wadatahmydamie
40754
1413
14
https://bsky.app/profile/malkyne.com/post/3ml4aviimnc2w
https://winaero.com/google-chrome-secretly-downloads-huge-local-ai-models/
May 5, 2026 4:41 PM
wadatahmydamie
40754
1413
14
https://bsky.app/profile/malkyne.com/post/3ml4aviimnc2w
https://winaero.com/google-chrome-secretly-downloads-huge-local-ai-models/
Memaleph
Is it also doing something similar on my Android phone?
shyriath
I ditched Chrome well before now for different reasons, but boy howdy am I even more glad I did.
neptix
Don't use chrome?
Foulk32
Librewolf for everyday use, Vivaldi when I need a VPN. All the rest is absolute shit unless you love AI and big corps spying on you.
TheVillageGrouch9000
Wake the fuck up! Google is not your friend. https://w/en-US/">htww.fire">/en-US/">ht">tps://w">ww.fire">/en-US/">https://www.firefox.com/en-US/ https://ublockorigin.com/ https://brave.com/download/ https://start.duckduckgo.com/
Pulsifer
Neither is Brave
TheVillageGrouch9000
It is open source as is Chromium. This allows developers across the globe to find nefarious code. Is a better alternative to Google Chrome. The Brave mobile browser is my default for the ad blocking.
SantaFeSuperChief
why do people always cite the ad blocking on Brave like it's some kind of exclusive feature
FeIineDisrespectFromBehind
Or you could just not use Chrome. I cannot see ANY upside to using it
RayMC
It's still the fastest. That's the reason. I guess you could argue Thorium is that too.
[deleted]
[deleted]
vanfem
Not to defend chrome, but "fastest" and "eating too much ram" are not mutually exclusive
CycloneSP
especially after they got rid of ublock origin
cyno01
THATS what that fucking is? My media server is running off a relatively small SSD and its really not worth upgrading right now, but ive been battling disappearing space all week, deleting old backups and stuff a GB or two at a time. Dont even want Chrome on that machine, anyone know if FlareSolverr can use Firefox instead?
marsilies
FlareSolverr says "Install Chrome (all OS) or Chromium (just Linux, it doesn't work in Windows) web browser." Although that's under the "build from source" section, so maybe it doesn't work with the Linux binary they supply, but it should.
justasuggesture
Yup, AI companies are learning the same lesson as Crypto: when the cost of operation is high, pass it to the consumer. This is the AI equivalent to a gas fee.
cousteau
Step 1: 🗑️
Step 2: 🦊
crusadurus
Eh Firefox runs far worse on my PC. Im sure Chrome isnt the best but I also use fox and i dont like it either.
afterdarkart
I use LibreWolf and I'm never going back.
AndrewTheLionheart
I moved to Firefox less than a year ago and while I miss some Chrome design choices (being able to open multiple bookmarks at once with ctrl + click, as opposed to Firefox's one at a time or open every bookmark in folder at once is a big one), it's basically just as good without nearly as much of this nonsense.
PowerPedant
Middle click.
AndrewTheLionheart
My mouse has two buttons and a scroll wheel. Clicking the scroll wheel didn't change anything
PowerPedant
Ah, I think I misread what you want. A middle click on a bookmark folder opens all of them. So now I'm unsure what it is you're looking for.
TyPfhhv
Get Vivaldi y'all. It's not American. I trust the Norwegians more when it comes to internet privacy and safety.
kirby422
Honestly surprised they'd want local stuff, instead of eating all your data in the cloud. Of course, it likely still sends it home as well
BJWTech
Use end users CPU/RAM/GPU instead of their cloud. The resulting data is indeed swooped up still and with less of their resources used.
spazzygc
It was in the What's New page. So I went to turn it off in settings.
Jarodamus
Amazing how simple life is when you're not an idiot.
PowerPedant
Well, stop not using Firefox.
mcoulter876
I hope you fuckers are as adamant about voting as you are about hating ai
Monocht
I hope you fuckers are as adamant about rising up and overthrowing an illegitimated government as you are about voting in this rigged system.
DarkYeti
Way ahead of you on that.
WombatsRunAwaytoDig
Confirmed!
MeeseOnABeam
firefox stays winning mostly. it's a little bad but seemingly not as bad as every other browser
khaoselement
...don't use Chrome. That's the correct answer. So many better alternatives.
criggie
"Don't Be Evil" 2004-2018.
JustAGamerDreamin
No one mentioning brave? full fat ubo still working great. Easy blocks twitch ads too with one extra line.
sakm
Switch to a different browser ASAP. If you can't yet for some reason, here's a link to an article that isn't broken: https://www.askvg.com/how-to-get-rid-of-weights-bin-4-gb-file-from-optguideondevicemodel-folder-in-chrome/
ArchaeoEejit
I got brave, it's decent.
JustAnInternetPerson
I swapped to Brave a few months ago, am I "safe"?
It's getting harder to find a browser that's not unethically fucking you sideways.
TheDreadPirateMontoya
Uhhh.... https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
wadatahmydamie
I’ve never liked Chrome TBQH. It’s the equivalent of driving a tractor when all I need to do is park downtown
Agouti
The choices are Chromium or Firefox, and I've had nothing but issues from Firefox sadly. I've settled on Vivaldi for the time being since Brave can't be trusted anymore, but there are also other options out there.
sakm
When it first released it was way better than anything else at the time, but for years now it's been a corporate corpse just getting more and more bloated. Forks like opera and brave aren't much better, and in some cases add more problems than they solve. Chromium may be open source but google has disproportionate sway over how the codebase is developed.
wadatahmydamie
At the time, Opera was a thing. That’s effectively not the case any more, but Chrome didn’t outperform it then, and it didn’t match Firefox on features
meme2zombie
Which is mindblowing to me because when it first launched it was the low profile one, the one where if you just need it to be quick and barebones it'd work. Now it's the resource hog.
wadatahmydamie
It wasn’t that quick on launch compared to what I was using. I tried it for maybe half an hour, then never installed it again
eronth
What the hell were you using at the time that was faster than it? Every other browser I had used at that time was a snail compared to at-launch Chrome. Launch Chrome was nearly magic.
wadatahmydamie
Opera, and it wasn’t close
TheSlouchOfBethlehem
To Be Querulously Honest, my final guess
TheSlouchOfBethlehem
'quite.' It's quite, isn't it
wadatahmydamie
It’s quite
RevengeIsIceCream
nah, questionably
jridley
Step one: Install a different browser.
SillySnowFox
sudo apt purge chrome
wecouldbehappywithoutcapitalism
Duckduckgo sold data to microsoft at some point and firefox has some other similar infraction. If people have vetted or known to be private browsers, please share. Especially if you are computer minded and know based on its internal workings that it doesn’t have spyware.
bad1080
waterfox, librewolf, mullvad browser
wecouldbehappywithoutcapitalism
Do you know if they are compatible with adguard?
bad1080
no i don't, sorry
onlyhalfghost
waterfox is a fork of firefox, if adguard works in firefox it works there.
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
Fun Fact: Chrome also installs a service that takes a periodic inventory of the software on your system and sends it back to the mother ship
llamableat
lol. this is _every_ software today. most of them mask it with helpful-sounding services names: update orchestrator, performance optimization svc, enhance user experience svc, and other such bullshit
ItHappenedInThe20thCentury
any tips on how to disable that?
llamableat
as long as we are sharing fun facts, Chrome also uses async calls to track you thru Google's search page and beyond, even once move to other domain's pages. Wouldn't know it from link hover text .. it really is quite something.
Then there's also the ever-helpful prefetch, and Google's common js CDN script injection.. ..and yet, letting some other browser do the same thing is just a different scam.
rfleming1080
The problem with "just get rid of Chrome" is that everything uses Google or Chrome.
Brave, Edge, Opera, Android.
And if the OS isn't using it, it's still the only internet browser that actually somewhat works. You'd think Firefox would make a competitor to it like how Microsoft made Bing, but nope.
So, basically my point is, getting rid of Chrome doesn't really hurt Google because you are still using their products in some other form, just like with Amazon.
sadurdaynight
Everything uses chromoum, but each development team decides how they're going to abuse customers with it. Problem is all of them want to adopt ai and agentic web browsing.
cousteau
Firefox doesn't use Chromium/Webkit. It uses Gecko.
doublederp
You can use Firefox just fine?
cousteau
Bing is not a browser, it's a search engine.
Soyjohn
The sentence was not a 1 to 1 comparaison, but an analogy
usingYourMomAsAHat
They have chromium as a base yes, and while I despise Google at this point, I agree on most of its browser foundations found in chromium. Chromium is meant as a solution to 2008 era problems eg "alright wtf are we doing, why does this website look completely different in all major browsers".. Android is similar with AOSP as it's base. From AOSP you have other android OSes such as grapheneOS, CalyxOS, where I reeeealy recommend graphene. Google is closing down AOSP though as we are enshittifying
Resistance1000
Every time I notify a website that something's not working or that I can't even open it, they ALL say, "Switch to Chrome" and when I tell them I already tried using Chrome, they have no other ideas. When their real stupidity meets artificial intelligence, they cancel each other out and wonder why traffic to their site is way down.
ojisama
I have pretty much had problems only due to my ad blocking, which I am not getting rid off. - using mobile ff right now.
usingYourMomAsAHat
Chrome... Is.... Spyware... Get it the fuck out of your computer yesterday. At the very least replace it with chromium
stev231
right now, chrome is the only browser that supports the "stream together" feature on twitch, makes me wonder if some sort of deal was struck
FckleberryFarms
I've seen it get flagged by Defender (Microsoft) as malware more than once at work. It's fucking hilarious every time. They're not wrong, but Microsoft calling anything malware is pot-kettle-black territory.
HavetsHerren
Join the Ecosia club.
OriginalSyn
Chromium browser that uses Bing as their search engine. They are misleading about planting trees on every search... Nothing is donated unless you are generating revenue by clicking on ads and converting to purchases. And don't get me started on the "green" generative AI they are incorporating into the browser, that's an oxymoron.
HavetsHerren
And how do you think they'd make money if not from ads? People are gonna use AI, you probably have gemini on your phone, so better use the one from the company that plants trees with money instead of financing the republican party or hiding it in tax haven.
KingdomsCrown
Internet explorer* /s
NicoretteJunkie
I have to use Chrome for work, it's a compatibility thing. Is there an alternative? Firefox is unstable for Salesforce.
usingYourMomAsAHat
You might have sysadmin restrictions ofc which gatekeeps your browsers etc, in which case you are locked to chrome yes, but it's worth trying atleast. There are tons of chromium browsers (chromium being the common base all upcoming browsers are built on, including chrome). Brave, Vivaldi, helium, opera, edge ++ there are tons more. I use the first three myself successfully in my working conditions atleast
KillerTofu69
Opera?
usingYourMomAsAHat
When it still was Norwegian I'd recommend it yes, after they sold out to a Chinese company, not so much. The original cofounder of opera (Jon Tetschner) went ahead and created Vivaldi after, which is a solid and better alternative I'd say. Vivaldi, librewolf, waterfox, helium, brave, Zen, etcetc are all browsers I'd recommend over opera, even though Jon from Vivaldi, which is also a privacy enthusiast is an outspoken Brave-critic because of crypto stuff. I use brave myself and enjoy it though.
usingYourMomAsAHat
Another browser which I really want to see succeed is Ladybird browser. Its built from the ground up without the chromium base, thus eliminating Google and corporate crap entirely. It's ofc 100% open source and the creator is a very cool dude. It's not ready for the public yet but you'll fund it on github
defensivebackhair
I want to see it take off too. Ladybird has promise
whereismymind86
Honestly, if you are still using chrome at this point it’s kind of on you
iwanderedlonelyasacloud
I honesty don’t understand any of this. So, to check something “online” I can just download an app and it will work like Google Chrome? My work goes through Microsoft to log me in. Does this mean I cannot delete Chrome?
usingYourMomAsAHat
Yes. The internet consists of tons of different stuff, where webpages is one of them. To see webpages we generally use browsers where Google chrome is an app for that. Chrome comes Pre-shipped with everything Google wants to shove down your throat so that you, the consumer, can generate revenue in the most effective way, meaning chrome is basically logging and selling everything you do within legal limits. Chromium is still the foundation which chrome is built on and also made by Google, but
usingYourMomAsAHat
Its made in such a way that its a minimal browser solely meant for other companies/users to use as their base before adding their own business logic on top off. Chromium is just an alternative, I'd more recommend either Vivaldi, brave, zen, helium, waterfox, librewolf and more and yes you most likely can use it with your work. I have the same situation on my work
FlyingYakAttack
Honest question; what's a recommended alternative?
dr3dz1k
Firefox.
usingYourMomAsAHat
But yeah, familiarity is a valid argument, so just start with Brave for example. It's basically chrome, only with built in adguard and a bunch of other privacy defaults which just works out of the box
usingYourMomAsAHat
I also use a security & privacy hardened OS such as GrapheneOS, which ironically needs a Google phone to run, completely strips Google from the equation among other stuff. Because of the direction the world is heading I'd highly recommend this, but this would require somewhat technical interest and skill. Privacy, and the ability to be anonymous online, is rapidly dying, which in the long run will have disastrous consequences
usingYourMomAsAHat
It kinda depends on your lvl of expertise, familiarity and ease of use, interest lvl and whether or not you care about privacy, which although I'd recommend you should, is also exhausting at times, but browsers I generally recommend are Brave, Helium, waterfox, librewolf, Zen, Mulvad, chromium and just plain Firefox (also Firefox DE for devs). I use all of these browsers for different usecases mainly for privacy and security reasons but as mentioned can be exhausting so not necessarily recommend
squirreltactics
*Firefox
thecorrupterx
Firefox ESR running good old no script, lock that sucker down.
VinchVolt
firefox is funded by google and is actively pushing ai shit of its own as a result. get waterfox instead.
HighSorcerer
I use Vivaldi. Fun fact, you can pull the uBlock Origin blocklists directly from github to use as sources for Vivaldi's built-in adblocker.
itsokimaussie
A recent Waterfox update has added the ability to ingest Blocklist feeds from various sources too. I haven't used Vivaldi for years, but heard it's still pretty good.
HighSorcerer
I think the only thing I could complain about is that it could use a button on the UI(instead of having to open the options every time) to force dark mode on a website and toggle that on/off as needed, or be able to set it on with a per-website setting. Other than that, yeah I think it's still a pretty solid browser. I haven't heard anything vastly negative like with Chrome.
ojisama
The firefox ai shit is local only and opt in.
DreamPhreak
mozilla still has their own tracking stuff. waterfox removes all of that
Strategicgnomer
That's a bit misleading. They make money from advertising paid by Google, yes, but Google isn't even a part owner, they don't have a say in things, etc.
Fuckimgurcunts
What is this chromium
rile
Microsoft Edge. Full circle!
user2000
Never
pan069
Chromium is the open source base on which Chrome is built.
rampartfranklin
It’s a version of chrome other developers can build onto. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that but that’s the basics. Most browsers are versions of chromium or Firefox. But not Safari - that’s its own thing.
usingYourMomAsAHat
I see others have already replied, but yes the web is almost exclusively created from 2 bases; for chrome-type of browsers (such as chrome, brave, edge, opera, Vivaldi, etc), they are all built from the same base; chromium. The majority of the rest are created from Firefox / Gecko as the base.Chromium is googles open source browser meant to standardize how we render webpages. Firefox is a competitor to that, even though Firefox is like 90% funded by Google. Safari is the new IE.
TyPfhhv
Vivaldi browser paired with their search engine. I trust the Europeans more than the damn Yanks any fucking day of the week.
usingYourMomAsAHat
Agree. The founder of Vivaldi, Jon Tetschner (previous cofounder of opera) is also a privacy enthusiast and has some very agreeable viewpoints in the browser landscape. He is also an outspoken critic of Brave though because of its built-in crypto stuff, but I don't mind that as much as I use brave myself. Brave search, although it's decent, i find it often comes short, so i use searXNG myself which you can configure to use whatever you want across all/most search engines
usingYourMomAsAHat
You can use any of the online instances of searXNG, but they are often rate limited by Google etc, so I would recommend selfhosted with docker/podman if you are somewhat computer nerd
TyPfhhv
I used to be a computer nerd, now I am trying to get back into it. Just built my second PC so I can learn to use Linux. Current times has made me more wary of technology.
usingYourMomAsAHat
You and me both. Depending on where you set the bar, there is alot to learn, the good news is that it can be both severely rewarding and fun. I started out with a dual boot setup for EZ toggle between Linux/windows on the same computer. Then I eventually ditched windows for Linux mint which is ALOT easier to use now compared to the first time I used it. You don't even need to use the terminal at all these days.
usingYourMomAsAHat
Anyway if you get into selfhosting, to ditch cloud crap, I'd recommend you setup/learn these for starters: docker, Homeassistant, Tailscale, adguard-home or PIHole, *arr-stack, jellyfin, and lastly nextcloud and/or immich. Eventually you'd also probably want to setup your own router for better security and control where I'd recommend either opnsense, pfsense, ubiquity or OpenWRT, where ubiquity is the only non open source in there. Homeassistant alone is a godsend in cool shit you can do at home
lildude52ca
if i uninstall chrome will it also uninstall the AI crap too?
usingYourMomAsAHat
I dont have chrome so I can't say for sure, but I'm almost positive that it's baked into chrome yes, meaning uninstalling chrome will very likely remove the AI crap aswell. I don't know the workings of this local AI is ofc, but presumably it loads into RAM, so I guess you could monitor your memory to ensure it isn't loaded, and maybe do a comparison before/after uninstalling
lildude52ca
or is that a seperate uninstaller
defensivebackhair
Firefox or LibreWolf. Chromium is Google.
[deleted]
[deleted]
OlderThanTime
Firefox isn't chromium, never has been, and one of the few remaining that isn't.
ironymus
Chromium is open source.
OriginalSyn
"Open source" in that Google gatekeeps anything that goes into it so if you want to disable any of their anti-user features you have to maintain a fork which gets incredibly time consuming and expensive.
RayMC
Google without the Google is good. I still run an iPhone, but I'd highly recommend GrapheneOS.
HufflePuffPuff
Use Floorp!
HandoB4Javert
Brave
gogaman
Brave pays you 70% of their ad network revenue. 🎤 💧
ongabonga
You have been successfully brainwashed into believing that Brave protects your privacy.
TheDreadPirateMontoya
Unfortunately... https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
HandoB4Javert
ongabonga
I like you for sharing this.
TheSlouchOfBethlehem
My browser evolution: Netscape to Explorer to Phoenix which turned into Firefox to Chrome now back to Firefox. Edge and Chrome I keep solely to troubleshoot connections.
chunguswangus
Netscape, huh? Don't forget to take your arthritis medication..... (I also used Netscape, btw)
rampartfranklin
If I remember correctly Edge is a build of Chrome.
nclu
Only one in this list I missed in my journey was Phoenix
LunchTM
Phoenix was just the beta name of Firefox. IIRC it was never officially released as "Phoenix" even though everyone called it that before the Firefox name was established.
BeaverOnFire
Am I the only one who used a text based BBS as their 'browser' to access the internet at the dawn of time?
subparsubpoena
Well howdy there, oldtimer!
BeaverOnFire
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aWY3b29zNWRsbXN3dWRyOG83anlmd2h4aXY3YWhoN285OTkzcHdteCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/l0IyajjbNiRvCr7RC/200w.webp
FlipTheBirdBeforeTheBirdFlipsYou
Lynx > Mosaic > AOLPress > Netscape > Microsoft Explorer (v1) > Firefox > Chrome > Edge. Dabbled with Brave, Opera and Safari.
Tattooedpariah
I think i went netscape, to opera, to firefox, to chrome..
sadurdaynight
Netscape was a case study in "don't waste time rewriting your whole app from scratch". While they spent a year or more rewriting the browser they already had, other browsers were adding new features and passing them by. They basically gave competitors a free year to move ahead. And then nobody wanted to come back to them.
cousteau
I remember trying Chrome when it got released. Noped the hell out of it and went back to Firefox and have been using the thing since. The fact that it has become the most reasonable mainstream browser was just convenient to me, really; but I'm glad I stayed with it.
dashers
Netscape -> Mozilla Suite -> Firefox. Purist through and through.
Mxlespxles
I was Netscape-firefox-chrome, and now I just want to burn down the whole goddamned internet and start over at text only.
RayMC
Same energy as the people on r/Cars that insist they want a sedan as a daily driver… from their SUVs. You're on Imgur dude. The internet is fine; we just committed too much to using websites from companies.
Mxlespxles
Must be so nice to live outside of capitalism. What's it like?
RayMC
I don't understand this comment.
RevengeIsIceCream
Good news!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Links_(web_browser)
TheobromineAddict
Back to dial-up bulletin boards.
Mxlespxles
PLEASE
ognar
Quitting Chrome for Firefox is like quitting smoking.
I've made the switch, but Chrome is simply the better browser for me. It handles lots of tabs way better. And while Firefox does do tab folders now its just not as good.
God damn i just want to smoke a cigar and use a good browser again.
Emjayen
Firefox/Mozilla's funding is like ~90% from Google (and that's like $400M or something from simply having FF's default search engine be Google)
Point being I'm not confident they will be able to remain untainted; if daddy Google says to do something I don't see how they could say no.
ojisama
But this has been the case for years, or close to it?
SantaFeSuperChief
Google basically pays Firefox to avoid the headache of becoming a monopoly.
cyno01
Try Vivaldi, its still chromium, but they (being the original Opera team) invented tabs so theyre pretty good with them.
bearstrap
I've been using Vivaldi for almost a year on my computer and mobile and am digging it.
somebackup
firefox has had folder tabs for a long long time.
SomebodyalreadytookMyPants
Everyone hates on edge but I find it the best option for me.
ojisama
I love tree style tabs extension. Disabling the additional top tabs at least used to be a bit of a chore, and I haven't actually done it on one computer. Could be easy now, but haven't checked.
Clockworkdancerobot
Waterfox seems to be a good Firefox alternative without the AI data harvesting. Stay away from Brave.
abtei
as far as i can tell (and firefox told us after the outrage) you can disable it in the settings during install, after install, and it stays until you complete a re-install.
but i do have systems in place that check up on that.
Hrafna55
Or LibreWolf.
TheDreadPirateMontoya
Why not LibreWolf?
etherbunny41
How's Opera GX? I keep seeing people shill for it so it can't be great, but maybe it doesn't suck too bad?
Oatmealman1
Idk, I use it daily with no issues. I like the upcoming game calendar too.
goodbyeitwasfunwhileitlasted
What did I miss this time? What's wrong with brave?
TripleDane
Brave have for a decades been know to not be as private as advertised. and has connections to marketing and data harvesting.
gardengnomeii
short answer: CEO/founder/developer is a terrible person.
Clockworkdancerobot
The original was deleted, but the archive has it. https://web.archive.org/web/20260218121938/https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
mitharas
https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
Looks online to me?
McTaco
Why they delete it?
cousteau
Seems to be up; another user linked the original.
cousteau
Oof… that was a lot. I'm even ashamed of having used Firefox while he was CEO.
EricAirheart
I use brave for the ad blocker for YT. Fuck ads.
jethroismaxbaer5772
If you're on mobile, I'd say Revanced for yt.
Clockworkdancerobot
I get the same with ublock Origin, but there are some issues aside from all the crypto and AI shit loaded up in Brave. https://web.archive.org/web/20260218121938/https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
SamaelQliphoth
If you have access to Group Policy Editor on Windows (dunno the equivalent on Apple or Linux) you can disable those basically from startup. It's what I did an I've not been having issues thus far.
EricAirheart
I have had horrible luck with Ublock O on my phone but wonders on my computer.
cousteau
Works fine for me on Firefox 🤷
EricAirheart
That why I say luck bc I know its probably just me lol
PJamz
The curious thing is that, I followed all the steps and the over 4GB file keeps downloading. So I don't know what's up with that and I'm pissed cause it's more than 4GB of taken space.
emu314159127001
Does work require you to use chrome?
PJamz
Luckily for me the IT department knows I'm not dumb with computers so, if I tell them I'm not using Chrome, they'll say "okay do what you think it's best"
emu314159127001
That's good at least
PJamz
Indeed! :3 They actually don't question my decisions nor tell me no which, to me, is really important.
AyrA
You could go the nuclear option, and create an empty folder where chrome would like to put the model, then take away your own access rights to the folder.
PJamz
Sadly the common user doesn't know how to do that and just sees 4GB being eaten out of nowhere.
sundaymondayhippyday
I’m confidently confused at this point….
But it does sound like Slimer getting captured by the Ghostbusters in a trap perchance?
McTaco
All chromium based browsers are shit. Firefox is the only good browser in 2026
lildude52ca
firefox did an update that notified me they'll be using discord to store all my data from now on. just did it without asking me
PowerPedant
No it didn't.
mlcarter815
Firefox has a huge startup cost in RAM, though.
fastjeff
I’d like to shop around for a better browser but god damn. Been using Firefox since ever.
GasBandit
*Waterfox
McTaco
😂
zasz
Firefox has been far behind chrome in adopting major css features recently. Not quite as bad as safari at least
McTaco
Nobody needs css features
OatmealChocolateChipCookies
That's because a few years ago Mozilla decided they need their C-suite more than they need developers and they redirected finances toward that goal.
IAmASentientWaffle
Nah, Vivaldi is fantastic
PosthumousExile
Duck duck go hasn't done me wrong
buckeye27fan11
I want to use DDG, but it's so bad at finding results that Google does easily, in my experience
itsokimaussie
Try startpage.com
Goddesahpan
You can use DDG browser and set it up to use some other searrch engine.
IrrelevantHandle
Or, if you want a google search, just type in your search query with a g! at the end and it'll switch to Google
IlluminaBlade
And yet Firefox's continued survival hinges on Google propping them up to have just enough market share to keep the regulators at bay.
McTaco
Eh, okay. We’re talking about browser not search engine monopoly
zasz
Weird you're being downvoted. Google's money is the only reason Firefox is still alive
DarkYeti
Because people are too lazy & stupid to change their browsers.
And on Firefox's side, they can't be parasitic to make their money like every other browser does.
It's a Catch-22 downward spiral no matter what Firefox does. "You either die the hero (from no $) or live long enough to see yourself become the villain (ad $$)"
TrashPacker
I'd argue that Brave is a great alternative
McTaco
That’s a hard no dawg. https://web.archive.org/web/20260218121938/https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/
TrashPacker
There's something wrong with every browser or the company itself. It's a mine field whichever way you go
RayMC
That's true, but you can use the least toxic versions, and amongst those, I'd suggest picking the one that is the most powerful and capable for your needs to you. My pick is Vivaldi. A lot of people dislike it because it's not open source, but I don't care. The company is decent, it's nice looking, and it has a ton of features.
McTaco
Oh agreed. Mullvad seems to be the most altruistic. Which is just Firefox plus hardeneding.
I used it and startpage.com for a year as my daily driver.
Was more than fine. Barely even noticed. On very rare occasion it would difficult to mfa something because of the fingerprint and tracking protection
RayMC
This is my big problem with anything open source: the community everywhere is extremely anti-LGBT and conservative. But not the old school, refined version of Conservatism; no, the modern, degenerate, unhinged, retarded version of Conservatism. I am not what one would call an "ally;" you'll never see me waving a pride flag. But I respect the right of gay people to live; these assholes cannot tolerate them but hate them instead.
PJamz
Wrong post brotha
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McTaco
Hahahahahahahaha
emu314159127001
I have Waterfox on my phone, for some reason not on my windows system. Which i may be weaning myself off of, just installed bazzite as dual boot. I'll see how it plays WoW. (Classic, never did get to higher levels or do raids in vanilla the first time round.)
Bluetooth sound really sucks on it though. Fortunately i had a spare aux cord lying around.
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emu314159127001
Huh, maybe I'll see if i can get a different browser. Bazzite would prolly want me to find a portable deal, i think, since it's image based install. Baby steps
McTaco
Yawn
emu314159127001
Stay awake! Caffeine is coming
JadeNB1729
Firefox, you say? The AI-first browser? https://winbuzzer.com/2025/12/17/mozilla-pivots-to-ai-first-firefox-sparking-privacy-backlash-xcxwbn/
somebackup
there's one switch to turn it all off. I agree it is dumb, but it's there
HiddenSanity
Yeah, but at least firefox lets you disable components, so you can rip that shit out with fairly minimal knowhow.
JadeNB1729
Agreed, they're yards better than Chrome, but that's different from saying that they're a good browser. And, even if they're a good browser today, there's no guarantee that they will be tomorrow; Mozilla's leadership just chases any new fad.
Jamerperson
They get a lot of shit for it. But they have to pivot to something as they are losing a ton of income from the search deal that is going away. They did also make it super easy to opt out, its literally one toggle and its not hidden.
JadeNB1729
Sure, as a business, they probably have to pivot to something. But I don't have to support Mozilla's business model, and their just following the business logic doesn't make their browser a good browser. (Despite which I am using it right now. As @HiddenSanity says, at least you can disable the AI stuff. But I used to trust Mozilla implicitly, and nowadays I very much don't.)
SirButcher
And yet, still better than chromium :(
JadeNB1729
Yeah, sure, but, just like "still a better love story than Twilight" is a low bar, so is "still better than Chromium."