Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Firefox Mozilla Open Source Software

Mozilla Has 'No Plans' To Offer Firefox Without Pocket (venturebeat.com) 199

Posted by Soulskill from the they-go-together-like-peanut-butter-and-pocket dept.
An anonymous reader writes: In June, Mozilla integrated Pocket into Firefox, garnering a mixed response from the browser's community. This week, VentureBeat stumbled upon a Bugzilla ticket (bug 1215694) to "move Pocket to a built-in add-on" and immediately reached out to the company. "There are currently no plans to offer a version of Firefox that doesn't include Pocket," said Dave Camp, Firefox's director of engineering.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Mozilla Has 'No Plans' To Offer Firefox Without Pocket More

Mozilla Has 'No Plans' To Offer Firefox Without Pocket

Comments Filter:

  • Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13, 2015 @07:54PM (#50926949)

    Thanks Dicedot. Please, you know, edit.

    • Re:Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13, 2015 @08:20PM (#50927151)

      As far as I can tell, it's a 3rd party bookmarking system.

      • You know this system is probably used for advertising metrics.

        • Re:Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Dr. Evil ( 3501 ) on Saturday November 14, 2015 @12:19AM (#50928305)

          "...the manner in which videos, articles or content has been accessed, saved and shared. We may use aggregated information to offer a list of top sites or content, or to make suggestions to our users or to report on usage and trends. We may also analyze and use aggregated information to improve the products and services that we offer, and to develop new products and services. "

          Yep.

          https://getpocket.com/privacy [getpocket.com]

          It's written a bit slimy, making strong statements then giving really innocent examples. I'm reading it while trying to keep in mind that a service to store your bookmarks is going to have to have a privacy policy which allows them to store your bookmarks.

          Everything free is malware these days, and many things paid.

        • Re:Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is? (Score:5, Funny)

          by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Saturday November 14, 2015 @01:00AM (#50928493)

          "You know this system is probably used for advertising metrics."

          Only of use in the USA then, thats the only place that still uses feet, pounds and acres
          the rest of the world already uses the metric system.

    • If you actually read, it's been brought up many times. Not to mention the search bar is over there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by msauve ( 701917 )
      "Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is?"

      Dice has no pants.

    • Re:Could you at least hint what "Pocket" is? (Score:5, Informative)

      by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Saturday November 14, 2015 @09:28AM (#50929651)

      Pocket is a proprietary usage tracking system. You sign up for an account, which is how the tracking is performed. Then you can save Web pages, videos, etc. to your hard drive using the Pocket system to you can view the content offline later. All the while, Pocket is building a database of what you saved, which laws you've broken (to be handed over to law enforcement upon request), what your viewing preferences are, etc.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cstacy ( 534252 )

        Pocket is a proprietary usage tracking system. You sign up for an account, which is how the tracking is performed. Then you can save Web pages, videos, etc. to your hard drive using the Pocket system to you can view the content offline later. All the while, Pocket is building a database of what you saved, which laws you've broken (to be handed over to law enforcement upon request), what your viewing preferences are, etc.

        mod up

  • browser.pocket.enabled = false (Score:5, Informative)

    by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @07:55PM (#50926961)
    NT

    • Re: browser.pocket.enabled = false (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13, 2015 @07:58PM (#50926997)

      But that doesn't change the fact that the guys at Mozilla have lost it. Who is picking up the torch? Non-profit, open-source, privacy-aware fork. Please?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        All I know is that the "browser.pocket.enabled" config isn't in Seamonkey. [seamonkey-project.org] Nor are (so far) all the stupid attempts to clone Chrome.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @09:17PM (#50927503)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Anrego ( 830717 ) *

          Indeed, been using palemoon for awhile and very happy with it. Basically Firefox before it started to suck with the improvements that actually matter.

          I really hope the project keeps on trucking, for now it's definitely the best option for the Firefox user who's getting tired of all the bullshit.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
            Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • It's very nice to see such a relevant post.

              From personal and professional experience, I'd suggest that you treat Windows 8 much like the market treated WinME, and simply jump straight to Windows 10. It does have issues, but it's avoided the user interface errors that Windows 8 insisted on, and it's much better supported than Windows 8 is now.

              • I fully agree w/ this. If I had Windows 7, I wouldn't have bothered upgrading, but since I had Windows 8, which was unusable - even Windows 8.1 - I upgraded to Windows 10. Only issue I have w/ it is the daily rebooting. Most of my browsing, my online finances, handling my home maintenance issues and other things where my privacy matters, I do from this PC-BSD laptop. Only thing I use the Windows 10 for is for software that absolutely must have Windows to run.

            • If you want the project to continue? Then please leave the new start page [start.me] and use it for any searches or click throughs to places like FB or Flicker as the devs get a couple cents for clicks which goes to keeping the team up and running. I personally have NO problem with an arrangement like this as it means I can keep my Adblock on and still support the team so I use it all the time, I hope others do as well to keep the project going strong.

              As for the Linux build being a year old? I try my damnedest to avoid Linux (because I find it buggy as fuck) so I only recently came across it thanks to MSFT forcing me to try to find affordable alternatives to Windows "all ur data belong to us" 10 Spyware Edition being the only one you can actually purchase. Personally I'll probably be going to Windows 8.1 but most of my customers don't have the option and once Win 7 reaches EOL I'll have to have a functional alternative, hence why I'm looking at Linux software now, not to mention my Vista customers will be hitting EOL soon and I wouldn't wish Win 10 on my worst enemies.....well maybe the FOSSIes, because that would be funny, but otherwise no..

              If you are now looking at Linux, consider PC-BSD. I've found it very smooth to work w/, and like you've noted, it doesn't break previous drivers. I got it when PC-BSD was10.0. My only beef - getting WiFi support on the Intel WiFi chipset. It comes w/ a wide variety of DEs, but leaves out some interesting ones, like Razor-qt and LXQT: that's due to their Linux specific dependencies. However, I use Lumina, a new DE which is really smooth and largely stays out of your way.

              For Steam users, v11 will hav

        • I ran Palemoon for a while but it was still slow compared to Chrome. There is a reason Firefox is tanking and Chrome is growing. The product is simply better.

        • Pale Moon has a 64-bit edition. [palemoon.org]

          Joke:
          Instead of browser.pocket.enabled = false in Firefox,
          browser.adult.supervision.enabled = true in Pale Moon.

          Pale Moon has tools for backup and migration.

          Adblock Latitude [palemoon.org] blocks ads. There are other Pale Moon ad-ons [palemoon.org], and usually Firefox add-ons work perfectly.

          "Pale Moon Commander ... provides a user-friendly interface to advanced preferences that would otherwise require manual editing of parameters, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming to do."

        • I've been playing with Pale Moon on Android and i feel it is more stable than Firefox so far.

          I also havd Pale Moon on my Funtoi workstation. Anyone on Funtoo/Gentoo there is an official Pale Moon overlay in layman. Simply run:
          # layman -S
          # layman -a palemoon
          # emerge palemoon

          Replace palemoon with palemoon-bin on the last one if you would prefer a prebuilt binary, though that kind of negates the point of Gentoo/Funtoo.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by KGIII ( 973947 )

          There are some strange installers on Linux. I'm used to this. However, Pale Moon is just the strangest one that I think I've ever seen.

        • I used Pale Moon for a long time and even switched people from Firefox over to it regularly. Then more and more of the bill payment portals didn't work properly until I could not justify using it any longer due to having to install Firefox anyway just to be capable of paying the bills. I couldn't even leave product reviews on Newegg. I'd still be using Pale Moon if I could pay my bills with it. I even waited for a version that would work properly, but three updates went by and nothing changed. Sigh, back to

      • Re: browser.pocket.enabled = false (Score:5, Informative)

        by qubezz ( 520511 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @09:32PM (#50927593)
        Payola. That's the only reason why a third-party plugin would be forced onto an unwilling user base. Who's getting the money, and how much?

      • Non-profit, open-source, privacy-aware fork.

        With a non-shitty interface.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by reikae ( 80981 )

          Something like Vimperator installed by default? Most users would probably find it confusing.

    • Thank you. I didn't even know what this "feature" was. Now I can turn it off and wait until the next overreach by Firefox. I wonder how long I had this turned on, and whether the next slimy move by Firefox will remain a non obvious/effectively hidden problem for as long.

  • /Oblg. No plans to use Firefox then (Score:5, Insightful)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @08:00PM (#50927011)

    Sad to see once a web browser that once was a bastion of open source become yet-another-sell-out.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by shubus ( 1382007 )
      Of course I would like to get rid of Pocket. 3rd party bookmarking? Yah, like that's all it does. More than likely Pocket is collecting your browser history and selling it to 3rd parties to target advertising your way. Indeed Firefox has lost it.

  • Iceweasel for Windows? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Someone can make a build excluding all the objectionable content, right? You just can't call it Firefox if you do.

    • Re:Iceweasel for Windows? (Score:5, Informative)

      by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @08:24PM (#50927183)
      You might want to look into Pale Moon [palemoon.org].

  • Was great now just dead (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I guess the Pocket is then one of those things that are not bloat from Mozilla point of view. Thankfully we can now be get rid of Classic theme restorer plugin instead, so we can truly embrace the full Mozilla experience by pocketing our chats while we share the rich converged and aligned experience with the Mozilla social media features.

  • I'm howlin' mad: (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @08:15PM (#50927115) Journal

    Pale Moooooon

  • I still have no f***ing idea what Pocket is, and why I should have it in my browser.

  • Dictator of engineering (Score:5, Funny)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @08:55PM (#50927375)

    Dave Camp, Firefox's director of engineering

    At first glance, my brain quickly read "dictator of engineering" :-)

  • No problem. (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @09:21PM (#50927517)

    [about:config] browser.pocket.enabled = false

    Every time Mozilla releases an update, I have to search through the config settings for new ".enabled" things to disable. (sigh)

    • Re:No problem. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nmb3000 ( 741169 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @11:42PM (#50928141) Journal

      Every time Mozilla releases an update, I have to search through the config settings for new ".enabled" things to disable.

      Don't forget the part where you hope to hell they haven't removed even more "about:config" settings you rely on since "nobody uses the feature we intentionally hid behind an obscure configuration setting (surprise!)".

    • Or you could just, you know, not use it. It's been there for months. I've never even noticed it. I don't use a Firefox account, so who cares about Pocket integration anyway?

  • Please forgive my ignorance, (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Yxven ( 1100075 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @10:11PM (#50927831)

    but why does Pocket matter?

    When they first introduced it, I right clicked it and removed it from my toolbar. I haven't thought of it since, yet there are people threatening to boycott Firefox over it.

    I've never about:config disabled it. Is it selling my privacy? Doubling firefox's memory usage? Supporting terrorism?

    Why is it news worthy?

    • This is one reason i remember:

      multiple vulnerabilities exposed in pocket.

      http://it.slashdot.org/story/1... [slashdot.org]

    • Re:Please forgive my ignorance, (Score:5, Interesting)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Saturday November 14, 2015 @01:47AM (#50928637)

      but why does Pocket matter?

      Its not what it is, it's what it represents.

      Pocket is a proprietary system, with a commerical company behind it, that produced an addon that a small number of people used.

      That was fine. Nobody objected to it. Nobody cared.

      Then one day, pocket was integrated into the browser. Why? WHY? What possible reason was there to integrate a 3rd party commercial add on directly into the codebase.No good one.

      The free software people were pissed at having a proprietary service.

      The no-bloat were pissed off at another completely pointless feature; especially when the add-on was working just fine for the people who wanted it.

      And the rest of us look at it as the thin edge of the wedge; as in if Mozilla is willing to just thrust this on us... where does it end? Facebook integration next built right in? Twitter after that? Snapchat? Zynga games? Chatroulette? Not as addons... all built right in to firefox.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )

        Why? Everybody wants to get paid. You know, damned well, that they're getting a kickback from the ad revenue from the Pocket folks.

      • I sure as hell don't like Pocket forced integration either, but I understand that Mozilla must make money to keep going on.
        I don't have a good solution to this problem but it's obviously a very thin line between "acceptable commercial add-ons that make Mozilla money" and "intrusive add-ons that turn users away".
        I'd gladly contribute a few dollars every year if that meant I'd get a cleaner browser but making a Firefox an ad-sponsored or paid without ads product is difficult since it's open source.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Pocket matters because it's THE symbol of Mozilla ignoring its strengths and leveraging its weakness.
      What strengths Mozilla/Firefox have (or is perceived to have)? Promotion of open standards instead of proprietary solutions; care for users' privacy; powerful addon infrastructure that allows me to run niche functionality like Pocket if I like it.
      And what did they do? They built in a proprietary solution that has unnecessary privacy considerations that is NOT an addon.

      It's not about technology, it's about do

  • Isn't pocket just bookmarks (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday November 13, 2015 @11:05PM (#50928015)
    that somebody gets to track and probably use to serve ads? I can't see a use case for pocket.

  • From what I gather I'm not in majority but for sure I'm not alone in actually WANTING Pocket and MORE, I want back the FUNCTIONALITY from that extension which is way beyond the stupid FF button. I still have it (thanks to some obscure thread on some other site) but it won't be updated and supported anymore.

  • about:config , then

    browser.pocket.enabled

    to "false".

  • i abandoned that pile of kludge a long time ago, around version 26, i use chromium mostly, and Pale_Moon on occasion,

Slashdot Top Deals

UNIX is hot. It's more than hot. It's steaming. It's quicksilver lightning with a laserbeam kicker. -- Michael Jay Tucker

Close