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this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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“Who better to fix the problem than me, it’s creator!” He’s not exactly wrong, it is possible to reform and become an industry leader combating the issue you were once guilty of doing yourself. There are countless examples of that throughout the history of the tech space. However, you absolutely cannot hide that kind of background if you are looking to operate in the privacy and cybersecurity sectors. Doing so is incredibly shady and not the behavior of someone who’s turned white hat.
Mozilla had no option but to walk away immediately and I’m glad they did. They can’t afford to have this stink on their reputation. It’s unfortunate that this information’s only come to light now though.
Agreed. Seems that if someone is truly wanting to be a part of the fix to something they helped create. Then they should be the first person to call themselves out for it. Hiding a fact that can already be found by the people you are trying to get the support of is foolish. Even if you are faking the whole "changed as a person" thing, it is the worst optics for "re-branding" yourself. The "villain to hero arc" is a freaking core element of so many genres of fiction. And for non-fiction, people love seeing people seek redemption and self-improvement. Fucking amateur time over here.
I could imagine an Oppenheimer situation where he deeply regretted what he had created.
But I highly suspect this was more of a case of "don't look deeply into my past", which, is quite ironic given what he did.
I mean, he still owns it. He can't be that regretful.
Firefox has a wee bit of stink anyway, they're the best out there though.
Edit: Interesting downvotes even though I'm saying that it's still the best out there. Not a lot of nuance, eh?
Are they? I use firefox on my laptop and have never gotten any pop ups or anything about changing my search engine to google or anything else for that matter.
Mine automatically changes and I have to go and delete all of the other search engines besides duck duck go every other update.
Do you have the DDG extension installed? Because I haven't had any issues with FF changing it or even asking to change it after updates (minor or major). So if you don't have it installed, and you have no plans to change away from DDG. It would be a worthwhile extension to add, and it adds some additional tracker blocking while not on a search.
I've never had that issue with ff+ddg
Lucky you, I wish it was that way for me. The guy below says that it's common with updates, so I don't think I"m the only one.
The guy below does not say it’s common with updates, they say it is happens with updates that update the default list of providers, which are rare.
"Constantly" is a ridiculous exaggeration, it's rare and it's not some random nagging prompt or anything. It's tied to software updates wherein the list of default search engines Firefox suggests in preferences is also updated.
Source via support.mozilla.org
Right, I've had updates 2x a week sometimes. Then it goes for a long time. I'm not complaining about the updates, just that I have to go through all of my settings every time.
I can't remember the last time I ever got that message before I installed the DDG extension a couple years ago. I think the extension overrides it, so I can't say for the past two years on my actual personal browser. However the only times I remember it offering to change it since I started using it in 03~04 has been when they really tried making sure people knew that the default could be changed (which might have been in some way tied to stuff like the EU making even OSes show options for browsers to install when first setting up). And the others were when they first changed to Yahoo and after the contract with Yahoo ended.
That all being said, I think it is good to maybe once a year to have like the first update of the year or first major update ask. As never being shown other options just keeps smaller or newer competition from even being seen. DDG is a bit of a weird one since I both heard of it from being a "tech" person and because they went hard in advertising. But when I found out about the "Bangs", it was fucking over. Being able to change search engines from the one I am using was game changing to me. And seeing that it is becoming a thing for other ones is very nice to see (Brave being the main one I also use).
That all being said. I think there has to be some bug if it is making you fix your settings that often.