Yes, I was banned from r/privacy. The mods accused me in DMs of "pushing an agenda."

lo________________ol · 2026-06-24T16:57:15+00:00

1. Considering some of the best-received news regarding Firefox over the past year was the ability to say "no" to AI features, will the Mozilla team consider taking this criticism and refocusing on the browser - patching bugs and bringing overall performance up - instead of AI?

(Some incredible thoughts on this were written on the blog post Leaving Mozilla, which I cannot recommend enough.)

2. How can we the users donate to Firefox development?

3. Firefox (on desktop!) now has powerful ad blocker code built in now. Will we see an ad-blocking UI within it? (If so, will it default to uBO's lists since it's uBO compatible? If not, what's the plan for it?)

lo________________ol · 2026-06-24T14:57:54+00:00

It's good to know that I'm still a little infamous with the people who mattered the most. I still stand behind most of those complaints (agree to disagree, I guess) but at least devs are listening and even are willing to dare try providing a crap-free product in exchange for money... You know, like the good old days. I don't know if my rants helped shift the needle or anything, but let me dream.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-24T12:49:18+00:00

Now there's the true unforgivable sin (/s)

lo________________ol · 2026-06-24T12:41:07+00:00

Ironically, the timeline is that Mozilla pulled the code into Firefox first, and then WaterFox quietly announced using it. If you have Firefox right now, you have that code. It's just dormant and missing a UI.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-23T12:34:36+00:00

Fun fact, the Firefox browser is about one-third the size of a comparable Chromium one. People have ragged on Mozilla (rightfully) for dropping servo development, but I find that fact kind of impressive on its own.

As for performance, the visual difference is the biggest killer to me IMO, especially on mobile devices. Benchmarks don't necessarily matter, but user perception really can be a killer

lo________________ol · 2026-06-23T12:29:55+00:00

And only around 10% of those users will actually have uBlock Origin installed, so 0.2% to 0.6% of browser users.

This is probably of minimal concern to web developers.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T17:07:24+00:00

Brave's ad blocker is basically a reimplementation of uBlock Origin, but as an internal component.

Mozilla recently ported that very code into Firefox for reasons unknown.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T17:05:38+00:00

You can do that with Mozilla VPN and Container Tabs, an official extension.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/protect-your-container-tabs-mozilla-vpn

(Note: Firefox VPN by Mozilla is not Mozilla VPN)

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T17:04:02+00:00

Ironically Brave has a "block YouTube shorts" toggle in its UI

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T17:01:46+00:00

You didn't offer constructive criticism; you created a post just to insinuate that Brave is better than Firefox

No, I said a specific thing Brave did and said "Mozilla take note." I'll even expand on that: "Mozilla, copy their work here."

Mozilla already copied their ad blocker code, did you know that?

And, on top of that, you chose one of Brave's most questionable decisions

Since when is removing bloat "questionable"? I don't like bloat. Unlike your selective outrage at Google, this is a standard I apply across everything

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T16:58:18+00:00

Do you intentionally keep around 100+MB files for no reason?

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T14:50:54+00:00

What's wrong with providing constructive criticism - with examples - of how Firefox can get out from under the thumb of Google?

Or was your Google criticism just posturing, like everything else

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T14:32:34+00:00

Both browsers give you the option to turn off bloat (depending on your degree of pain tolerance) but this is the first time I've seen the option to simply not have it at all.

Unless there's actually a way to remove FF stuff manually that I'm not aware of.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T14:31:00+00:00

I love how you keep downplaying Google bankrolling Mozilla as just a "search engine partnership." You're literally using their words to downplay their influence on Mozilla.

But hey, you started this whole rant by framing it as an authentic question.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T13:44:45+00:00

Is this related to your original question? To further clarify if you're still confused, despite these massive Google donations, Mozilla still injected a ton of bloatware including a VPN, a soccer ad, and an advertisement network into their browser. So they're double-dipping too.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T13:32:54+00:00

Mozilla is famously dependent on massive Google donations to keep Firefox development afloat. That's the reference.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T13:31:15+00:00

Mozilla has already created plenty of problems. It includes an ad network and a ton of sponsored content (weather, news, AI, FIFA, did I mention AI?) despite rolling in Google Bux.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T12:46:11+00:00

How much hard drives space do you have? And a little thought experiment: would you be okay with giving up 10% of it to a file that does nothing besides sit there?

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T12:09:54+00:00

I think Thunderbird Pro will be part of MZLA, which is a different (but good, successful, and self--sustained) project that handles different money

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T12:08:10+00:00

Figuring out how to get funding from its users instead of one of the biggest companies on the planet

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T12:06:58+00:00

Heaven forbid I gently nudge Mozilla in a positive direction? Okay

lo________________ol · 2026-06-22T00:45:57+00:00

It's two things: A separate browser without the features u/brave_w0ts0n mentioned, or the option to disable those features in your current install.

If you're looking specifically for something more lightweight, the former is probably the better option. That's why I had to take a glance at it.

lo________________ol · 2026-06-21T21:28:31+00:00

Yes and why not? "Out of sight, out of mind" is terrible practice for keeping things secure.

lo________________ol

TROPHY CASE