Is there a way to persist the file even after updates?
It was chrome, downloading a multi GB file without any sort of UI hints that it was doing so. A generative AI file.
Is this why chrome uses so much ram? They’ve just been pushing up the memory usage in preparation for this day, hoping I wouldn’t notice the extra software now running on my (old, outdated) system?
[0] "small" in comparison to ChatGPT, but still a bulky download
Microsoft shoving LLMs into literally everything, including Notepad, is what people are currently hating, because it isn't quite ready.
why not? All things being equal non-AI solution is better. "it is current hyped thing" should bring some downward correction
and of all things to hate, AI hate is harmless and at least partially justified
Browsers are currently incentivised to add a bunch of new features outside their traditional role. Some people prefer to keep the browser's role simple. It's not ideological and it's not "hating".
And you might as well just fork chromium for that purpose.
Also there's absolutely zero need to be sudo to put a JSON config file for Firefox on Linux.
You're basically bash/curl'ing the kitchen sink, with all the security risks that entails, executing a shell script as root (which may or may not be malicious now or at some point in the future), just to...
Put a 12 lines JSON file in a user's Firefox config folder.
Way to go my "fremen" brothers [1].
[1] the "fremen" in Dune as those who adore the Shai-Hulud
I guess then, the browser and AI just serve different purposes now?
publicdebates•1h ago
I grew up on DOS, and my first browser was IE3. My first tech book as a kid was for HTML[1], and I was in absolute awe at what you could make with all the tags, especially interactive form controls.
I remember Firefox being revolutionary for simply having tabs. Every time a new Visual Basic (starting with DOS) release came out, I was excited at the new standardized UI controls we had available.
I remember when Tweetie for iPhone OS came out and invented pull-down refresh that literally every app and mobile OS uses now.
Are those days permanently gone? The days when actual UI/UX innovation was a thing?
[1] Can someone help me find this book? I've been looking for years. It used the Mosaic browser.
robviren•1h ago
gary_0•46m ago
Some stuff has been solved. A massive number of annoyances in my daily life are due to people un-solving problems with more or less standardized solutions due to perverse economic incentives.
bigfishrunning•32m ago
I do agree changing things for the sake of change isn't a good thing, but we should also be afraid of being stuck in a rut
matkoniecz•18m ago
even if it is true (is it a myth by any chance?), it does not mean that alternatives are better at say typing speed
IAmBroom•4m ago
account42•3m ago
1dom•2m ago
"Stuck in a rut" is a matter of perspective. A good marketer can make even the most established best practice be perceived as a "rut", that's the first step of selling someone something: convince them they have a problem.
It's easy to get a non-QWERTY keyboard. I'm typing on a split orthlinear one now. I'm sure we agree it would not be productive for society if 99% of regular QWERTY keyboards deviated a little in search of that new innovation that will turn their company into the next Xerox or Hoover or Google.
Technology evolves in cycles, there's a boom of innovation and mass adoption which inevitably levels out with stabilisation and maturity. It's probably time for browser vendors to accept their innovation and growth to transaition into stability and maturity. The cost of not doing that is things like adblockers, noscript, justthebrowser etc will gain popularity and remove any anti-consumer innovations they try. Maybe they'll get to a position where they realise their "innovative" features that are being disable by so many users that it doesn't make sense to shift dev spending to maintenence and improvement of existing features, instead of "innovation".
nottorp•1h ago
It's still a thing but it went off the rails, see Apple and their latest no-contrast UI.
estearum•49m ago
Apple has the unfortunate burden of needing to shepherd millions of developers over to this new paradigm (AR) before it really exists, and so is shoving Liquid Glass onto devices that don't really benefit from it.
But in practice people are generally not happy about lots of new experimentation going on. By definition, most of the results suck. In retrospect we get to stand in awe of those that survived the evolutionary battle and say "wow browser tabs" and "wow pull to refresh" and forget the millions of other bad ideas that we tried.
pch00•44m ago
Bruh, I just want to be able to read the text on my phone.
estearum•32m ago
That's my point about people swooning about the days of UI experimentation. There's a reason we don't do it once we figure out good solutions to problems (experimentation is hard and mostly bad).
nottorp•30m ago
Oh wait, I have them all off. So what will AR do for me?
raincole•1h ago
functionmouse•22m ago
benrutter•49m ago
I think "yes" and "a bit", in that order. The early days of the web and mobile, where everything was new, are gone. In those days, there was no established pattern for standard UX. Designers had to innovate.
It makes sense that we have a lot less innovation now. There's probably room for a lot more than we see, but not for the level that was there in the early days of the web.
cons0le•5m ago
There's no reason to "learn" a UI or use shortcuts on most sites, because they change everything around every few months.
I see people reminiscing about tabs in firefox, well today a majority of the top websites don't even allow you to open links in new tabs! The links aren't even real links anymore, and everything's a webapp. ( and by top websites, I mean social media, not the top sites used by the HN crowd. Sites like YT, FB, IG, and TT ).
I try to interact with the "UI" of websites as little as possible these days. I use RSS readers for as much as possible. Any time I get a popup on any site, I get mad. I don't care about news updates, software updates, or offers. Anything that pops up at me, or moves around before I can click it, looks like a scam to me. Even if it's "legitimate". The modern web feels like an arcade game that's trying to waste my time.
n4r9•44m ago
MadameMinty•38m ago
But it would be funny if it's this: https://archive.org/details/teachyourselfweb00lema/page/n9/m...
publicdebates•25m ago
Why would it be funny though? Am I missing something?
smnscu•9m ago
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11177063-creating-cool-w... - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1097095.HTML_for_Dummies...
101008•36m ago
New apps were announced in blogs, and people downloaded them to try them out. I remember downloading Opera, using it for a few days or weeks, and then going back to Firefox.
whynotmaybe•35m ago
Yes. When coming from DOS, all the UI/UX that could have been created has been created. What we have now is a loop of tries to refresh the existing but it's hard, mainly because it's now everywhere and it has reached maturity.
As an example, the "X" to close and the left arrow for back won't be replaced before a long time, just like we still have a floppy to represent save.
Cars have tried to refresh their ui/UX but they failed and are now reverting back to knobs and buttons.
It seems that VisionOS is a place where innovation could come but it's not really a success.
nake89•28m ago
I agree mostly with your sentiment. But I still think there is still some work being done. For example the Arc and Zen Browsers. I never used Arc because it is closed source. But it sure looked beautiful. And Zen I tested, but it seemed laggy. I think I might give it another go to see if some of the performance issues have been fixed.
ljm•15m ago
Like the AOL browser, come to think of it.
Tabs in Firefox were such an unfamiliar thing.
immibis•9m ago