I have quite a low end PC, it works well enough for me and frankly I do NOT have the money to upgrade my rig. I recently noticed Firefox started CHUGGING PC resources and freezing, not loading pages, etc while performing tasks as simple as accessing a single page in a single tab.
Because I'd been complaining about a recent drop in Firefox performance, a friend sent me a tumblr post with an article detailing Firefoxs recent roll-out of machine learning features built in to the browser, which were all enabled by default with NO notification that this had occurred. I had to access advanced settings/config to DISABLE ALL ML-related features at the base level in order to see an improvement. This is despite combing the standard mozilla settings for ANY indication of ML/AI 'features' repeatedly beforehand as I'd heard Firefox was implementing it.
For a brand and program that prides itself on transparency to FORCIBLY enable ML features that I AM NEVER GOING TO USE because I simply do NOT keep that many tabs open? Is absolutely bananas to me. I regularly update my browser on the good-faith basis that updates are going to IMPROVE my security and experience, but this has absolutely soured my view of Firefox. I regularly try and recommend Firefox to people like my family who complain about AI/bloat with other browsers, and who are genuinely concerned with the privacy violations of Chromium based browsers once I tell them. I HATE to think how I'm gonna explain disabling this garbage to my mother over the phone.
TL;DR: Forcibly installing and enabling Machine Learning 'features' with no easy option to opt-out despite them hogging resources and rendering the whole browser nonfunctional is a move I expect from Microsoft. Not Mozilla. I really really like Firefox too, but I WILL be looking for alternative browsers.
