Suppose you want to do something anonymously.
1. Download installer from Mozilla from your home network - Mozilla now has your home IP and installer ID.
2. Transfer it via USB key to a secure, anonymous computer - one not linked to you, on a network not associated with you, such as public WiFi.
3. Install Firefox using that installer on said computer. It transmits the installer ID to Mozilla, which matches the one given to your home IP, thereby deanonymizing you.
4. Mozilla receives a warrant for this information, or it is hacked, or the organization is infiltrated by a single government or corporate spy.
Edit: It gets worse. Suppose a newspaper IT department takes care of providing Firefox and other trusted software installers to their reporters. Now Mozilla can determine who that newspaper helped with IT, such as journalists or sources. Or if you provide trusted software to your friends, Mozilla gets part of your social graph.
I can't believe the apologists commenting on this.
Firefox put a lot of effort into tracking download to install behavior. Maybe this is the only violation you know about. There's no reason to continue to believe in Mozilla's good faith. They've been captured, and are 90% dependent on Google revenue.
Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28954390
Firefox is dead. It's time to move past denial. It doesn't stand for anything you think it does. I'm sad, too. Time to bury the putrid, rotting corpse.
What're the alternatives to Firefox? The only ones that come to mind are Opera and Brave, and Brave had some controversy too.
Lynx is the only one I trust, but it's quite limited. Everything else has my suspicion.
What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative?
I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Why doesn't this exist
> What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative?
Dillo or elinks
> I just want a minimal web view and input a URL.
Surf (suckless project)
Also thanks, TIL alternatives do exist