I've finally switched to the @Vivaldi browser. I've been using Firefox for as long as I've been on the internet, but the focus on AI means it's no longer the browser for me. Thankfully unlike Chrome, Vivaldi supports the uBlock Origin extension which is the most important extension for being able to browse the web nowadays.
schnedan
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Anthropy
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Anthropy (@anthropy@mastodon.derg.nz)
Anthropy (Mastodon)Eugen Rochko
in reply to Anthropy • • •Anthropy
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •hm, i guess that's fair if you know people on the team personally (unless I misunderstood).
but, there are a lot of direct firefox forks that also have a strong anti AI stance.
it personally feels weird to switch to 'closed source chrome' away from firefox when there are open firefox forks too.
as mentioned in the post i quoted, Waterfox points users to addons if they want AI things and says they won't have these features built in. ( waterfox.com/support/ai-chatbo… )
AI Chatbot in Waterfox - Waterfox Support
WaterfoxCaptain Jack Sparrow
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Derek Teague
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Mike Stone
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Good choice. I've been using #Vivaldi for years and years now, and it's always been great.
@Vivaldi
Kpl Klink
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Walter Tross
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •(forum.vivaldi.net/topic/25289/…)
Multi-Account Containers
Vivaldi Forummoin 🇺🇦
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Григорий Клюшников
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •There are occasional annoying bugs and performance regressions, and the feedback on bug reports could've been better, but overall, I like it.
rainynight65
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •@Vivaldi
FaizalR
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Does Vivaldi support profile and sync between devices? @Vivaldi
#vivaldi #firefox
Dawid Wiktor
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Vivaldi is good browser and very customizable.
As for Firefox, Mozilla's leadership still has no idea how to choose the right direction for the project. The browser is behind competitors, Mozilla depends on Google's funding, there is no clear vision and goals for Firefox and Mozilla.
I'm not saying it because I don't like Firefox as long time ago I was using it for years, but there are problems that put a lot of doubt over the project's future.
Open Risk
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •vivaldi also autodiscovers #rss feeds on a page (small detail yet speaks volumes about their value system).
It will be heartbreaking to part ways with firefox after decades, but alas mozilla does not seem to have a way out of its enshittification predicament. Pacts with the Devil eventually extract their pound of flesh.
pjrm
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Barry Cook 🇨🇦
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Still on Firefox here (despite the increasingly bad news), albeit it with the Betterfox user.js file, to limit much of the damage.
Another option for the Mac crowd is the Orion browser, which uses Safari’s guts, but actually makes that browser useful by allowing for most of Chrome and Firefox’s extensions.
Vile Lasagna
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •I'm still on Vivaldi and love it but they have said more than once already that they do plan to drop support for manifest v2. Once they do I'll be spinning the Firefork roulette so... Maybe don't get too attached?
We cannot, in fact, have nice things
canleaf08 ⌘ ✅加拿大葉子
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Frdl
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Or you can use Librewolf.
librewolf.net
LibreWolf Browser
librewolf.netinfinite love ⴳ
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Bart Champagne ON6BC
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •If memory serves me well, my first browser was Netscape - guess my age 😉
Briefly used Mozilla and Opera but Firefox has been my dominant browser after Netscape ever since.
I'm not liking certain decisions within the Mozilla group, including the AI hype, but so far I'm sticking to it.
ppw
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •The question is how much longer browsers dependent on Chromium upstream will still be able to support uBlock Origin against Google's will.
The better choice would have been a Firefox-based browser like Waterfox, which takes Firefox and strips it of all the annoying telemetry and AI nonsense
waterfox.com/blog/no-ai-here-r…
No AI* Here - A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter
Alex Kontos (Waterfox)Miro Collas
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-u…
which breaks uBlock origin. Only Lite will work.
Manifest v3 update: Vivaldi is future-proofed with its built-in functionality | Vivaldi Browser
Team Vivaldi (Vivaldi Technologies)Mike Smale
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Dan V Peterson
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Nu Modular
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Eugen Rochko
in reply to Nu Modular • • •CpyJx 🍉
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •> Firefox being open-source isn't really doing much for me in this situation
Except it is. Firefox, being completely open source, has enabled a viable fork - #Waterfox - that addresses your primary concern.
You say you don't have any faith in Firefox forks and just give in to Google and move to a re-skinned Chrome browser? This reads like a paid ad. It's disappointing.
And privately owned just means it can be sold to the highest bidder whenever it makes financial sense to do so.
Xander
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Ernesto Acosta 🎄
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •AskPippa🇨🇦
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Alex Semёnov
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Vint Prox
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •donut
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •why not #waterfox
Its what Firefox should be open and extremely user-friendly 🩵 #noai
Ondrej Zizka
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •PcXT
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •What about Librewolf ?
Mikka
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •RE: mastodon.social/@Gargron/11573…
@Gargron @Vivaldi I did the same. For a few weeks. Then I met Zen Browser.
Less is more.
Eugen Rochko
2025-12-17 23:24:01
Jon Koops 🇪🇺
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •That seems like a step backwards to be very honest. Firefox is a truly open-source project, with its own nuts and bolts under the hood, whereas Vivaldi is just another Chromium fork with a bunch of proprietary bits strapped to it.
I don't agree with the choices from Mozilla, but if everything is opt-in, local, and respects user privacy, what is the problem? And if it does bother you, why not use something like LibeWolf?
Distante
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •I think the problem is somewhat exaggerated until we see actual negative actions from Mozilla.
mastodon.social/@Distante/1157…
Distante (@Distante@mastodon.social)
Distante (Mastodon)Trit’
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Kerplunk
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Unlike chrome UngoogledChromium also supports UBlock and it can be sideloaded.
Vivaldi sends a unique user ID to its servers every 24 hours.
UngoogledChromium sends
NOTHING home.
Goldmaster
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •GachaNoUta
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Bye AI crap 🚮
D Ingram
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Derick
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Thomas Traynor
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •razze
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •jan
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Mobile...
Alex
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •wojtek
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •ah yes… it doens't have AI (yet) but every now and then spams my toolbar with VPN offer :D
Also: you can install uBlockOrigin *NOW* but at one point maintaining support may stop be feasible and surprise - you will endup with the same crappy chromium engine…
Dan Hart
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Taffer 🇨🇦
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •MrGrumpyMonkey
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Manu
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Firefox's AI is entirely optional; it's not imposed on anyone. I don't think it's such a big deal to offer AI as an option to users, and in my opinion, it will always be better than using Chromium or any of its derivatives, such as Vivaldi.
If you don't trust Firefox's AI, you have the option of Librewolf or Waterfox, for example, but using a Chromium derivative means leaving the internet exclusively in Google's hands.
Ati
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Dizzy
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Tommaso Gagliardoni
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •I'm not sure whether moving to Vivaldi makes sense or not, but this is a very wise sentence:
Seriously, recently I happened to browse random stuff from a "normie Chrome" and, fuck my life, how do people manage to live with that? No wonder everybody seems to be getting crazier by the day.
chad006
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Farhood
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •how long till chromiom chore absolutely gets in the way of the likes of Vivaldi threading around manifest 3?
Use waterfox or librefox instead. That way you wouldn't contribute to the chromium monopoly that is the fault of all this.
fedithom
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •doragasu
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •gbsills
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Demian
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Jens Johansson
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Welcome to the resistance
(BTW for me Vivaldi synchs bookmarks, open tabs, notes, reading list etc flawlessly between multiple mobile/pad/ desktop instances)
ĞÖKÜ👻👻™
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •