@noracodes firefox / chrome isn’t why the web is full of bloat though. the web is full of bloat because no amount of free software can let you influence what somebody else's server sends you, or what requirements they put on letting you access their systems. (free software actually just lets somebody else's server send you even MORE code you don't want to run, because they don’t even have to write it themselves.) no amount of licensing can fix this. software projects built entirely around the four freedoms have no answer to this problem, and largely do not even recognize it AS a problem, or pretend that if you are running an open source browser, that somehow gives you power over what is happening on corporations’ servers. it doesn’t.

software CANNOT replace infrastructure and the free software movement has had ZERO interest in providing well-funded, reliable, maintained network infrastructure for everyday people. instead it is obsessed with an egocentric, libertarian model which concerns itself only with individuals and what they can self-host and what rights they have regarding their own machines.