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Topic: Firefox to become adware? (Read 32056 times)

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #75 –
Quote from: ersi on
And the text praises Chrome as the shining light that shows them the way to the bright future. Awesome.
No news there of course. It's almost refreshing to see them saying it so directly.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #76 –
Firefox 57 may be slightly faster than Chrome now, but beating Chrome by becoming Chrome helps no one. Vimperator is another victim.

Quote from: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimperator/
Firefox 57 will change its add-on ecosystem to be exclusively based on WebExtensions. While this offers (some) compatibility with extensions written for Chrome and Microsoft Edge, it removes the possibility to do many advanced stuff which Vimperator does. Additionally, it would require a full rewrite of Vimperator, which nobody has volunteered for. Therefore we will stop supporting any Firefox version later than Firefox 56. Head over to our GitHub page for a list of alternatives or a detailed discussion.
If you want to have famous last words, you can take a survey here to inspire future add-on authors what you actually liked about Vimperator.

Of course there are alternatives like https://github.com/akhodakivskiy/VimFx but… oh wait, Fx 57. Never mind then.

Take your pick here: https://github.com/vimperator/vimperator-labs#end-of-life-and-alternatives

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #78 –
Out of curiosity I've tested the speed-beast called Quantum.
I did test only on sites I visit regularly and couldn't notice differences compared to Firefox ESR 52.
I can't pretend that my test was accurate since I don't have script-heavy sites among my bookmarks and I have no subscription for Fedbook or Twatter. Also my hardware (an Intel quadcore i-5 and 8GB of RAM) might be outdated for such a beast.
What I did notice, were multiple instances of firefox.exe and if you are not attentive enough during configuration, some processes (telemetry) that keep running even after you exit the beast.

As for Chromme I wonder when the next generation of processors will come out so Chrome can take advantage of new features, offering more service and joy to its customers.
How about processors able to scan the person sitting in front of the screen. So the browser can send feedback home about what you eat last night, or the date of your last intercourse. Imagine the joy of getting exclusive tailored offers of your favorite foodstuff or ultimative tailored offers to improve your sex life. :)

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #79 –
Quote from: krake on
As for Chromme I wonder when the next generation of processors will come out so Chrome can take advantage of new features, offering more service and joy to its customers.
How about processors able to scan the person sitting in front of the screen. So the browser can send feedback home about what you eat last night, or the date of your last intercourse. Imagine the joy of getting exclusive tailored offers of your favorite foodstuff or ultimative tailored offers to improve your sex life.  :)
I think that's called "Google Assistant". Available on your Google Services-enabled Android device. :P

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #80 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
I think that's called "Google Assistant". Available on your Google Services-enabled Android device. :P
Even with "Google Assistant", location services disabled and without any carrier SIM inserted, you can be (and you are) tracked by Google step by step.

Google collects Android users’ locations even when location services are disabled

So far about Google, the innovative shining light of our digital future...

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #81 –
Quote from: krake on
Even with "Google Assistant", location services disabled and without any carrier SIM inserted, you can be (and you are) tracked by Google step by step.
This is not something that arrived with Google. Where I live, it used to be common knowledge (belief, assumption) that whenever your mobile phone is switched on (regardless whether a SIM is inserted or not), it looks for a mobile network and connects to it (this is how emergency phone calls are always possible) and this can be tracked. And the phones are individually identifiable (IMEI). If you want to be not tracked, remove the battery from the device. Everybody knew this some 20 years ago. I don't expect anything different now. The tracking has progressed meanwhile, the method to avoid it is the same.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #82 –
What do you think the option to disable "location services" is good for?

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #83 –
Quote from: krake on
What do you think the option to disable "location services" is good for?
The disabling is good if you want Google Maps to nag you to enable it. Enabling it makes sense if you like to see in real where you are (and whoever is eavesdropping your net traffic can see the same).

Google's location services is a purely intra-Android thing. Someone with sufficient access privileges can locate you by triangulation regardless of the whole Android thing.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #84 –
Quote from: ersi on
The disabling is good if you want Google Maps to nag you to enable it.
Well, to diss somebody is not Google's invention, so far you were even right.

Quote from: ersi on
Someone with sufficient access privileges can locate you by triangulation regardless of the whole Android thing.
Tracking you step by step, every building or shop you enter? Good luck!

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #85 –
Indeed, triangulation is always available. Its typical precision is a 50 m radius, but I have on occasion seen my phone accurately triangulate my location within 10 m. Google's location services add nearby wifi networks to the triangulation mix, which can significantly up the accuracy even without GPS, or for that matter retain GPS-like accuracy in urban environments where GPS positioning is obstructed by buildings. And even without triangulation the fact that you're connected to celltower X usually means that you're within no more than about 37 km of said celltower.[1] In a city seldom more than about 2.5 km.

Quote from: krake
Tracking you step by step, every building or shop you enter? Good luck!
All you need for that is wifi/bluetooth leaking. :P

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #86 –
@krake
You probably have heard about fake location apps. Instead of enabling your location, you can enable one of those. This gets rid of Google Maps nagging. Not sure those apps truly do what you want, but you want weird things anyway.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #87 –
Dedoimedo on unfinished NoScript in Fx 57.

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/firefox-noscript-10-guide-1.html
Quote
Noscript 10 was probably rushed too early, in order to meet the Firefox Quantum release schedule. It does not feel like a complete product, and it highlights the mess that the WebExtensions idea really is. I am confident that Noscript will evolve and change and improve, and that it will match the old behavior, in function if not the look.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #88 –
Isn't it easier for the producers of major extensions (such as Vimperator and NoScript) either to move to a more stable fork, such as Palemoon, or make their own fork? Why try to keep up with Mozilla's useless breaking behaviour?

It should be possible to separate the rendering engine from the interface and maintain a forked interface, shouldn't it? Palemoon more or less does it, and it was originally the idea behind Conkeror also, if I have understood right.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #89 –
Speaking of extensions in Firefox 57

Quote
Firefox users can see which extensions have been disabled by pressing Ctrl-Shift-A to display the Add-ons page, then selecting Legacy Extensions. You can re-enable them by going to about:config, searching for extensions.legacy.enabled and changing the binary value to true. However, this also disables the multi-process feature. source

I didn't test myself but I assume that the above is true. However I'll continue to use the v52 ESR branch which will be unaffected till March 2018. Crucially for me will be the option to add search engines and the option to customize Google's search string. Without those options I'll have to ditch Firefox.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #90 –
Quote from: http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-tweak-the-new-firefox-57-quantum-browser-to-suit-your-preferences/
You can re-enable [Legacy Extensions] by going to about:config, searching for extensions.legacy.enabled and changing the binary value to true. However, this also disables the multi-process feature.
Why not keep FF as the single-process browser we used to love and create another for those who want the multi-process thingie?

I liked Mozilla 10+ years ago. The policies were completely different. They mainly developed the Mozilla Suite, but when they got other ideas, such as stand-alone browser or stand-alone mailer, they branched it off. This is how FF was born. And there were also Camino as Mac-alone and Epiphany as Gnome-alone and more. And all along Mozilla Suite stayed around too. Those were good times.

Quote from: krake on
Without those options I'll have to ditch Firefox.
I've been using Palemoon quite long now and even there I got a warning from TileTabs that it may stop working due to the extensions system update on FF. Not sure if extensions will actually break on Palemoon, but that warning didn't look good.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #91 –
Quote from: ersi on
Why not keep FF as the single-process browser we used to love and create another for those who want the multi-process thingie?
I want it. The way Firefox does it is nothing like what Chromium does. :)

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #92 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
Quote from: ersi on
Why not keep FF as the single-process browser we used to love and create another for those who want the multi-process thingie?
I want it. The way Firefox does it is nothing like what Chromium does. :)
And the single-process FF is Palemoon. The sad thing is that they are separate organisations now doing these different projects.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #93 –
Quote from: ersi on
I've been using Palemoon quite long now and even there I got a warning from TileTabs that it may stop working due to the extensions system update on FF.
That looks rather like an alibi-excuse to me.
AFAIK Palemoon uses different engines and besides, they told that they'll keep the old extensions system.
So how can the new Firefox affect Palemoon's extensions system?
There might be other reasons I could think of.
One of those reasons coming to my mind:
Is a browser with 0.05% market share attractive enough to maintain and develop my extensions for it?
Most extension writers seek for recognition and some reward. How good are the chances for it with a 0.05% browser?

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #94 –
It seems that the ZDNet article I mentioned above is bogus or misleading at best.
That about:config setting is supported in Nightly, Dev, and is supposed to be supported in unbranded builds (though recently it wasn't). It is not supported in either Beta or Release. Since Mozilla developers have been pulling legacy code out of Firefox, even if supported it would break many legacy extensions.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #96 –
Quote from: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/01/sponsored_links_come_to_firefox/
Firefox to feature sponsored content as of next week

Now it turns out the organisation has already squeezed in a few sponsored links on the “Firefox New Tab” and has added the functionality to Firefox nightly builds and Beta releases.

Pocket-powered sponsored links will now “… go fully live in May to Firefox users in the US with the Firefox 60 release.”

That’s due on May 9th, 2018.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #97 –
I think only in the US initially.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #98 –
In what sense?

A: When the user's location is outside the US, the downloaded version of FF comes with no ad-sponsoring.
B: Everybody all over the world will get the same version of FF, but ad-sponsoring will work only within US, because that's where Mozilla is headquartered and they will restrict their business to their own legitimate home market.
C: The ad-sponsoring will work the same for every user all over the world, but Mozilla can only get paid for ad traffic within US.

A would be a most transparent lie. The rest are of little consolation from the user point of view.

Re: Firefox to become adware?

Reply #99 –
That'd be B.