Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox web browser and other open source projects, has announced its Mozilla Information Trust Initiative. This initiative involves Mozilla "developing products, research, and communities to battle information pollution and so-called 'fake news' online."
Although the announcement from Mozilla claims that the "spread of misinformation violates nearly every tenet of the Mozilla Manifesto", this initiative does raise some concerning questions. Should a web browser vendor be actively patrolling content on the web? Is such patrolling of content harmful to a truly open web? Is this merely the first step toward web browsers censoring or controlling the dissemination of information available on the web? Would the resources expended on this initiative be better spent improving the performance and efficiency of Firefox?
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Saturday August 12 2017, @02:34AM (6 children)
Personally, I primarily use Slimjet [slimjet.com] these days. It's a fork of Chromium, with some modifications including better built-in tracking protection [slimjet.com].
Now, it's not perfect. It's not open source for one. But it's the best I've been able to find for every day use.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @02:40AM (5 children)
Being closed source is a deal breaker for me, unfortunately. It's also why I won't use Vivaldi or Opera.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday August 12 2017, @05:24AM (4 children)
Vivaldi is closed source?
It's built on top of chromium which is all open source.
Even the the add on layer is viewable Java.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday August 12 2017, @07:17AM (2 children)
Silently adding this to my list of things that frojack doesn't know. Could come in handy some day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @02:28PM (1 child)
Be silent then, bitch!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @04:02PM
Wakakakakakakka
Look at this tough guy, bitch don't make me call your mom and get your juicebox privileges revoked!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @01:25PM
I don't give a fuck if Vivaldi uses open source software. I require the entire thing to be open source. I want to be able to inspect every single line of code that might execute on my system. I want to be able to compile a full build of the browser myself. If I can't do any of that, then I don't give a fuck what product we're talking about, it's not open source.