
Is there any browser engine left? Servo maybe?
If the engine starts getting crappy because of these LLMs, I think the internet enshittified to the maximum.
I have used firefox since it was netscape, so it was a bit sad when I switched to waterfox after they made the bullshit AI announcement. I'm hoping something better comes along but I have little faith it will happen.
Was this linked to a specific report or something? I cannot reach it. Does someone have a backup?
ill no longer use firefox now... i think vivaldi is better
Please don’t recommend propriety software
Well i didnt know vivaldi wasnt foss... then ill give librewolf a shot, i have it installed too.
Librewolf is Firefox.
Yes, but its a fork without ai slop. It has better privacy functions too.
It is not a fork. It is a set of patches on top of Firefox Stable.
I stopped using Firefox because it was slowly becoming a bug filled mess. It's in the trash with chrome for me now
What do you use now?
Likely a Chromium fork made by two teenagers larping as security experts, or a guy trying to sell you NFTs in a very brave manner.
Vivaldi, EU made, fuck AI by default
Please don't recommend propriety software
Well, in the case of Vivaldi "proprietary soft" is pretty relative. A small part of it's unique UI is proprietary of Vivaldi, but full auditable, means source available not closed source, even modificable by the user (they show you how, at own risk naturally). There is nothing shady in Vivaldi. employee owned cooperative in Norway.
- Without limiting the foregoing, you are neither allowed to (a) adapt, alter, translate, embed into any other product or otherwise create derivative works of, or otherwise modify the Software ; (b) separate the component programs of the Software for use on different computers; (c) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software, except as permitted by applicable law; or (d) remove, alter or obscure any proprietary notices on the Software or the applicable documentation therein.
https://vivaldi.com/privacy/vivaldi-end-user-license-agreement/
Having some source code does not mean it's free software
That is, as said, 5% of the code related to the UI is proprietary, only this isn't allowed to use for other products (eg. Chrome, EDGE), but the user is free to modify it for his Vivaldi browser, they show you even how to do it. The rest is a de-googled Chromium, which is FOSS and other layers with several different OpenSource licenses. For Gecko browsers it's way easier to go full FOSS, because there isn't any big corporation which have browsers with this engine,same for relative basic Chromium forks, but not so with browsers like Vivaldi, which is more an online suite as only an simple browser. It would be a shot in the own knee if Google or MS could fork it freely.
No thanks, I prefer free software
- The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
- The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to run the Browser as you wish for any purpose is given in Vivaldi more than in any other existing browser
- Same for study how it works and change it to your wish, the source code is available
- Redistribute isn't allowed, but with already over 100 different browsers, most Chromiums, the need of it is anyway pretty debatable.
- You are free to distribute your mods to other Vivaldi users, the Forum is full of it. As said, the Source is modificable by the user to his like (naturally at own risk, but it isn't avoided by Vivaldi, they show you even how).
Currently there are 4 Millon users of Vivaldi and with all the possibiñities to customize the browser, there are no 2 users with the same.
I don't care what you say I care what Vivaldi says
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser-open-source/
I know what they say and I know the reasons and what it means for its users. Would be nice if Mozilla had this transparency.
ok have a good one
I use Vivaldi and it's miles better than default chrome or Firefox, but it is still chromium.
There's also edge, or opera. But, Vivaldi is nice for its blockers + note taking
Better than Firefox?
- uBlock Origin works best on Firefox
- Add-on index, with most of them open source
- Add-ons on mobile
That's enough for me
Firefox has gotten corrupted multiple times for me with normal use, to the point it wasn't worth it. Specifically the user profile.
Ublock is great though.
use whatever you want
At one point I had programmed my own, but that was for college and I doubt it's secure in today's world, that was over 10 years ago.