[DangerousPie]

I had a look at what it actually does in the Firefox settings and all it seems to do is to disable one AI feature flag, change the default search engine, and then set a few other flags that are changes that you may or may not want to make, unrelated to AI. Not sure you want to run a 3rd party shell script just to do that…

[flanbiscuit]

For anyone interested

This is the shell script it runs on Mac/Linux: https://github.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser/blob/mai...

For FireFox it downloads this: https://github.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser/blob/mai...

  {
    "policies": {
      "DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
      "DisableTelemetry": true,
      "DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
      "FirefoxHome": {
        "SponsoredStories": false,
        "SponsoredTopSites": false,
        "Stories": false
      },
      "GenerativeAI": {
        "Enabled": false
      },
      "SearchEngines": {
        "Remove": [
          "Perplexity"
        ]
      }
    }
  }

[joemi]

The second sentence in the Getting Started section invites you to follow the manual guides instead of running the 3rd party shell scripts. I think this is a good way to do it -- have both options and tell people about them right at the start of the process. Is there some other way you wish they'd share this info?

[youngtaff]

There seems to be quite a lot missing from the Chrome configuration too

[troyvit]

It's a pretty simple project, and the license is MIT. Wouldn't be hard to let them know what's missing: https://github.com/corbindavenport/just-the-browser

[dylan604]

Are all options available to the group policy? Since this is not directly modifying your app and merely creating a group policy for the browser to use, there might be some things not able to be set there. I have not experience with these group policies. Just thinking of why something might be missing as you stated. It could also be considered out of scope for the dev making this project.

[lifetimerubyist]

Seems like this is for the people that need to execute random powershell scripts they don't understand in order to turn of telemetry and copilot on Windows because reading about the registry and group policy is too much for them.

[joemi]

The Getting Started section invites you to follow the manual guides instead of running the scripts. That's what I did, and I really appreciate the site/guides.

[pbhjpbhj]

I mean, yes ...?

Stupid to run random scripts you find online, but browser makers push users into it.

My son wants to eat "Chinese" food with chopsticks, but he can only really use a fork, so we adapt the chopsticks. He'll be able to use them eventually, but not everyone has a) the desire, nor b) the dexterity.

Making it easier to do what users want with a computer without telling them 'just learn to program' (or script in this case) is actually a good thing imo.

[prmoustache]

> users want with a computer without telling them 'just learn to program'

A computer is meant to be programmed by the user. That is its raison d'être from the very beginning and why it is called like that.

[autoexec]

Some people want computers, some people just want to use them like appliances. The bigger problem is those companies who want to control other people's computers no matter which type of person they are.

[muppetman]

A mobile phone is meant to be used to make and receive telephone calls. That is its raison d'être from the very beginning and why it is called like that.

Do you see how stupid that sounds?

[mananaysiempre]

It... doesn’t? PDAs won, there are nearly no mobile phones being made anymore. The thing you call a mobile phone is a PDA with an incidental value-add of placing phone calls. (I had been wondering for some time why the UX of talking into a headset had been on the decline for the last 20 years until I encountered this idea; sadly, I don’t remember where.)

[muppetman]

That's exactly my point?

[snowmobile]

Seems like you're using your computer wrong by posting here then. In fact, 99% of people are using their computing devices wrong all the time. The computer must be the most misused tool in the world.

[LordDragonfang]

With all due respect, I hope you never touch the development of any piece of software any of my relatives or friends ever has to use.

Good UX is one of the most important-yet-underserved areas in the tech industry (the topic of this site), and this sort of attitude goes beyond being smug and naive to being actively harmful. Your goal should always be to make things easier and with as little friction as necessary.

[lifetimerubyist]

It's not hard to search for a few keys in the about:config menu or to set a group policy. If you can't be bother to do this you have zero business running random scripts that update your system configuration that you have no idea how it works.

Normie users would be better off reading some detailed step-by-step instructions on how to do it by hand using built-in methods than to run random code from the internet that can be malicious.

My mom is 75 years old and barely knows how to use a web browser to begin with. There is zero chance I encourage her to run random pwsh scripts from the internet.

God forbid we're going to start giving them AI agents to do this kind of stuff for them. God help us.

[tapland]

Yes, if someone wrote a guide on how to do it and why, that’d be great.

Knowing where to look and which settings are relevant, for yourself, is a crazy ask of even very computer savvy users.

[lifetimerubyist]

> a crazy ask of even very computer savvy users

Why?

When Mozilla updated Firefox with the AI chatbot feature the first thing I did was look in settings in how to remove it. When that failed I just googled it, which pointed me to about:config and which keys to look for.

Much easier to figure out with your intuition what `browser.ml.chat.enabled` could possibly mean than running pwsh script.

All it takes is a bare minimum of curiosity.

[xmprt]

If you're this paranoid then you can't really trust any piece of software. Many "random" shell scripts that update your system config are more well vetted than 90% of the software you run on your computer daily.

[autoexec]

You should trust software that you can verify yourself as safe, or software written by people who you trust not to abuse the power you're giving them over your device by allowing them to modify it.

Personally, I don't trust most popular software either, but its easy to see why people would be fooled into thinking that software written by a major corporation used by millions of people might be more trustworthy than a script uploaded by a random anonymous person who couldn't be held accountable if their software infested your system with malware.

[xmprt]

I agree. But I'm just surprised that you'd be extremely wary of running a sub 100 line open source script as a one time operation that you can easily audit yourself but on the other hand are likely using a browser that no one in the world (not even the developers) has fully audited.

[joemi]

There are "detailed step-by-step instructions" linked in the second sentence of the Getting Started section. I'm not sure what more you could want, besides perhaps making it more foolproof against people who can't be bothered to read.

[pbhjpbhj]

Presumably you grow all your own food, cook from scratch; manufacture your own tools; refine your own fuel; mine your own lithium for batteries; produce your own fibres to weave at home, make cloth, which you tailor your own clothes from; grow trees, fell them, cut them to boards, and make your flooring and furniture; and so on?

Otherwise, you're the sort of normie carpenter who doesn't even do their own land clearance ready for seeding. For whom you must express your utmost contempt! /s

[Vinnl]

As far as I can see all these Firefox options can be set through the UI as well.