I’ve seen a couple of distros already dump Firefox, and for good reason. I wouldn’t trust what Mozilla has become with a 10-foot pole.
I use Brave on my L5 and it works well, but the UI really needs some help on smaller screens. You are limited to about 3 tabs to keep things manageable. Firefox ESR was always much better in the UI department.
I was already switching to LibreWolf. You just need to enable CSS inside settings and install the Firefox-Mobile-Config. This way we don’t need to push Googles monopoly further.
Just put it an area called PureSPY ?
I am a big fan of Brave. There are complaints about it but all of those complaints can be stripped out of it. Brave has solid management and an excellent development staff. Not a rag tag band struggling to hang on. The complexities of the internet and web browsers requires nothing less.
I really think it is no coincidence that the person who helped start and co-founded Mozilla while also creating Java Script would be the person’s company that is basically keeping the original goal and mission of Mozilla alive.
Zorin OS officially dumped Firefox for Brave and I think that the first of MANY that will be making that choice soon.
And once nobody is using Firefox or one of its forks, Google will move much more in the direction this monopoly wants to … and do you really belief Brave is strong enough to implement everything they need to on the long run, if Google makes too many bad things with Chromium? Do you belief TOR will still exist, if Mozilla/Firefox dies?
Sure, nothing bad about the team behind Brave. Bad everything bad about using Chromium as long as it dominates the market. You may go well using Brave for now. But on long run it can destroy all the freedom we currently have on the internet. It’s like saying to a kid: “Here is a chocolate. Every new day I come here again and see there is still a chocolate on table, I will give another one”. Next day, there is no more chocolate. Same with brave - now it’s a chocolate, “tomorrow” (some time in future) there is no more, because they have to implement too many changes.
Manifest v2 is one of those changes they have to keep for ever, while Google releases v3, v4, v[n]… how many similar changes they can keep? They also need to maintain them … security patches etc have to be implemented. And what is with stuff like real hardware access? On chromium the internet can flash my keyboard, on Firefox it’s not possible (for security reasons, keyloggers hate this). Does Brave prevent this?
Brave is a good thing for all people who need a Chromium-Browser (web-devs need all browsers to test their pages), but that doesn’t mean we should advertise to give Google more power than it already has.
Related:
Do you have evidence/references supporting your claim?
Or, to break that down, the topic title has two parts.
Obviously a contentious claim. Requires evidence.
But regardless of that …
PureOS is free to do so regardless of the strength of evidence. In that case, the decision could be motivated by a range of factors.
Even without Spyware, there are a lot unethical things why Firefox can not be on Gnu Pure OS. I strongly and with all massive energy that i got it i not using Firefox.
There’s “dump” and then there’s “dump”.
A distro can have
In the Librem 5 space, it has always been a challenge to find a web browser that
For the Librem 5, at this stage, in my opinion, practicality trumps ideology. That may well mean making multiple browsers available via the repo and leave the choice up to the user.
I also prefer a web browser that exposes lots of tweakables, so that I can fine tune the behaviour. The dumbed down “GNOME style” approach to settings doesn’t work for me - the point being that a decision to dump Firefox cannot realistically be taken without a decision to include at least one other browser in the repo.
I totally agree. If Firefox dies, then the browser ecosystem becomes a complete monopoly with only one actor. When there is a monopoly, the monopolistic entity:
More than anything, what I like about Firefox is the variety and number of extensions available; for each one to customize according to their needs. There have been rumors already that UBO (complete version of the extension) will soon be phased out on Chrome because of this new Manifest version that will be implemented and mandatory. Only loosing UBO would be for me a complete no-go!
I will stick with the Mozilla rich ecosystem - but assuredly not with Firefox itself: there are a lot of interesting forks depending on FF base, which are hardened for privacy: Not the least to mention is Tor Browser, of course; but have a look at this new Mullvad browser, a collaboration between TorProject and Mullvad VPN. It is free and does not need the VPN to work.
It’s up to each person to decide for themselves, what they’re willing to tolerate when it comes to web page access vs spyware as you set your own browser security settings. When any link wants to bring up a different browsing tool or platform to take you somewhere, it’s always because they don’t like the rules of your existing browser. They don’t want to respect your browser’s rules that are there to protect you from them. I don’t allow any link to do that. I hit the back button when they pull that crap. Whatever was there, I don’t need to see it that badly.
I use a few different news aggrigator websites. If the news headline link tries to take me a facebook tool in order to view some content, too bad. That won’t work. I don’t have Facebook installed. Nor do I have a facebook account. If it wants to open a facebook web page, that’s okay because I am still using my original web browser, which protects my privacy. But if the link takes me to a site that wants to authenticate my identity before I can read the article, I hit the back button and move on. You need to stick to your principles. If as a result you can’t open any links, that just shows you how bad the spying against you really is. I don’t mind being locked out of some web pages. It just means that I didn’t want to go there anyway because those news sources are scummy anyway.
And if I hit a paywall, I never pay. If I really want to read that article, I type that same headline in to a search tool and a hundred other free sources will let you read that same article for free. Most articles are word-for-word from the Associated Press anyway. So the article is often the same everywhere it exists anyway. News should always be free. Let them advertise to support their news business. But if the advertising consists of flashing lights and spinning roulette wheels, I hit the back button. I used to use Yahoo Finance to check stock values. But when they went to an offensive interface that has flashing lights and that doesn’t respect my back button, I quit using them.
I will keep using Mozilla Firefox as I think calling it spyware is farfetched
I submit this and admit that YMMV:
Mozilla introduced its first-ever Terms of Use for Firefox on February 26, 2025, alongside an updated Privacy Notice, aiming to increase transparency about data practices. Initial concerns arose from language in the Terms of Use stating, “When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.” This sparked backlash, with some interpreting it as Mozilla claiming broad rights over user data, potentially for purposes like advertising or AI training, which could resemble spyware-like behavior.
However, Mozilla quickly clarified this on March 1, 2025, revising the language to: “You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content.” This adjustment emphasizes that Mozilla’s use of data is limited to operating the browser as intended by the user, not for unrestricted collection or exploitation.
Also let’s remember that Mozilla’s new focus is AI. AI is nothing without training. Training requires enormous amounts of data. Mozilla, is using Firefox as a source of this data.
I think this qualifies the statement that Firefox is spyware.
I would say this is especially true of their new email service as well. Stay away is my advice. Mozilla is no longer the company it used to be.
As important as alternate browsers are, I think my hope is going towards Ladybird now. Mozilla is standing in direct opposition to many things it was founded for.
Maybe just bite the bullet and go for “Red Star Linux” and the “Naenara” browser?
(No, I won’t put links to it.)