What is the last version of Chrome the doesn't silently install this 4gb atrocity? I hate Chrome, but if I'm forced to use it, I'll have to stick with the final version before this crap. Talk about virus-infested. What they're doing is totally illegal and there should be severe sanctions.

At the very least, hackers should be able to denude this crap and offer a de-crapified version.

According to Google itself, go to chrome://settings/system and turn off the AI feature. This is supposed to stop the 4GB download and the rest of the AI things.

Seems it was introduced in ver 147, I have the latest ver 148-something, and the file is not on my computer. Perhaps this 15-year-old machine isn't good enough for local AI.

Mozilla is a bunch of scumbags. If you want detailed writeup: https://digdeeper.club/articles/mozilla.xhtml

Chromium is useless with zero usability features. Doesn't even have native feature to load tabs on demand. It's a browser for phones, not computers. Can't even get this useless piece of shit to connect to local web server through proxy, even with proxy.pac. If I have proxy.pac saying connect to localhost through proxy, that means I set it like this for a reason and the browser shouldn't be disobeying MY decisions. All extension buttons crammed into one corner, zero flexibility for UI customization, most Chromiums out there lock the profile to the machine it was created on, --disable-machine-id and --disable-encryption from Ungooogled Chromium are a rarity. Even with --disable-background-networking, it still opens persistent connection to mtalk.google.com at the very least (unless chrome.dll is edited and that string zeroed out).

And Firefox...constant changes to UI, the only project that made it bearable is dead, uses Skia and consequentially has awful font rendering like Chrome, zero respect for user's ClearType settings, which for some of us means eye fatigue and migraines. It treats user like an idiot. I don't have an option to open the EXE right away, I have to explicitly save it first. Really? Tab Mix Plus is of one of the few surviving extensions (forget the gimped Chromium WebExtensions...). DownThemAll!...dead, Norwell History...dead... And who knows for how long TMP will still survive.

I could go on, but it's not worth my time.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:35:

To get back to the original post... […]
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To get back to the original post...

Google has this assumption that everyone wants to use AI. To take the load off their servers they send the 4GB to you so that AI can be done locally instead. In theory should be faster, but all depends on your computer specs.

Unfortunately they didn't ask the user if they wanted this, and if you delete the file it just comes back. Doing these things silently is a violation of EU laws among many others. Google can look forward to an enormous fine.

As for what browser I use, it's been Firefox for about 20 years. I did try current Supermium on XP yesterday, but it was practically unusable, with most settings just not there. When I tried youtube on it, it just froze up with the CPU stuck at 100%. After restarting Supermium, the screen would not appear, so I gave it up as a very bad joke and uninstalled it. Been trying out R3dfox on win7 and Vista, seems ok apart from a little bug on Vista. Also tried MyPal on XP, seems ok too.

oh come on firefox is looking to do the same stuff with their mozilla ai now, https://www.mozilla.ai/ best use a clean fork nowadays

When and why did DownThemAll die? I was using it quite recently. It is very useful. Along with IDM. JDownloader is slow, bloated Java crap.

I'm under the impression that the only browsers that aren't inherently evil are those ultra-lightweight browsers like Dillo or Links. I'm not going to defend Mozilla or Google.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:35:

To get back to the original post...

Google has this assumption that everyone wants to use AI. To take the load off their servers they send the 4GB to you so that AI can be done locally instead. In theory should be faster, but all depends on your computer specs.

Unfortunately they didn't ask the user if they wanted this, and if you delete the file it just comes back. Doing these things silently is a violation of EU laws among many others. Google can look forward to an enormous fine.

Indeed - there are many things browsers introduced over the years, varying supports for varying online facilities and functionality. this seems like a step change though - using your local computer to run some kind of minimal inference llm workflows. I think that's what one of the articles is getting at saying its environmentally bad - not just sending out 4gb (but then aren't all streaming systems doing that non stop?) but causing your pc to run extra stuff locally. Whether in law that's considered a significantly different category to "a browser does some new computation on user machine" is something to test i guess

Robbbert wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:35:

To get back to the original post... […]
Show full quote

To get back to the original post...

Google has this assumption that everyone wants to use AI. To take the load off their servers they send the 4GB to you so that AI can be done locally instead. In theory should be faster, but all depends on your computer specs.

Unfortunately they didn't ask the user if they wanted this, and if you delete the file it just comes back. Doing these things silently is a violation of EU laws among many others. Google can look forward to an enormous fine.

As for what browser I use, it's been Firefox for about 20 years. I did try current Supermium on XP yesterday, but it was practically unusable, with most settings just not there. When I tried youtube on it, it just froze up with the CPU stuck at 100%. After restarting Supermium, the screen would not appear, so I gave it up as a very bad joke and uninstalled it. Been trying out R3dfox on win7 and Vista, seems ok apart from a little bug on Vista. Also tried MyPal on XP, seems ok too.

The 4gb local model is only used for a few features like "help me write" and page summaries (for instance) according to the original reporter of all this (at https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-si … t-nano-install/); the big fancy "AI MODE" button uses online models.

I don't think to take load off their servers, since if it was then the file would be a far bit bigger than just 4gb.
The TPUs Google uses for LLM inference have hundreds of gigabytes of HBM memory, much like Nvidia and AMD's "ai compute" options. And, I think those companies also don't want their "frontier" models to ever be on-device since then it'd be possible to pirate it, the already 0% chance they'll make back money is even lower (since they'd still put money into training and post-training), etc. Their financials are bad enough as it is without dropping the revenue down to zero.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-11, 02:07:

When and why did DownThemAll die? I was using it quite recently. It is very useful. Along with IDM. JDownloader is slow, bloated Java crap.

WebExtension version didn't, but the bootstrapped extension would need some work to get working again, assuming Mozilla didn't rip something critical from browser internals. WebExtension version is limited, doesn't integrate in save file dialog, no possibility to be asked about the case of file conflict, can only be set in advance in settings (though not sure if this is actual technical limitation) and no possibility to preserve file modification timestamp.

There is: https://github.com/xiaoxiaoflood/firefox-scripts

Everything there used to work many versions ago, now there's only https://github.com/AlexVallat/firefox-scripts with some of the scripts fixed, but most things aren't functional on current Firefox versions anymore. My silly system shutdown button works on Firefox 148, though.

All these methods are not officially supported, only default locked down experience is (sooner or later, Manifest V2 will go too), the browser keeps changing, all such extensions and stylesheets have to be adjusted all the time (sure, ESR version buys some time, but sooner or later it gets old).

About Rust, its compiler wants over 12 GB (!!!) of RAM!

gerry wrote on 2026-05-11, 12:44:

I think that's what one of the articles is getting at saying its environmentally bad - not just sending out 4gb (but then aren't all streaming systems doing that non stop?) but causing your pc to run extra stuff locally. Whether in law that's considered a significantly different category to "a browser does some new computation on user machine" is something to test i guess

In other words, great wastage of electricity and therefore foisting of extra expense onto millions of end-users. If such a local LLM is always running on your system, your electicity bill will increase by at least $50-100 a year, perhaps even more. Google won't pay that... you will, against your will. That's why what they're doing is totally illegal.

The modern Javascript-infested Web has been doing this for 10 years, but this LLM crap will magnify this wastage of power by orders of magnitude and of course result in an even more profound spiraling out of control of electricity prices.

It's ironic that modern CPUs have become quite power efficient, but this has been more than offset by the bloat and the wastage that the modern web enforces. Therefore, using a "light" de-bloated browser saves your sanity in dollars and cents as well as time in wading through a quagmire of ridiculous scripting and Java crap ads.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:35:

To get back to the original post... […]
Show full quote

To get back to the original post...

Google has this assumption that everyone wants to use AI. To take the load off their servers they send the 4GB to you so that AI can be done locally instead. In theory should be faster, but all depends on your computer specs.

Unfortunately they didn't ask the user if they wanted this, and if you delete the file it just comes back. Doing these things silently is a violation of EU laws among many others. Google can look forward to an enormous fine.

As for what browser I use, it's been Firefox for about 20 years. I did try current Supermium on XP yesterday, but it was practically unusable, with most settings just not there. When I tried youtube on it, it just froze up with the CPU stuck at 100%. After restarting Supermium, the screen would not appear, so I gave it up as a very bad joke and uninstalled it. Been trying out R3dfox on win7 and Vista, seems ok apart from a little bug on Vista. Also tried MyPal on XP, seems ok too.

The user agreed when they clicked yes to install it.
That users dont know what theyre installing is down to the user. They can opt out if they want to.

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-12, 00:14:

It's ironic that modern CPUs have become quite power efficient, but this has been more than offset by the bloat and the wastage that the modern web enforces. Therefore, using a "light" de-bloated browser saves your sanity in dollars and cents as well as time in wading through a quagmire of ridiculous scripting and Java crap ads.

My observation is that CPUs have been getting less power-efficient since around 2022. Everyone is out of ideas to keep up with software bloat, and now we're at the point where we just get 20-30% higher power consumption for less than 5% performance gain.

Then you have Firefox with its ridiculous RAM usage while people make memes about Chrome being a RAM hog instead.

lti wrote on Yesterday, 16:02:

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything. […]
Show full quote

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-12, 00:14:

It's ironic that modern CPUs have become quite power efficient, but this has been more than offset by the bloat and the wastage that the modern web enforces. Therefore, using a "light" de-bloated browser saves your sanity in dollars and cents as well as time in wading through a quagmire of ridiculous scripting and Java crap ads.

My observation is that CPUs have been getting less power-efficient since around 2022. Everyone is out of ideas to keep up with software bloat, and now we're at the point where we just get 20-30% higher power consumption for less than 5% performance gain.

Then you have Firefox with its ridiculous RAM usage while people make memes about Chrome being a RAM hog instead.

firefox uses 1.1 GB of ram according to what i see in htop. Eventually we will all have our own little personal llm / ai for god knows what.

lti wrote on Yesterday, 16:02:

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything. […]
Show full quote

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-12, 00:14:

It's ironic that modern CPUs have become quite power efficient, but this has been more than offset by the bloat and the wastage that the modern web enforces. Therefore, using a "light" de-bloated browser saves your sanity in dollars and cents as well as time in wading through a quagmire of ridiculous scripting and Java crap ads.

My observation is that CPUs have been getting less power-efficient since around 2022. Everyone is out of ideas to keep up with software bloat, and now we're at the point where we just get 20-30% higher power consumption for less than 5% performance gain.

Then you have Firefox with its ridiculous RAM usage while people make memes about Chrome being a RAM hog instead.

Even on a browser install you have to agree to its TOS.

ElectroSoldier wrote on Yesterday, 18:52:

lti wrote on Yesterday, 16:02:

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything. […]
Show full quote

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-12, 00:14:

It's ironic that modern CPUs have become quite power efficient, but this has been more than offset by the bloat and the wastage that the modern web enforces. Therefore, using a "light" de-bloated browser saves your sanity in dollars and cents as well as time in wading through a quagmire of ridiculous scripting and Java crap ads.

My observation is that CPUs have been getting less power-efficient since around 2022. Everyone is out of ideas to keep up with software bloat, and now we're at the point where we just get 20-30% higher power consumption for less than 5% performance gain.

Then you have Firefox with its ridiculous RAM usage while people make memes about Chrome being a RAM hog instead.

Even on a browser install you have to agree to its TOS.

Terms of service now you got me arguing whether bambu labs bambu studio is Free under agpl or the terms of service take precedent

twiz11 wrote on Yesterday, 22:10:

ElectroSoldier wrote on Yesterday, 18:52:

lti wrote on Yesterday, 16:02:

I don't use Chrome, but nothing I've seen said that the user ever agreed to anything.

My observation is that CPUs have been getting less power-efficient since around 2022. Everyone is out of ideas to keep up with software bloat, and now we're at the point where we just get 20-30% higher power consumption for less than 5% performance gain.

Then you have Firefox with its ridiculous RAM usage while people make memes about Chrome being a RAM hog instead.

Even on a browser install you have to agree to its TOS.

Terms of service now you got me arguing whether bambu labs bambu studio is Free under agpl or the terms of service take precedent

Couldnt care less about OT subjects.
All I know is the TOS = agree, or you can opt out.

Saying you were not given a choice is clearly wrong.
You might not have understood the choice, or understood you were making one but that doesnt mean it didnt happen.

twiz11 wrote on Yesterday, 18:11:

Eventually we will all have our own little personal llm / ai for god knows what.

I'm surprised we don't already since this was worked on in Chrome for a while. I guess now that they're pushing the model and not just the framework things are moving ahead. It's a few outrage cycles ahead but nothing's being said about AI summarization yet, no doubt a big use case for an in-browser model. Means AI silently mediates discussions even if nobody uses the more obvious text gen.