here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.

but speaking of rolling out half-baked shit to users who didn’t ask for it, attached is all the documentation I could find for whatever the fuck the New Classic Window item is

the New Classic Window item disappeared when I disabled extensions.ml.enabled so it’s related but fuck if I could tell you how

@zzt "Why is investing in AI important for Firefox?" the question I want answered but know it won't be

if you bring this up with mozilla, they’ll pretend you must have accidentally opted in somehow! mozilla has admitted to operating on a different definition of opt-in from the rest of the world; theirs omits user consent.

here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.

here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.

@zzt this is confusing. I wonder if it is something like Coke, New Coke, New Classic Coke

@zzt wtf… what am i even to assume each of these means

new window -> not private, not AI
new AI window -> not private, yes AI
new classic window -> ???
new private window -> private, not AI…?

no clue why all these are needed, they don’t even seem mutually exclusive. maybe firefox ai invented the classic window just for you? (/joking of course… i hope!)

@zzt wtf… what am i even to assume each of these means

new window -> not private, not AI
new AI window -> not private, yes AI
new classic window -> ???
new private window -> private, not AI…?

no clue why all these are needed, they don’t even seem mutually exclusive. maybe firefox ai invented the classic window just for you? (/joking of course… i hope!)

@chillicampari @zzt

Makes sense. After all we already had new Tab.

@zzt Your fury is entirely warranted, they're a treacherous brood and deserve to be called out. There is a way out of this though.

The easiest browser migration I ever did in over two decades was from firefox to librewolf, which I can wholeheartedly recommend. No idea why just copying .firefox to .librewolf insidr my user's home directory did not work, but transplanting the contents did the trick.

• Installed librewolf, launched and closed it once.
• Copied over the contents of the two profiles from .firefox to .librewolf in my home directory. Mixed them up initially, due to their names being cryptic a f and no obvious way of telling which is which, so at first bookmarks and settings didn't show.
• Deleted the contents inside the profiles and copied again from sources, but to the opposite destination each, to fix it.
• Launched librewolf, could barely tell the difference now that all was back where it belongs.

Hope that helps!

@fasterandworse

@mrs_malice I think the New Classic Window item makes me so angry because it implies that there’s a planned future where New AI Window is the default and the non-AI window is effectively deprecated

@mrs_malice @zzt it's only a natural evolution of LLMs deciding what's best for us that they start procedurally generating the user interface, i can't wait!!!!

here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.

@ulfr @zzt @fasterandworse

the problem is going to be for how long can LibreWolf keep up with stripping the slop out of each release? at what point do they just burn out and call it quits?

@zzt i def agree that that’s their goal. but like, what does it do today? is opening a New Classic Window the same as opening a regular new window? how unnecessary and confusing

@mrs_malice I just tried to re-enable it to try and the menu items wouldn’t come back. I noticed Firefox bounced longer than usual so maybe it updated and I’m no longer in the group that got these menu items? bizarre shit.

@mrs_malice and of course there’s nothing in Firefox Labs but that’s not unexpected; Mozilla’s no longer upfront with experiments and staged rollouts because that means their users could say no

here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.

here’s a worked example of why nobody believes firefox’s AI kill switch will be anything but a marketing wedge

these showed up in my File menu, displacing the New Private Window item and fucking up my muscle memory, in spite of having browser.ml.enabled set to false. the setting for this is a new nonsensically named option, extensions.ml.enabled. a merry fuck you to the guys who showed up in my replies telling me to just disable the config flag I already disabled months ago.