AI in Firefox or Waterfox

Andre4freedom · 2025-12-19 16:33:55

I just fell on a interesting topic:
Is Mozilla doing enough to avoid AI if not desired?
See the following article:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/18/ … _waterfox/

I decided to test it for a while. What's your take?

golinux · 2025-12-19 17:39:45

The latest FireFox/ddg update includes options to search with AI. I made that option "disappear" with uBlockOrigin so I wouldn't accidentally click it. Doesn't mean that they won't try to run it without permission. Maybe there is an about:config option to disable it?

steve_v · 2025-12-19 18:20:39

about:config option to disable it?

For ML in firefox itself, about:config -> browser.ml.enable
What your search engine of choice does is another matter, having nothing at all to do with the browser, because:

FireFox/ddg

Are two separate entities, obviously.

Also, direct comment from firefox dev WRT disabling ML features in future here. Apparently they actually listened for once when we all said "please give us a simple toggle not buried in about:config."

RedGreen925 · 2025-12-19 19:52:45

I decided to test it for a while. What's your take?

I went with the Waterfox after going on twenty-eight years of use, since the fork from Netscape that later become Firefox, them idiots at Mozilla finally got me to give it up with this latest bunch of BS they pulled. It has been building for years now with all the trash changes they have made but that announcement was the straw that broke the camels back. The Waterfox works great everything just runs like it did except my fonts look much better for some reason, using the same ones too.

Apparently they actually listened for once when we all said "please give us a simple toggle not buried in about:config."

If they had listened they would have heard all the complaints when the first put that garbage into the browser and did bury it in about:config. All that is now is damage control now they have been seriously called out on their scummy behaviour towards us.

HardSun · 2025-12-19 23:08:24

As long as there is an AI kill switch being implemented in firefox for the AI, ill keep using firefox.
I already have AI disabled, atleast i think i have with below user.js settings.

user_pref("browser.ml.enable", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled", false);

Camtaf · 2025-12-20 10:08:33

Just run into problems with an updated FF146, (RaspiOS, not Devuan), taking forever to do anything at all on that machine...... old FF used to work well.

Maybe it is time to transfer allegiance to another web browser.... one that doesn't mess around, & just lets me surf the net, like it should do.

Andre4freedom · 2025-12-20 10:15:10

@all
Thank you for your ideas!
Your answers are helpful and I test FF again with your recommendations, in parallel with testing waterfox.
Have a nice weekend!

LU344928 · 2025-12-22 20:44:44

Would Waterfox be preferable in this regard to Librewolf?

LibreWolf is one of the best browsers for people who don’t like generative AI.
Here is the statement posted on Mastodon:
As there seems to have been recent confusion about this, just a quick “official” toot to then pin: we haven’t and won’t support “generative AI” related stuff in LibreWolf. If you see some features like that (like Perplexity search recently, or the link preview feature now) it is solely because it “slipped through”. As soon as we become aware of something like this / it gets reported to us, we will remove/disable it ASAP.

https://beehaw.org/post/23776899

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2025-12-24 09:52:02

currently using librewolf with noscript, privacybadger, and ublockorigin extensions along with a custom hosts file that currently blocks around 25K of the most obnoxious( https://filterlists.com/ is a deep dive but nobody said it would be easy)

also enjoy attempting to visit websites using lynx, links2, dillo, netsurf, etc.
(and using curl _dash_capital_eye_ and wget _dash_dash_spider_ for individual elements)

***edited to add note regarding dillo, please visit https://dillo-browser.github.io/dillo.org.html

still fondly advocate:

https://vsre.info/

https://useplaintext.email/

https://anybrowser.org/campaign/

Last edited by stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn (2025-12-24 09:58:41)

tux_99 · 2025-12-24 14:28:58

Ladybird looks very promising so far and I hope I will be able to use it instead of Firefox in the future.

Kristof12 · 2025-12-31 14:42:03

Would Waterfox be preferable in this regard to Librewolf?
https://beehaw.org/post/23776899

One of the top comments lol

Yeah, kinda a bit better, Librewolf too much of a hassle and Waterfox works better

ashley_brooks · 2026-01-24 23:17:40

As long as there is an AI kill switch being implemented in firefox for the AI, ill keep using firefox.
I already have AI disabled, atleast i think i have with below user.js settings [...]

This is pretty much my opinion. I simply layered those about:config changes with Arkenfox's user.js (see here https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js )

RedGreen925 · 2026-01-25 07:43:24

I already have AI disabled, atleast i think i have with below user.js settings.

I thought I had everything disabled until I ran across this posting a week or so ago from my install notes.

Locked and disabled the AI garbage on both Waterfox and Firefox with the settings in this article.
https://yano.me/2025/10/locking-prefere … i-firefox/

My location where the files are to be done anyone would have to adjust to their locations.

zeus@9600k:~$ nano bin/waterfox/defaults/pref/local-settings.js
zeus@9600k:~$ cp bin/waterfox/defaults/pref/local-settings.js bin/firefox/defaults/pref/local-settings.js
zeus@9600k:~$ nano bin/waterfox/mozilla.cfg
zeus@9600k:~$ cp bin/waterfox/mozilla.cfg bin/firefox/mozilla.cfg

And if anyone is interested in moving to the new XDG specification location for Firefox >= 147 which I have kept for a backup if the waterfox ever goes tit up. Then this is the totally simple procedure I used to do it..

To move to the new XDG specification in firefox it is simpy a matter of doing this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1ql3huj/migrating_profile_with_version_147_and_the_new/

zeus@9600k:~$ mv .mozilla .config/mozilla

pcalvert · 2026-01-25 14:51:01

I have chosen "none of the above" for the reasons covered in this article:

Firefox and Chromium
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.html

Actually, I will most likely still keep Firefox around, it just won't be my primary web browser anymore.

blackhole · 2026-01-26 09:22:55

And for the "reasons covered in this article", you may want to rethink your choice of using Linux:

https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/linux.html

Or not...

In reality, his articles are notoriously biased and opinionated, strewn with misleading and exaggerated wording, cherry picking information to fit the agenda - for example:

"The kernel is written entirely in a memory unsafe language..."
As with Windows, macOS and all of the BSDs. He employs weasel words to infer that Microsoft have made progress implementing rust in Windows, howevet, as only Microsoft can audit their own code, there is no reliable means to validate this.

Rust is quite simply being leveraged by Microsoft, to undermine the likes of Linux, to meet a business agenda - i.e. draw developers away, undermine trust, generate some paranoia.

The author's citations are also dubious and mostly links to opinion pieces.

pcalvert · 2026-01-26 10:53:15

Devuan-username wrote:

And for the "reasons covered in this article", you may want to rethink your choice of using Linux:
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/linux.html

Believe me, I am. And even if I do decide to keep using Linux, it most likely won't be running on "bare metal", but in a VM on a Qubes-like system.

Devarch · 2026-01-28 00:21:21

Librewolf too much of a hassle and Waterfox works better

Waterfox is more spyware than librewolf. There are some other options like abrowser from trisquel repo (works on Devuan) or ungoogled-chromium (zero connections to spynternet after install ). The last one has an issue, google blocks ublock origin. I mean ublock disappears after extension update etc and need to be manually reinstalled. The same story with localCDN. The fact that google bans these two addons means that these addons are must have.

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#1 2025-12-19 16:33:55

AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#2 2025-12-19 17:39:45

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#3 2025-12-19 18:20:39

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#4 2025-12-19 19:52:45

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#5 2025-12-19 23:08:24

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#6 2025-12-20 10:08:33

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#7 2025-12-20 10:15:10

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#8 2025-12-22 20:44:44

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#9 2025-12-24 09:52:02

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#10 2025-12-24 14:28:58

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#11 2025-12-31 14:42:03

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#12 2026-01-24 23:17:40

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#13 2026-01-25 07:43:24

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#14 2026-01-25 14:51:01

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#15 2026-01-26 09:22:55

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#16 2026-01-26 10:53:15

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

#17 2026-01-28 00:21:21

Re: AI in Firefox or Waterfox

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