On Thu Oct 30, 2025 at 1:44 AM UTC, Nathan Koch wrote: > Hello, > > This new 144 Firefox release has AI in it. I've seen the weaponization > of the internet by big tech last few years and this AI stuff is getting > out of hand. > > > What Browsers on OpenBSD have pledge and Unveil support? I already am > taking steps to limit my exposure to Google. What other options are there? > > > Falkon, Seamonkey? Are they pledge unveil enabled? > > > -Nate
Hi Nate, I share similar concerns about AI, in particular the mindless, easy-access LLMs. It appears that humanity as a whole is working very hard to put much of ourselves out of work. Nevertheless, I had to see the v144 release notes for myself[1]. In v144 we have a right click "search with Google Lens" option. I don't like this, but it seems to only happen if your default search engine is Google. I assume most trying to avoid AI will not set Google as their default search engine. The other feature, "On desktop, Firefox now includes Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine built into the browser." I am not really sure what this means. Is it a search engine that can be disabled? It does sound like something that can probably be disabled. I don't like this either. I think it's extremely unhealthy. Nevertheless, I'm not sure one is best abandoning Firefox if one also wishes to browse the "modern" web. Now as for Pledge/Unveil, I believe Chrome (or Chromium?) and Firefox both utilize this to some degree. Also lynx. I do have some appreciation for Dillo, however, trying to use a simple web browser on the modern internet is rather tricky. So few websites actually behave properly in that regard. It may not give you what you want, but I think that Gemini[2] is a better option to HTTP these days, as far as private browsing of web pages written by humans goes. Telescope[3] is a nice console Gemini browser that has pledge/unveil builtin, though admittedly the Gemini spec is so much simpler that pledge/unveil, though I believe still useful, is probably less relevant than something as complicated as Chromium or Firefox. There's also Lagrange[4], which is a graphical Gemini client. I don't *think* it uses unveil/pledge, however. -Henrich 1: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/144.0/releasenotes/ 2: https://geminiprotocol.net/ 3: https://telescope-browser.org/ 4: https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/ PS: I have to admit that the translation feature mentioned by Polarian is very handy. It seems better, to me, to run a translation model locally than to use Google Translate, or similar. PPS: Here's Gemini links for the last three. I'm assuming Mozilla doesn't have a Gemini site. 2: gemini://geminiprotocol.net/ 3: gemini://telescope-browser.org/ 4: gemini://skyjake.fi/lagrange/
