Rendered at 14:55:55 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
DoctorOW 1 hours ago [-]
As a Firefox user, I hope this works. As someone who works in IT, people are going to try and install Chrome at all costs and your ticket queues will be clogged with people saying a computer is broken or has no internet access if it doesn't have Chrome on it.
nine_k 1 hours ago [-]
For general-purpose use this may be true. For specialized Web-based tools, like access to medical or legal systems, not as much: the users are conditioned to work with a specific browser (many remember MSIE-only apps), and are used to the idea that their workstation has all kinds of Internet access limitations, along with a corporate policy that expressly forbids arbitrary browsing.
[Edited: typo]
ctkhn 33 minutes ago [-]
An earlier company I worked at had this same issue with Internet Explorer. It was after IE had been deprecated by microsoft as a browser but our IT department still had it as a downloadable application. Most of my team's on-call issues were from internal users using IE to access our site, even after we added an IE compatible popup that would tell them NOT to use IE.
graemep 57 minutes ago [-]
Change the icon to look like Chrome?
rockdoe 55 minutes ago [-]
MSIE style internet globe or GTFO
graemep 52 seconds ago [-]
and change the name shown to "Google" because people call it that, because that is the default home page.
BonoboIO 40 minutes ago [-]
BILLION DOLLAR IDEA
mattmaroon 26 minutes ago [-]
I tried for a year to use it before just switching to Brave and getting the best of both worlds.
nicoburns 2 hours ago [-]
This was needed. A lot of large businesses ban Firefox because they don't have these kind of controls. I can't test Firefox on my work computer because company policy prevents it being installed. And that kind of thing really hurts Firefox.
mossTechnician 1 hours ago [-]
Is there a notable difference between Firefox Enterprise and standard Firefox with group policy management[0]?
Sounds like there's additional governance options (notably, SIEM integration) and Enterprise SSO - but I suspect the main benefit from the enterprise pov is going to be the account management and support teams.
nine_k 1 hours ago [-]
From compliance checklist point of view, there may be enough difference. Addressing it is the point.
insin 2 hours ago [-]
The large business I work for cited low usage when they blocked it from being installed a couple of years back.
LeBit 1 hours ago [-]
I work in IT and I am still surprised by how few of us are passionate about what we do.
90% of my colleagues use Microsoft Edge without extensions.
Other browsers are seen as exotic.
kakacik 60 minutes ago [-]
All windows and desktop support folks where I work (bank) still work with File explorer, only it drives me crazy.
I've showed them Total commander and some advanced features, panes and overall speed but no, they all went back to hunting little windows, browsing by clicking, drag and drop hunts and so on.
The obvious inefficiency and their sluggishness when doing anything on filesystem is driving me crazy but I gave up.
miroljub 57 minutes ago [-]
> The obvious inefficiency and their sluggishness when doing anything on filesystem is driving me crazy but I gave up.
Would they get a raise if they are more efficient? Or go home earlier? Well, you have your answer here :)
graemep 56 minutes ago [-]
At the very least they would have less work to do.
javcasas 46 minutes ago [-]
No one ever has "less work to do". That's why managers exist: to find meaningful or meaningless work to do to fill the time saved, and eventually fire other people in order to ensure no one ever has less work to do.
graemep 16 minutes ago [-]
Lots of people pretend to work more than they do.
Foobar8568 1 hours ago [-]
I gotta love to get "for security/safety" reasons, and yet I get ads on anything served. Bonus points for YouTube.
rockdoe 1 hours ago [-]
I mean I get it, as an admin there's only so much time you want to spend to support everyone's favorite setup. So "security/safety" is kind of a simple wave-off. It's sometimes just "we don't want to spend the time to figure out how to lock down this thing."
miroljub 59 minutes ago [-]
I'd rather not have Firefox installed, than Firefox preloaded with MitM certificates, disabled uBlock Origin, Proxy Switcher, added Adobe, Copilot, and a few more "useful" extensions and security add-ons that can't be disabled, and so on.
If company IT gets hold of Firefox, it's not better than just using Edge or Chrome that comes by default.
PcChip 52 minutes ago [-]
hopefully the IT department pushes out uBlock Origin with whatever browsers they require people use. I used to push it out to several customers with the Chrome GPOs... although I know it doesn't work in Chrome anymore
Sophira 31 minutes ago [-]
Of course they won't do that. That would require companies to admit that ads are a bad idea.
SoftTalker 15 minutes ago [-]
uBlock Origin requires permission to read and alter anything on any website. Although I trust it, and I don't see an alternative for something like an ad-blocker, I can see how that would be a deal-killer for corporate IT.
PaulHoule 2 hours ago [-]
Probably the most practical idea Firefox has had to maintain and possibly build up its market share in a long time.
shevy-java 1 hours ago [-]
Well, you read one of their goals and visions here. That part is ok.
The question is: how is that goal turning out once it meets reality?
Tons of great ideas failed for various reasons. Alan Kay keeps on
pointing out how sad he is that Xerox PARC failed in many ways. Reality
is a strong selector - and the evil Google empire will make competition
really, really hard here.
glenstein 45 minutes ago [-]
Right. The greatest features in the world won't necessarily dent distribution monopolies. Still, it helps to make your own luck.
Hugsbox 1 hours ago [-]
Do I work in the twilight zone or something? The company I work for is trying to phase out Firefox, and I'm getting multiple complaints a week from non-technical users that they can't open Firefox anymore and they don't want to use any other browser.
timcobb 1 hours ago [-]
Non-Technical users are complaining to you about how they want to use Firefox? What?
Hugsbox 51 minutes ago [-]
Yes. On a near-constant basis. Before the change it was the first thing many of them would install on newly-issued laptops.
nloomans 20 minutes ago [-]
Are those customers from Germany maybe? Germany has really high Firefox market share compared to basically any other country.
chii 1 hours ago [-]
people who decide on policy tend not be the same people on the ground doing real work. Therefore management makes a policy, they think they are doing the correct thing, when in actual fact, they're not, but just don't hear or get the right type of feedback (including feedback they trust to be real and isn't just the workers complaining/whinging unnecessarily).
This type of dysfunction occurs quite frequently i find.
jpalawaga 16 minutes ago [-]
as the family techie, I recommend tech and that's what sticks with them. Recently, it's Firefox.
I wouldn't be surprised if those people had some techie in their life advising similar! and/or, they just really want decent adblock tech.
SloopJon 28 minutes ago [-]
I'm sure this is great for improving adoption on the admin side, but I'm also sure that I would hate using a locked-down Firefox.
My company has management software that nags me about the latest Firefox version, which is annoying, because I use the extended support release instead. Less frequent updates, and fewer sudden changes like the AI features people have been grumbling about.
Incidentally, 153.5.0esr was released today, with 140 reaching EoL.
penguin_booze 16 minutes ago [-]
I don't know. Like another comment here says, some companies have been blocking Firefox because it's difficult to bend it to their will. For them, a browser has always meant one thing: Chrome. With Firefox entering the mix now, it's going to be 'yet another browser when we already have one'. Most corporate admins, I'd think, will say 'no, thanks'.
ihuman 11 minutes ago [-]
How is this different from autoconfig.js, firefox.cfg, and other `defaults/pref` options? Orgs can already use that to manage and lock down Firefox preferences, ban/force extensions, and more
Kuyawa 2 hours ago [-]
Does it block ads like Brave without installing extensions? Tracking is one of the worst plagues of modern browsing so blocking all kinds of tracking and fingerprinting should be the first concern in an enterprise. Nothing should leak to the outside world
ahartmetz 2 hours ago [-]
Well, just install the fucking extension in Firefox. There is nothing else that is as good as uBlock Origin. E.g. Reddit prevents you from reading unless you log in? There's a filter for that in an "annoyances" block-list that you can activate.
austhrow743 2 hours ago [-]
Can people working at places that don’t let them install Firefox without an enterprise contract just go and install extensions?
traverseda 2 hours ago [-]
Firefox already had a very mature policy management engine, it just didn't have a nice gui and would require like ansible or something to use.
It allows forcing specific extensions on, and allowing user installs is a flag.
I use the policy engine on nixos to install some plugins and disable some of firefox's dumber features.
vivaldi_bt 19 minutes ago [-]
>just install the fucking extension
...and this is/was the true Firefox way. You don't need to get some other browsers on the same engine made by shady companies. You have powerful plugins.
kotaKat 1 hours ago [-]
I wanted to, but my dumbass global IT department directly blocks uBlock Origin, Origin Lite, and AdBlock by extension IDs. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, the works.
I cannot even begin to fathom that stupid fucking decision from someone above me.
coldpie 1 hours ago [-]
My company's security dept briefly (briefly!) put GCC on the banned software list. Yes, that GCC. Buncha big brainlords in that dept.
Telaneo 1 hours ago [-]
How did that work out for them?
coldpie 1 hours ago [-]
Probably took them some time to clean up all of the the Work Stoppage tickets that every dev in the company filed, lol.
rockdoe 55 minutes ago [-]
I've been doing consultancy for OSS development and one in-between company asked me to sign a contract that had a random clause in it somewhere that banned the use of OSS for work.
When I pointed this out, they said "just ignore that part".
Nope LMAO!
Wowfunhappy 35 minutes ago [-]
...if you are told in writing (say over email) to ignore a part of the contract, can you do that? Does that part no longer apply?
I agree with the other person though that you should install uBlock Origin in Firefox (which works better there than in Chromium based browsers) and never look back.
RunSet 40 minutes ago [-]
If you are unable / unwilling to install an extension, Librewolf includes and enables uBlock Origin by default.
It is a Firefox fork with sane, user-respecting defaults. Of course it breaks sites that do not respect their users' privacy / agency.
curt15 1 hours ago [-]
It doesn't ship with a blessed adblocker, but firefox + ubo is still the gold standard.
VCFundedGenYer 42 minutes ago [-]
Is this a real question?
It takes literally two seconds to install uBlock Origin.
You can even preload it by baking in the xpi file.
tokai 2 hours ago [-]
If its first concern why would you use a browser that has ben caught injecting affiliate codes?
ahartmetz 2 hours ago [-]
Note: that browser is Brave, I think the downvoters might have been confused
Mirek_G 1 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
timcobb 1 hours ago [-]
Finally something that makes sense from these guys!
alicelik1980 35 minutes ago [-]
It looks good, but it's hard to break habits.
sdcfgy 2 hours ago [-]
I can't think of a single enterprise who I have worked with or know who'd pay for this when there's Chrome or Edge available.
ahartmetz 2 hours ago [-]
You can't think of an enterprise that doesn't want all of its web browsing metadata collected by third parties? Some enterprises are much more security-conscious than that. I have seen protected paper trash bins in a research lab and office buildings with X-ray scanners (mainly for electronic devices, not weapons).
TiredOfLife 2 hours ago [-]
That's what enterprise edge and probably also chrome do already.
ndegruchy 2 hours ago [-]
There's already Island browser that competes in this space. Plenty of companies pay for browser control that goes beyond what the normal policies can provide.
1 hours ago [-]
lirolero 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
dzonga 2 hours ago [-]
this is move that should have been done a long time ago + with a bundled vpn or equivalent of a tailscale in the browser.
It looks like they do actually offer that as a feature: "Employees can access internal company sites and web apps from personal devices without a device-level VPN"
Edit: To give proper credit, the link is from Heise.de
lenerdenator 2 hours ago [-]
Hopefully they still can. Healthy Firefox == healthy browser market.
zecg 2 hours ago [-]
Does this mean they will remove "AI controls" (i.e. a way to completely shut all LLM shit off) from normal Firefox?
sfink 9 minutes ago [-]
No. Are you thinking that was a feature intended to appeal to corporate use or something? I'm pretty sure it was all about AI backlash. It's still a popular setting to have available. (I have no idea how many people actually use it.)
ashenke 2 hours ago [-]
They list this as a feature in the submission page.
sunaookami 2 hours ago [-]
No, why would you think that?
cowsandmilk 2 hours ago [-]
The page literally says
> AI controls — allow, restrict or disable AI tools
So the answer is yes, no need for making up a cynical answer.
Features aren't a zero sum game. Enterprise can have a set of features, and the consumer version can have the same feature. Turn the example around. Enterprise Firefox will render HTML. That does not mean the consumer version will have the ability to render HTML removed.
So the answer isn't yes. The answer is we don't know if they will or will not remove the feature from non-enterprise, but it doesn't seem likely.
llm_nerd 2 hours ago [-]
Ignoring that a feature page for a tier can include features from other "tiers", they're explicitly describing central governance and configuration of this.
So the answer is no, no need for reading tea leaves and making stuff up.
And I mean, does everyone here know that Firefox is open source?
2 hours ago [-]
VCFundedGenYer 42 minutes ago [-]
If you actually read the article you'd see the up-front bullet point that allows for it.
coldpie 30 minutes ago [-]
Can you point to where specifically in the article it says that:
> they will remove "AI controls" from normal Firefox
which is the question the original poster asked?
2 hours ago [-]
2 hours ago [-]
gustavus 3 hours ago [-]
Now this is the kind of Mozilla project I can get behind it focuses on the browser it gives a potential path for revenue and I practically jumped up and down when they announced their bringing in Thunderbird.
Solid props to Mozilla for this one. Good job.
stuff4ben 2 hours ago [-]
Right?!? There's a lot of negative sentiment on the comments here on HN but probably from people that don't understand locked down corps and other higher-security work environments where these features are needed. Plus not relying on Microsoft/Google is always a good thing. I can definitely see this being useful in hospitals, government orgs, etc.
mxuribe 2 hours ago [-]
100% agreed, that this is a great idea for Mozilla! Maybe its not exciting like some new tech....but to those who like firefox and/or support open source offerings, digital sovereignty, etc....and also want to have that as an option at their enterprise, i think this is really good! Now, the hope is that orgs tap into it (so it can keep growing), plus i sure hope Mozilla manages this right...but overall, i think this is very encouraging, and I for one am very happy to see it being offered!
kevincox 2 hours ago [-]
Not only revenue but enterprise users are valuable market share. Think of things like Slack calling which last I checked don't work in Firefox unless you spoof the user-agent. More enterprise users will force better Firefox support in a huge variety of websites which will benefit all Firefox users.
t_mahmood 2 hours ago [-]
Yes, this is good move. I am not getting why are people being up in arms, if they are getting fund from this, it will help improving Firefox, and resolve pain points the complainers have.
All in all good thing, why are they so mad.
CodesInChaos 3 hours ago [-]
No public price information. I wonder how much they charge.
InsideOutSanta 2 hours ago [-]
It's enterprise, so the cost is 500k unless you don't want to pay so much, then it's 50k.
KingOfCoders 2 hours ago [-]
Or the sales rep needs to make their quarterly numbers.
boesboes 3 hours ago [-]
That's how you know it's enterprise!
jqpabc123 2 hours ago [-]
If you have to ask the question, you're probably not going to like the answer.
krautsauer 1 hours ago [-]
You sure? Maybe I like Mozilla getting some money?
jqpabc123 1 hours ago [-]
Don't look now but Mozilla has been getting plenty of money. Money by itself is not an issue.
And it's not just me. Looking at market share, most users are clearly underwhelmed with how they use their money.
SuperNinKenDo 2 hours ago [-]
So much negativity in here. I mean, I get the antipathy toward Mozilla, but they're trying to find a way to make the actual browser a revenue stream. Yeah it could skew incentives or something, but unless you believe that you, and everyone you know is ready to start a paid subscription to Firefox Personal tomorrow, it's something like this, or more Google deals and pushing "service" integrations.
Seriously, this place is so damn negative these days, but not even constructively.
chrismorgan 2 hours ago [-]
Mozilla as an organisation is rotten and genuinely needs to die, so that Firefox can live. The only thing from Mozilla that people care about is Firefox, but Mozilla doesn’t care about Firefox to a quite stunning degree. As an example: four or five years ago they announced laying off a quarter of their 1,000 employees, and declared what they were going to be focusing on: none of it was related to Firefox in any way (and most of it they’ve since shut down). And it should go without saying that you don’t need 750 employees to make a browser, and probably can’t effectively use even a hundred.
wejick 45 minutes ago [-]
This landing page smells like AI slop. I hate it not because it's AI generated, but the fact that reading more doesn't give me any further understanding.
>Firefox Enterprise. Different at the core. Stronger because of it.
What's this even means
sfink 6 minutes ago [-]
That just sounds like generic marketing-speak to me. That stuff never did mean anything.
Just seems like GPO options for Firefox, which already existed.
Page says a lot of nothing. Or just restates things that already were in place.
shevy-java 1 hours ago [-]
They are trying. But it won't work.
I think if you really want to build something like that,
you need real momentum. Perhaps the ladybird folks can
succeed here, the future will tell. I don't think Mozilla
has enough momentum left.
The number of people using web browsers has gone up massively though over the past 15 years. 2%-3% right now isn't as bad as it would have been in the past
oscargrouch 8 minutes ago [-]
Its 5.3% on desktop the same as Safari. I wonder what this means in real numbers.. perhaps hundreds of millions? That's not bad.
ChoGGi 1 hours ago [-]
What do ad/tracker extensions do to that stat tracker?
ex1fm3ta 1 hours ago [-]
Yesss this was needed so much.
s17tnet 3 hours ago [-]
And yet, still no simple way to self host the their syncserver (syncstorage-rs) without the mozilla account abomination.
soco 3 hours ago [-]
Are you using, or planning to use, the Enterprise version, and feel like this functionality is missing? Or is the complain about the regular release? I'm asking because I fail to see the link...
darkwater 2 hours ago [-]
It's the good old "open source software adds feature X but what about feature Y I want??"
locitra 1 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
1970-01-01 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
fractalf 2 hours ago [-]
Once again Mozilla invents stuff noone wants. Its just incredible how an "org" with so much income fails again and again
evolve2k 2 hours ago [-]
They need to try. I also feeling like there’s likley growing demand globally; like they mentioned. A need for greater digital sovereignty.
[Edited: typo]
[0]: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-usi...
90% of my colleagues use Microsoft Edge without extensions.
Other browsers are seen as exotic.
I've showed them Total commander and some advanced features, panes and overall speed but no, they all went back to hunting little windows, browsing by clicking, drag and drop hunts and so on.
The obvious inefficiency and their sluggishness when doing anything on filesystem is driving me crazy but I gave up.
Would they get a raise if they are more efficient? Or go home earlier? Well, you have your answer here :)
If company IT gets hold of Firefox, it's not better than just using Edge or Chrome that comes by default.
The question is: how is that goal turning out once it meets reality?
Tons of great ideas failed for various reasons. Alan Kay keeps on pointing out how sad he is that Xerox PARC failed in many ways. Reality is a strong selector - and the evil Google empire will make competition really, really hard here.
This type of dysfunction occurs quite frequently i find.
I wouldn't be surprised if those people had some techie in their life advising similar! and/or, they just really want decent adblock tech.
My company has management software that nags me about the latest Firefox version, which is annoying, because I use the extended support release instead. Less frequent updates, and fewer sudden changes like the AI features people have been grumbling about.
Incidentally, 153.5.0esr was released today, with 140 reaching EoL.
It allows forcing specific extensions on, and allowing user installs is a flag.
I use the policy engine on nixos to install some plugins and disable some of firefox's dumber features.
...and this is/was the true Firefox way. You don't need to get some other browsers on the same engine made by shady companies. You have powerful plugins.
I cannot even begin to fathom that stupid fucking decision from someone above me.
When I pointed this out, they said "just ignore that part".
Nope LMAO!
I agree with the other person though that you should install uBlock Origin in Firefox (which works better there than in Chromium based browsers) and never look back.
https://librewolf.net/
It is a Firefox fork with sane, user-respecting defaults. Of course it breaks sites that do not respect their users' privacy / agency.
It takes literally two seconds to install uBlock Origin.
You can even preload it by baking in the xpi file.
Mozilla would have made tons of money.
It looks like they do actually offer that as a feature: "Employees can access internal company sites and web apps from personal devices without a device-level VPN"
Edit: To give proper credit, the link is from Heise.de
> AI controls — allow, restrict or disable AI tools
So the answer is yes, no need for making up a cynical answer.
So the answer isn't yes. The answer is we don't know if they will or will not remove the feature from non-enterprise, but it doesn't seem likely.
So the answer is no, no need for reading tea leaves and making stuff up.
And I mean, does everyone here know that Firefox is open source?
> they will remove "AI controls" from normal Firefox
which is the question the original poster asked?
Solid props to Mozilla for this one. Good job.
All in all good thing, why are they so mad.
And it's not just me. Looking at market share, most users are clearly underwhelmed with how they use their money.
Seriously, this place is so damn negative these days, but not even constructively.
>Firefox Enterprise. Different at the core. Stronger because of it.
What's this even means
Page says a lot of nothing. Or just restates things that already were in place.
I think if you really want to build something like that, you need real momentum. Perhaps the ladybird folks can succeed here, the future will tell. I don't think Mozilla has enough momentum left.
https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/browser-market-share-202...
Firefox is between 2% and 3% now.
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/phasing-out-the-o...
Like a rich kid living on daddy's money, they're somewhat disconnected from the reality that most people exist in.
Thanks for the open admission that regular Firefox does not.
So what before came as main advantage of Firefox is now dropped and put behind the paywall?
I manage these types of decisions and won’t use it.