Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favor of Teams https://www.theverge.com/news/621353/microsoft-skype-shutting-down-retirement-may-2025

My thoughts RE “Introducing a terms of use and updated privacy notice for Firefox” AKA Mozilla’s latest entry in getting people riled up

Most of you know I am a #Firefox (well, Gecko) stan, but here we go again with Mozilla’s messy pivots.

1. Please stop saying “let Firefox die cuz #Mozilla sucks” and “use a Firefox fork instead” in the same breath, figuratively speaking.

2. Why the point above? Because your favorite forks like #Librewolf, #Waterfox, or even #Tor rely on Firefox as upstream for #security fixes, which is a big deal. Maintaining a modern browser engine with all these features - including fixing bugs and addressing CVEs - people have come to expect is exceptionally resource intensive. The modern day browser is complicated - I’d go as far as to say just as complicated (or more so) than most *nix operating systems.

3. Now that I got 1 and 2 out of the way, Mozilla pls. ToS for a browser or anything ran strictly locally is crazy. Even phone home champion Windows makes clear what is governed by Microsoft’s TOU and ToS (most things, lol).

4. In seriousness, it is a pretty communication/tone deaf move from Mozilla, imo. If I had to guess, it looks like they tried to add ToS specifically to certain “opt-in” or components of Firefox that aren’t processed on device. But the language certainly read as applying to Firefox as a whole. At risk of Monday night quarterbacking, maybe a better approach would be to link or point to a ToS for specific components if users enabled them or opted in.

5. Even the update to the initial blog post is tone deaf, imo. Mozilla should know that most users are not privy to what they doing/discussing/planning internally. Users are used to “rug pulls,” and without any context, it certainly looks that way. Additionally, given their turbulence over what to focus on outside of Firefox (especially in the last few years) to generate revenue outside of Google’s payment to be the default search provider… well, maybe they should have taken that into account.

6. I think we’re really seeing Mozilla _scrambling_ to establish groundwork in another source of revenue... which given their latest efforts is “sustainable” AI.

7. Where was the heads up? Springing a change like this, in the current hostile to privacy environment, from an organization claiming to our privacy first is not a good look. Even if the change was… misguided or poorly written of itself. Or even if 4 was the goal.

#privacy #privacymatters

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-terms-of-use/

Reminder that Firefox has a pathway to specifying some settings, including ones not exposed to users any other way, with a config file stored on disk.

They call it enterprise policies but anyone can use it by just putting a file in the location indicated on that site.

You can disable entire features, opt out of Telemetry before your first launch of Firefox on a new install, declare you never want to be part of studies, turn off their ML integration and keep it off, force about:config preferences in a way that can't be "accidentally" reverted, etc.

If you dislike the state of Firefox, please recognize that part of the way it got there was by becoming dependent on the gravy train from Google.

It will still be years before it’s usable, but one thing you could consider is to help fund https://servo.org — it’s a fully independent rendering engine with some really great next-generation tech that is going to make the web a more secure, and a very large % of its contributor base comes from a worker cooperative’s members who happen to be some of the finest minds in browser technology.

The project is flourishing, and you can help it continue to chug along and even accelerate. There’s no telling if it’ll definitely become a full alternative to the current triad of chrome/safari/firefox, but we won’t find out if we don’t try. The future is what we make it.

From: are0h@h-i.social

https://h-i.social/@are0h/114084845340789932

How my Firefox became a LibreWolf

New blog-post: https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1065/how-my-firefox-became-a-librewolf

#firefox #librewolf #tos #webcomic

The frameworkcomputer@fosstodon.org Desktop is a powerhouse that gives Apple’s Mac Studio a run for its money at half the price. But it has also created confusion over the soldered down APU and memory. Here’s why we think this device is different, a thread:

>give us your personal information and credit card information to avoid us selling your data

They think we sniff glue lol

Buone notizie per chi sta pensano a cambiare firefox:

LIBREWOLF SBARCA SU MASTODON!

Mentre proton abbandona mastodon, il browser privacy-first sceglie la libertà:

librewolf@chaos.social

Perché sceglierlo? Perché è:

✅ Fork indipendente di #Firefox

✅ Anti-tracciamento integrato con modifiche pro-privacy già implementate

✅ Senza telemetrie o servizi proprietari

Un progetto FOSS che non segue le orme dei big tech, ma le cancella.

@sicurezza@diggita.com

#librewolf #UnoPrivacy

Hello Fediverse!

We currently do not have any other social media accounts. Any such account (on Twitter or elsewhere) should be considered "unofficial", unless announced here or on https://librewolf.net.

Please report issues at: https://codeberg.org/librewolf/issues/

Check our documentation and FAQ at: https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/

Talk to us and find a supportive community on: https://matrix.to/#/#librewolf:matrix.org

YouTube has been cracking down on alternative frontends.


Vanilla Invidious currently doesn’t work well,


so most hosters paused and/or gave up.


Fijxu runs a fork of Invidious,


with their own modifications implemented to circumvent the blocks,


here’s the source code if you’re interested:


git.nadeko.net/Fijxu/invidious


I’ve got big respect for Fijxu,


he’s been doing a very good job of keeping Invidious alive + fighting against the YouTube crackdown lately, basically all on his own.


If you can please consider:



Donating for their work/hosting
Hosting their fork on your own
Solving open issues with pull requests to their fork

All the above can help Fijxu,


since currently he’s mostly fighting a big tech giant all on his own.

I really liked the Hated One's new video on the UK being a surveillance dystopia, but his insistence that "selfhosting isn't a solution, you'll get hacked!" felt really dumb.

I understand the point that your average hobbyist doesn't actually have the time to properly secure everything, but there's a huge difference between running dozens of services and using mostly offline-first software.

The answer definitely is self-hosting in some form, telling people to install Signal and use Tor does nothing other than shift the burden of effort. As far as I'm concerned the ideal solution is to address the problems with self-hosting and how the software ecosystem unnecessarily introduces vulnerabilities.

Video tutorial in italiano su come usare Mumble.

Peertube: https://videos.gianmarco.gg/w/hHHELEsxQX21ShGrFe3hGu
Odysee: gianmarcogg03@odysee.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK-p8xXfF0I

I recently learned that the Italian government is only allowed to buy proprietary software after it has determined that there isn't a free software option. IIUC they're also required to publish any code they write (or commission to be written) under a free license.

https://www.agid.gov.it/it/design-servizi/riuso-open-source/linee-guida-acquisizione-riuso-software-pa

However, at least as far as I know Windows, Office, et al are being used everywhere in public administration, and even e.g. public transport apps are proprietary. What gives?

omg they finally made vertical tabs an official feature

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/136.0/releasenotes/