[HN Gopher] Tell HN: I just updated my wife's Chrome, and uBlock...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Tell HN: I just updated my wife's Chrome, and uBlock is no longer
       supported
        
       It seems the day has arrived. Merry Christmas from the folks at
       Google, I guess.
        
       Author : christophilus
       Score  : 181 points
       Date   : 2024-12-25 02:49 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
       | randomcatuser wrote:
       | yeah same... but then i got an ad for Pie, which i guess works to
       | block youtube ads
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | Discussion (119 points, 79 days ago, 62 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41757178
        
       | peutetre wrote:
       | Friends don't let friends use Chrome. Use Firefox. uBlock Origin
       | works best with Firefox:
       | 
       | https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...
        
         | ornornor wrote:
         | Unfortunately Firefox is slower than chromium and the devtools
         | are worse. I used Firefox for years because I hate google. I
         | eventually gave up, that's how bad ff is.
        
           | Zardoz84 wrote:
           | I think that Firefox dev tools are better
        
             | Alex-Programs wrote:
             | Yeah, I'm used to the Firefox ones and whenever I use the
             | chrome ones they seem fine, worse in some ways but better
             | in others (device emulation) while being a little
             | unfamiliar.
             | 
             | The webextension dev tools are better too, imo.
        
             | ramon156 wrote:
             | My average friend doesn't care about devtools, only if they
             | can watch YouTube in silence
        
           | winrid wrote:
           | FF actually uses hardware acceleration on my machine and
           | chrome won't for some reason, so FF is actually faster for
           | some!
        
         | bartvk wrote:
         | Yeah, I don't get all this fuss. I mean, if you block ads then
         | do you think Chrome will also stop reporting to the mothership?
         | Of course not. Use Firefox and simple be done with all this
         | hoohah.
        
           | pavel_lishin wrote:
           | > _I mean, if you block ads then do you think Chrome will
           | also stop reporting to the mothership?_
           | 
           | I'm mostly interested in improving my browsing experience.
           | Viewing the web without an adblocker is a nightmare, it makes
           | some websites nigh-unusable.
           | 
           | The privacy issue _is_ an issue, but it 's not one that
           | actively prevents me from reading things online.
        
             | harrisi wrote:
             | > The privacy issue is an issue, but it's not one that
             | actively prevents me from reading things online.
             | 
             | Yet.
        
           | Dalewyn wrote:
           | Blocking malvertisements is a matter of _safety_ , I
           | personally find the privacy aspect secondary to that.
        
       | not_your_vase wrote:
       | That definitely shows why Google isn't abusing its monopoly
       | powers, and why it shouldn't be broken up.
        
         | syvanen wrote:
         | It's so weird to observe how Alphabet doesn't seem to even try
         | to keep its parts separated.
         | 
         | Amazon at least tries keeps its companies separated from each
         | other. AWS account teams doesn't know what Amazon teams do and
         | vice versa.
         | 
         | While Google Cloud account team constantly gets involved with
         | Workspaces, Ads and Google Play related stuff.
         | 
         | If I remember right just few years ago Google was told to stop
         | giving cheaper prices on Google Cloud based on customers Ads
         | and Google Play revenue.
        
           | jsnell wrote:
           | > While Google Cloud account team constantly gets involved
           | with Workspaces, Ads and Google Play related stuff.
           | 
           | Not sure what you mean. Do you have a couple of concrete
           | examples of that?
           | 
           | > If I remember right just few years ago Google was told to
           | stop giving cheaper prices on Google Cloud based on customers
           | Ads and Google Play revenue.
           | 
           | This one you've definitely just made up.
        
             | lobsterthief wrote:
             | I see offers (or "ads") for Google Ads inside of the Google
             | Cloud Platform Dashboard all the time.
        
             | syvanen wrote:
             | > This one you've definitely just made up.
             | 
             | It was called "Project Hug". Based on the different sources
             | it contained credits for all the google offerings such as
             | Ads, Youtube and Google Cloud in exchange for keeping apps
             | on the Google Play platform.
             | 
             | Different repots on this:
             | https://www.gamesindustry.biz/google-reportedly-paid-
             | activis... https://gizmodo.com/google-denies-its-project-
             | hug-bribed-20-... https://www.theverge.com/23959932/epic-v-
             | google-trial-antitr...
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | Everyone that is shipping Electron garbage, and has focused on
         | Chrome as The Best Experience, is to blame.
        
           | talldayo wrote:
           | Situation: People are getting fat from choosing to eat too
           | much bacon
           | 
           | "Pitiful, though with a thankfully straightforward cure. We
           | arrest all pig farmers, meat packers and delivery drivers
           | while inspecting all refrigerated cargo at checkpoints. We
           | shall demolish any restaurant serving pork, blame each person
           | who has ever eaten a slice regardless of their health, and
           | demonize every salty and fatty food."
           | 
           | "Yes, my stance is drastic. But once we remove the _burden_
           | of choice from our citizens, they will be empowered to make
           | new, more valuable decisions with their life. Bacon will
           | never be a problem again. "
           | 
           | New situation: People have quit bacon and started smoking
           | cigarettes
        
             | pjmlp wrote:
             | In fact, governments do step in to fix behaviours when
             | their citizens go overboard.
        
           | Spivak wrote:
           | I don't ship any Electron app at $dayjob so while I could
           | afford to sit on a high horse I don't think it's warranted.
           | Electron really isn't an issue, it doesn't really help
           | Chrome's position as a browser in any meaningful way. It
           | doesn't drive people to use the Chrome "chrome" which is
           | where the money is.
           | 
           | It's why despite Edge being built on Chrome they're pushing
           | it _hard_ because owning the space around the browser window
           | is the goal.
        
             | pjmlp wrote:
             | Anything that pushes chrome helps Chrome gain market share.
        
         | ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
         | You dropped this:
         | 
         | /s
        
       | Krustopolis wrote:
       | Happened to me a couple of days ago. I installed Ublock Lite and
       | it seems "good enough".
        
         | bn-l wrote:
         | It doesn't do content blocking unfortunately.
        
           | quenix wrote:
           | What do you mean?
        
         | thebytefairy wrote:
         | For the vast majority of users Lite does the job just fine.
        
       | Flimm wrote:
       | Reminder: uBlock and uBlock Origin are different extensions from
       | different developers.
        
       | tech234a wrote:
       | The removal can be bypassed until June 2025:
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1d49ud1/manif...
        
         | peutetre wrote:
         | Bypass Chrome altogether. Use Firefox.
        
           | infotainment wrote:
           | If only Mozilla (the parent organization) wasn't horrible.
           | 
           | Can't a non-crazy nonprofit make a browser?
        
             | wkat4242 wrote:
             | What's so horrible about it? I don't like how they're
             | pampering to the ad industry now but other than that I
             | think they're pretty decent.
        
               | 6510 wrote:
               | If I donate to your project I hope the money goes towards
               | your project. If you spend it on beer or buy Jacuzzi I'm
               | happy too. If you chose to spend it on other projects ill
               | be excited to learn what they are.
               | 
               | https://future.mozilla.org/projects/
               | 
               | Do you use any of that? Is there anything there I should
               | be using? (honest question) It seems premature to donate
               | to things I don't know.
               | 
               | > Solo helps entrepreneurs expand their web presence with
               | a suite of AI-backed tools for building websites,
               | optimizing for SEO, and showcasing your best work.
               | 
               | > Solo will instantly create a beautiful website so you
               | can grow your business.
               | 
               | > Improve brand visibility: SEO keywords are
               | automatically added to help drive search traffic. View
               | statistics by connecting a Google Analytics account.
               | 
               | I'm very biased no doubt, it reads like I donate to
               | progress the commercial web, more canned template
               | websites, product SEO and to promote the use of google
               | analytics. I'm sure it is awesome to some people, to me
               | it is the opposite, I'm sure it is a project that should
               | exist some place but I don't want to pay for it.
               | 
               | The web browser can still be infinitely improved.
        
               | krabizzwainch wrote:
               | Clicked the future projects link. Thought the DidThis
               | project sounded interesting. Aaaannnddd it's already a
               | dead project as of 2 months ago.
        
               | emptysongglass wrote:
               | I mean Llamafile is great and is built on fantastic tech,
               | but no I definitely want my Mozilla money to go to
               | Firefox, not what Thing is currently in vogue by Mozilla
               | execs.
        
               | debugnik wrote:
               | > If I donate to your project I hope the money goes
               | towards your project.
               | 
               | Firefox is not a project of the Mozilla Foundation, but
               | the Mozilla Corporation, so you just can't donate to
               | Firefox at all; in fact, the money flows the opposite
               | direction between them. I know it's frustrating but this
               | argument is misleading yet keeps showing up in every
               | thread.
        
               | infotainment wrote:
               | They also fired a whole bunch of software engineers
               | (including everyone working on Servo), and then massively
               | boosted their executives' salaries, so that was certainly
               | something.
        
               | peutetre wrote:
               | As a criticism that applies equally to Google.
               | 
               | Google lays off engineers:
               | https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/11/24034124/google-
               | layoffs-e...
               | 
               | Google boosts their executive's compensation:
               | https://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-google-
               | executive-pa...
        
             | PittleyDunkin wrote:
             | Mozilla can't be worse than google (or brave/opera etc)
        
             | fnqi8ckfek wrote:
             | Mozilla let's me use ublock origin, Google doesn't.
        
             | mazambazz wrote:
             | I think you need to be a little bit crazy to enter the
             | browser space. It's not for the feint of heart.
        
               | christophilus wrote:
               | *faint of heart
        
             | weikju wrote:
             | > Can't a non-crazy nonprofit make a browser?
             | 
             | Here's to hoping LadyBird remains non crazy and can be
             | relevant by the time of their planned alpha release in
             | 2026.
        
               | lobsterthief wrote:
               | To be honest it needs a different name if it's going to
               | hit critical mass adoption with the average consumer.
        
               | rascul wrote:
               | What's wrong with ladybird?
        
               | catlikesshrimp wrote:
               | Netscape, Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, All have a pop
               | appeal to them (the names)
               | 
               | "Ladybug" makes a reference to a bug. And not a thrilling
               | one.
        
               | rascul wrote:
               | It's bird though, not bug.
        
               | ac29 wrote:
               | Ladybird is the UK term for what Americans call Ladybugs
        
               | freehorse wrote:
               | Then it is going to be adopted everywhere fine except the
               | UK.
        
               | em-bee wrote:
               | huh? of all the bugs in the world, ladybugs are among the
               | most popular, the majority of them are harmless and prey
               | on agricultural pests. at least where i come from the
               | association with "ladybug" is "cute".
        
               | o999 wrote:
               | Ladyfeature
        
               | youngtaff wrote:
               | You might want to read back through the history of its
               | creator
        
             | mynameyeff wrote:
             | What are your qualms with Brave Browser?
        
               | rascul wrote:
               | I'm not convinced that it's much more than a Chrome skin
               | with an integrated crypto scam.
        
               | bufferoverflow wrote:
               | You don't have to use the crypto features.
        
               | Meph504 wrote:
               | when the defense of a project is that you can turn off
               | the bad features, you aren't really making a chase better
               | than say chrome or anything else.
               | 
               | A product built on trust, shouldn't involve having to go
               | turn off untrustworthy elements.
        
               | mynameyeff wrote:
               | The crypto part isn't something you turn off. It's buried
               | in a menu somewhere. For all intents and purposes, it's a
               | pretty elegant UX.
        
               | Ageodene wrote:
               | You don't need to "turn off the bad features" because
               | they are opt-in to begin with.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | I shouldn't need to opt into or out of features that
               | shouldn't exist in the first place, much less in a
               | browser.
        
               | IronRod wrote:
               | I've used Brave for years. Never used any of the crypto
               | features. It is just a solid, privacy-based, chromium-
               | based browser.
        
               | freehorse wrote:
               | At the very least, I do not trust a browser that was
               | putting affiliate links to unsuspecting users' urls [0].
               | Plus I tbh I am really sick of everything tending to be
               | chromium-derivatives nowadays and I think it is good to
               | have greater diversity, to exactly avoid situation susch
               | as the one here.
               | 
               | https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/10134
        
           | jldl805 wrote:
           | Firefox on ChromeOS sucks though. Just went through this,
           | tried Canary, etc. Went back to Chrome.
        
             | olyjohn wrote:
             | Bypass ChromeOS alltogether. Use a different Linux distro.
        
             | likeabatterycar wrote:
             | Just ChromeOS? Firefox on _Mac_ sucks.
             | 
             | Here is one example: Firefox's tracking of the mouse cursor
             | is broken, and often (yes, it's inconsistent) applies a
             | vector translation so when trying to click something like a
             | button or menu, the cursor needs to be about 100 x-y pixels
             | away from the target. Only Firefox native UI is affected.
             | These are My_First_Program.app tier bugs that should not
             | exist in mature, 20 year old software.
             | 
             | Phoenix 0.1 didn't have this many beginner bugs. Mozilla
             | has lost its way and only continues to exist because Google
             | funds them to be a paper tiger competitor. Opera sold out
             | to the Chinese. Microsoft gave up and now simps Google.
             | Apple only supports their own platform. What is left?
        
               | grecy wrote:
               | I've been using Firefox on OS X since forever (never
               | jumped to chrome and back) and I've never experienced
               | this. Is there a bug report? Surely this would get a lot
               | of attention.
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | > Here is one example: Firefox's tracking of the mouse
               | cursor is broken, and often (yes, it's inconsistent)
               | applies a vector translation so when trying to click
               | something like a button or menu, the cursor needs to be
               | about 100 x-y pixels away from the target. Only Firefox
               | native UI is affected. These are My_First_Program.app
               | tier bugs that should not exist in mature, 20 year old
               | software.
               | 
               | While I've not noticed that myself, just yesterday I
               | noticed something similarly weird.
               | 
               | I had a Safari window that was persistently half the
               | screen width and height away from where the mouse was. As
               | in: click to drag, and the whole window jumped half the
               | screen down and to the right, so I couldn't get it to any
               | other quadrant of any screen. Fixed on restarting the
               | app.
               | 
               | I don't know if that was an app bug or an OS bug, but in
               | either case it's Apple's fault.
               | 
               | How did we get to this?
        
               | stuartd wrote:
               | Been using Firefox as my browser since 0.2 (Minefield,
               | Phoenix was later) on Mac since around 10.3 and I don't
               | recognise what you're seeing at all?
        
               | benterix wrote:
               | Can you provide a link to a bug report? I've been using
               | FF on macOS for years and haven't noticed that. Maybe
               | it's just a bug on a random site?
        
               | likeabatterycar wrote:
               | Maybe I wasn't clear - this bug affects me personally,
               | it's not some random tale I read in a forum. No, it
               | doesn't affect the site or page rendering at all. Only
               | the Firefox-native dialogs - like the bookmarks dialog
               | and the hamburger menu - are affected. The bug is likely
               | in XUL. Unfortunately I am too busy to dig through
               | Bugzilla, make an account, etc. only for the bug to be
               | ignored for years like the others...
        
               | slenk wrote:
               | > Unfortunately I am too busy to dig through Bugzilla,
               | make an account, etc. only for the bug to be ignored for
               | years like the others...
               | 
               | So, if no one reports the bug, how do you expect the bug
               | to get fixed? Instead, you just keep harking back on that
               | unfixed bug whenever Firefox conversations come up and
               | you can be like "but this bug has been around and no one
               | has fixed it"
        
               | jiggawatts wrote:
               | Are you kidding?
               | 
               | Firefox is notorious for having bugs open in core
               | features for over a decade! I've found outright broken
               | code, narrowed it down to the specific line, included
               | documentation references, repro steps, etc... only to be
               | totally ignored by the devs. I did get comments from
               | several thousand other frustrated users, but never a
               | Mozilla employee other than the occasional generic or
               | automated housekeeping message.
               | 
               | Sadly the Mozilla Foundation has been overrun by special
               | interest groups that simply want to suckle at the teat of
               | Google funding. Millions of dollars are allocated to
               | outright corruption, but very nearly zero to development
               | of Firefox itself.
               | 
               | It's a slow but certain road from here to a sad end.
               | 
               | Why would I or anyone else pretend otherwise? At the
               | expense of our own time and effort no less?
        
               | GranPC wrote:
               | FWIW I used to experience the same thing sporadically on
               | Mac, about 10 years ago. Not just you - but a rare bug.
        
               | anal_reactor wrote:
               | For me, the scroll randomly breaks and stops work all
               | together for a minute.
        
               | hadrien01 wrote:
               | I've seen the exact same problem on my mother's Mac and
               | it's making her crazy. Haven't found a corresponding bug
               | report, but it's sort of reassuring she's not alone with
               | that annoying bug
        
               | likeabatterycar wrote:
               | Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy.
        
               | yumraj wrote:
               | So one inconsistent bug, that only happens for a small
               | subset and there's no bug report filed makes FF suck on
               | Macs.
               | 
               | Hyperbole much?
        
             | Kwpolska wrote:
             | Get a real computer.
        
             | youngtaff wrote:
             | A decent alternative to ChromeOS would be a great thing
        
           | fp64 wrote:
           | How can I swap ^W and ^D in Firefox? For Chrome I found an
           | extension that works (...worked?) fine, the only thing for
           | Firefox I found would be compiling it myself, which I find a
           | much worse experience than compiling Chromium myself (neither
           | of which I like doing)
        
             | pavel_lishin wrote:
             | What do those do?
        
               | fp64 wrote:
               | ^w is delete word in vim/bash/everywhere else. It's
               | terrible whenever I accidentally type this in the browser
               | and the window closes. I typically close terminal windows
               | with ctrl-d so I have this mapped in my browser as well.
               | It's really muscle memory and I do not want to change it
        
               | slenk wrote:
               | By that same logic, ^w is used as close window everywhere
               | else
        
               | fp64 wrote:
               | Not for me, I hardly use anything GUI apart from my
               | browser. Can't actually think of anything right now apart
               | from some niche tools. Either way, the fact that I can
               | customise it that easily in Chrome but not in Firefox is
               | a huge factor why I don't like using Firefox
        
             | nonamesleft wrote:
             | Patch localization/en-US/browser/browserSets.ftl in your
             | browser/omni.ja (a .zip with a weird file extension), it
             | contains stuff like: close-shortcut = .key = W
             | 
             | See: https://github.com/SebastianSimon/firefox-omni-tweaks
             | how it can be done.
             | 
             | I do this myself as ctrl-n has to be new tab for me,
             | forever, and firefox broke the old keyconfig extension
             | years and years ago. (I had ctrl-n create tabs with an
             | external window manager back in netscape 4 times and opera
             | (pre-chrome-fork one) after that.)
        
               | fp64 wrote:
               | Amazing, thank you!
        
         | redserk wrote:
         | This is just kicking the can down the road.
         | 
         | The bigger question is how the Chromium forks are going to
         | respond long-term. I suspect the APIs enabling ad blocking are
         | only going to get more clamped down requiring additional work
         | for forks.
        
           | tech234a wrote:
           | Policy-installed extensions can continue to use the
           | WebRequest blocking APIs on Manifest V3 [1], so I would
           | expect that the underlying code for the API would remain
           | available for forks to use.
           | 
           | [1] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/ap
           | i/w...
        
           | IronRod wrote:
           | Brave has committed to do what they can as long as they can.
           | But unsure how long and what that really turns out to be.
           | https://brave.com/blog/brave-shields-manifest-v3/
        
             | mindcrash wrote:
             | Like I said before, Brave even has a better solution
             | because it has a uBlock compatible ad blocker _built in
             | straight into its core_ (but its disabled by default). Same
             | block lists, same safety assurances.
             | 
             | Although I still use Firefox with uBlock as my daily driver
             | at home, Brave with block lists and Shields is right next
             | to it (and I use it as my daily driver at work). It works
             | pretty damn well!
        
             | sebazzz wrote:
             | That is easy talking from Brave as long as it is still a
             | config flag, then after a compile-time flag. Once the
             | internal APIs for MV2 or where MV2 get removed or changed
             | it becomes very difficult to maintain. Never mind the
             | possible security issues you introduce, but won't get so
             | quickly discovered, because Brave is a smaller target.
        
         | sss111 wrote:
         | and its really easy on MacOS, you just have to run
         | defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist
         | ExtensionManifestV2Availability -int 2
         | 
         | Another case where windows makes simple things unnecessarily
         | cumbersome
        
           | wqaatwt wrote:
           | You can't edit config files on Windows from the terminal?
           | 
           | Not really an expert but PowerShell always seemed kind of
           | more "powerful" and/or complex than bash
        
             | sss111 wrote:
             | These are the instructions for Windows from OP's reddit
             | post: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-
             | issues/discussions/29...
             | 
             | So much more complicated.
        
               | SturgeonsLaw wrote:
               | It's a one liner in Powershell
               | 
               | New-ItemProperty -Path
               | "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome" -Name
               | "ExtensionManifestV2Availability" -Value 2 -PropertyType
               | DWORD -Force
        
               | Dalewyn wrote:
               | >So much more complicated.
               | 
               | Are you one of those guys[1] who doesn't understand files
               | and folders?
               | 
               | Seriously, the only thing you're exhibiting is your
               | abject ignorance of Windows and possibly computers in
               | general which are not something you should be proud of.
               | 
               | [1]: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/09/27/2032200/stu
               | dents-do...
        
             | squiffsquiff wrote:
             | Powershell is more equivalent to Python than BASH TBH
        
       | darthrupert wrote:
       | Switch to ublock origin lite. It's pretty much as good.
       | https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/...
       | 
       | People who are strongly suggesting firefox have probably not been
       | in a relationship.
        
         | Zardoz84 wrote:
         | People suggesting that using uBlock Lite and not Firefox with
         | full uBlock, probably not has been in an abusive relationship.
        
           | grayhatter wrote:
           | or have, and that's why they can recognize the warning signs
           | that op can't.
        
       | wklm wrote:
       | Could someone explain in simple terms, what's so tricky about
       | spinning off a v2-compatible chromium fork?
        
         | Jyaif wrote:
         | Forget about forking, just offering a build of Chromium for a
         | single platform and architecture that gets the security updates
         | in time is a lot of work.
        
         | wruza wrote:
         | People who remove v2, own ad networks, develop chrome and write
         | standards are the same people. It's new age mafia, cancer of
         | the internet and they do everything for you to not be able to
         | just spin off a fork.
        
           | efilife wrote:
           | So what would they do?
        
             | wruza wrote:
             | Already done: used lying tactics to make their browser and
             | ad networks dominate, bloated the standard to make browser
             | development unsustainable.
             | 
             | Right now: rooting out the entire possibility of running
             | full adblock-capable extensions from the sources, so that
             | even chrome-based browsers could not support it back.
        
         | HDThoreaun wrote:
         | Chromium is maintained by the largest ad company in the world.
        
       | Jahak wrote:
       | Oh no! That's really disappointing!
        
       | pogue wrote:
       | Both Brave & Opera have built in adblockers that are not
       | dependent on Manifest to run. I haven't played with Opera too
       | much, but Brave lets you add custom lists and works quite well.
       | Combine that with a DNS based adblocker such as HaGeZi [1] or
       | OISD from free DNS providers like ControlD or NextDNS and you'll
       | be golden.
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists?tab=readme-ov-
       | file#...
        
         | mancerayder wrote:
         | I'm using Brave and have no idea why you got downvoted. People
         | are talking like Chrome and FF are the only two things on
         | Earth.
        
           | mancerayder wrote:
           | The silent downvote curse spreads.
           | 
           | Can someone kindly speak up and explain?
           | 
           |  _What 's wrong with talking about Brave_?
        
             | cwillu wrote:
             | I downvote comments that disregard the hn guidelines.
             | 
             | "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It
             | never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
        
         | octopoc wrote:
         | Yeah plus Brave on iPhone auto blocks ads. No extensions or
         | configuration needed. Not sure if Firefox does that.
        
       | NotYourLawyer wrote:
       | Chrome is trash, download Firefox and never look back.
        
       | r0ckarong wrote:
       | Just use Firefox ffs.
        
       | KurtMueller wrote:
       | Come join the Firefox revolution!
        
         | irobeth wrote:
         | It really is amazing how things have come full circle from the
         | point where chrome positioned itself as a "Libre" alternative
         | to the IE near-monopoly
         | 
         | There was a point between IE and chrome when Mozilla was always
         | in the near-foreground offering alternatives to every internet
         | hegemony, right around web 2.0, kinda makes me optimistic for
         | the internet to see a resurgence of recommendations
        
           | ffsm8 wrote:
           | Huh, I don't remember that narrative at all...
           | 
           | From how I remember it, we started with Netscape, IE
           | outcompeted that by adding new features until they had enough
           | share to strangle the competition. By that time IE became
           | mandatory because of their extensions. Windows systems
           | couldn't get updates without opening IE.
           | 
           | Eventually it (IE) fossilized and Firefox became the better
           | browser with more features (remember that debugging
           | extension?) but was still pretty slow.
           | 
           | Then came chrome. Way way faster, sleek and modern UI,
           | removing the search and tool-bars. Hiding bookmarks by
           | default and putting everything into the Omni bar. Really,
           | that was what everyone I know of cared about:
           | responsiveness/speed and that sleek UI.
           | 
           | Finally Firefox improved its resource usage/speed and
           | adjusted it's UI, taking inspiration from chrome... But by
           | that time, it's popularity had already dropped massively.
        
         | grounder wrote:
         | Try Firefox Nightly for the native sidebar vertical tabs. That
         | and native tab containers make Firefox work really well for me.
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | Uh, YT on FF is unusable now. They'll show the "adblockers not
         | allowed" message if you have Ghostery enabled. Even if you
         | disable that, they will add tons of artificial lag on things
         | like key input, clicks and screen draw speed. I know it's
         | artificial because it worked fine for years and then one
         | day....
        
           | snailmailman wrote:
           | I've had zero issues or ads lately using Firefox + uBlock
           | origin. For a while I had to update the Adblock lists
           | manually sometimes, but for months now it's been flawless for
           | me.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | Just wait a day and uBlock will update its filters. That's
           | what happened to me initially. In the meantime I had a yt-dlp
           | script for videos I wanted to watch. Tubular on mobile also
           | works fine.
        
         | Alifatisk wrote:
         | Try out Zen browser, built on Firefox but closer to Arc.
        
           | scoobydooxp wrote:
           | It took a while to get used to vertical tabs but once that
           | took, I have moved completely to Zen. It was good to see it
           | move from alpha to beta recently.
        
             | satvikpendem wrote:
             | Too bad they removed the ability to open the vertical tabs
             | side bar on hover, that was a critical feature that caused
             | me to go back to Firefox proper. I'll go back to Zen once
             | they add it but to be honest, I'm not too sure what extra
             | value Zen would bring me.
        
         | Am4TIfIsER0ppos wrote:
         | Yeah if you want the same fate in about a year
        
       | singleshot_ wrote:
       | What can uBlock Origin do that one couldn't do with a
       | sufficiently sophisticated SSL-terminating forward proxy?
        
         | crtasm wrote:
         | Remove elements added dynamically without entirely blocking the
         | script that produces them.
        
         | HDThoreaun wrote:
         | Using a proxy to do DNS blocking has significant failures
         | modes. They wont work on youtube because youtube uses the same
         | endpoint to serve the videos and ads for starters.
        
         | grayhatter wrote:
         | provide a UI within the browser chrome
        
       | wruza wrote:
       | I guess Vivaldi awaits the same fate.
       | 
       | I don't want to switch from it, especially to Firefox, so much.
       | It's in little things like context menus, gestures (don't tell me
       | about that "crx" extension crapware), tab order/cycle behaviors,
       | downloads ux, bookmarks ux, customization, etc etc.
       | 
       | These "default" browsers always feel like Crysis 3 gameplay
       | wrapped into a primitive text adventure interface.
        
       | barrenko wrote:
       | Seriously, what is a good alternative to Chrome's password
       | management? For lazy end users.
        
         | isubkhankulov wrote:
         | 1password if you are willing to pay for it. If you're not,
         | Bitwarden is just as good and it's free / open source.
        
           | barrenko wrote:
           | Thank you all for the suggestions.
        
         | shitlord wrote:
         | I set up Bitwarden for my dad who keeps forgetting his
         | passwords. It seems to work well on his PC and Android phone.
        
         | leohart wrote:
         | I have always found Bitwarden to be the best one after trying
         | many alternatives. One thing that stood out is how its phone
         | app works seamlessly with FaceID/Fingerprint. From logged out
         | to login is as smooth as allowing your phone to use biometrics.
         | 
         | Bitwarden seems to be getting updates often as well which I
         | value in a security conscious product.
        
       | mancerayder wrote:
       | Brave seems to work well with its privacy shield and a button to
       | turn scripts off as-needed.
       | 
       | People only focus on Firefox as an alternative. Am I missing
       | something?
        
         | pixxel wrote:
         | Brave CEO once said some mild hurty words about a fragile
         | group, and so the lefty hive must not publicly support his
         | endeavours (whilst using his JavaScript all day long lol).
        
           | mancerayder wrote:
           | I haven't the first clue about the politics but I'm guessing
           | the response is more toxic than the original message.
        
       | enriqueycombi wrote:
       | Lame.
       | 
       | Try using NextDNS to block ads entirely instead of just in
       | Chrome.
       | 
       | Also, duck.com has a browser extension that can do this. You
       | could also just use their browser instead.
        
         | rcxdude wrote:
         | DNS-level blocking is more or less what Chrome's more limited
         | API allows you to do. Full-fat adblockers can do a lot more.
        
         | snailmailman wrote:
         | There are many types of ads that _cannot_ be blocked by dns-
         | based blockers. Just like there are ads that can't be blocked
         | by the new "ublock lite" that is allowed in manifest v3.
         | 
         | uBlock origin can do more complex ad detection and removal, and
         | is the most thorough approach for anything in the browser.
        
       | delduca wrote:
       | Wipr for the win, Chrome nevermore.
        
         | Meph504 wrote:
         | The irony is it isn't for the win(dows)
        
         | raydev wrote:
         | Last time I tried Wipr+Safari, it didn't match the power of
         | uBO+Chrome.
        
       | SnowingXIV wrote:
       | There has to be google engineers here. Does this just fall on
       | deaf ears? I realize it's a massive corp but imagine high ranking
       | staff have a say and input. Maybe they don't and Sundar isn't
       | worried about that. Or they do a simple cost analysis and short-
       | term they see the benefit and are willing to to risk long term
       | erosion that maybe be minimal.
       | 
       | Weird returning to Firefox, but I did and there is nothing in
       | chrome I miss.
        
         | acheron wrote:
         | If only Stalin knew!
        
         | oliwarner wrote:
         | Google is an advertising agency. It's a miracle blockers lasted
         | this long.
        
         | Raed667 wrote:
         | by now they have made tons of user-hostile changes, just to see
         | the line keep going up, they know that there is a loud vocal
         | minority, but most users are totally fine with MV3 if they even
         | notice a change at all.
        
         | whamlastxmas wrote:
         | Google is deliberately doing this to break ad blocking for
         | Google ads while still allowing ad blockers to work for non
         | Google ads. Most users probably won't care enough to change
         | browsers or many won't really notice
        
           | ac29 wrote:
           | > Google is deliberately doing this to break ad blocking for
           | Google ads
           | 
           | If so, they are doing a crap job of it because uBlock Origin
           | Lite successfully blocks all of the search ads on google.com
        
             | SSchick wrote:
             | They were pretty much forced to do this slowly and
             | gradually. There was a large amount of external pushback
             | and some internal too (though money controls here).
        
           | fransje26 wrote:
           | > Google is deliberately doing this to break ad blocking for
           | Google ads while still allowing ad blockers to work for non
           | Google ads.
           | 
           | That's the best way to get antitrust breathing down your
           | neck.
           | 
           | So, with talks of Google monopoly ramping up, either this is
           | extremely shortsighted and reckless, or they will choose to
           | not throw oil on the fire and will not go down that road.
        
             | talldayo wrote:
             | Believe it or not, the DOJ (and EU) have almost entirely
             | ignored AdSense and it's integration as a monopoly force.
             | They consider Chrome and Google Search to be the primary
             | source of harms - the war against adblock is perfectly
             | legal even if client-side modding should always be morally
             | correct.
        
         | ThrowawayR2 wrote:
         | FAANG engineers in general are remarkably well informed as to
         | who is buttering their bread. You may assume that Google
         | engineers are excruciatingly aware (particularly after several
         | rounds of layoffs) that their continued paychecks and stock
         | grant value depend on continuing to firehose advertising into
         | the face of the general public from every possible angle.
        
         | Spivak wrote:
         | Why do you think in the anti-trust lawsuit they're desperate to
         | avoid Chrome divestment? A project that on the surface _surely_
         | must be a massive cost center for them that doesn 't benefit
         | their advertising arm one bit. No sir, made out of the goodness
         | of their hearts and given away for free for nothing other than
         | promoting the open web.
        
         | siva7 wrote:
         | It's a giant corporation. Everyone who had a managerial role in
         | one of these mega corporations should know how such decisions
         | are made. Sundar sees finance numbers, numbers go up if we do
         | strategy x (block adblockers) , someone gets a promotion for
         | turning these numbers up. It's simple as that. Those people
         | have no clue and don't care about how you hackers here use
         | chrome.
        
         | hu3 wrote:
         | I'd say that a >=300k/y USD compensation is higher priority for
         | most than arguing with your bosses boss that manifest V3 is a
         | mistake.
        
         | gaws wrote:
         | > _There has to be google engineers here. Does this just fall
         | on deaf ears?_
         | 
         | Yes. Extension that blocks Google from making money from ads?
         | It's a no-brainer to upgrade the browser infrastructure to make
         | it obsolete.
        
         | olliej wrote:
         | So there are multiple factors here - I used to work on browsers
         | so have some experience here :D
         | 
         | First off, there are legitimate security concerns with the kind
         | of functionality required for effective ad blocking given the
         | immense work the ad industry (i.e google) have put into
         | preventing purely static filters is also very powerful for
         | exploitation. Those powers can (and have been) abused: the
         | recent news about "Honey" replacing affiliate links so that
         | they are getting paid for ads on peoples page, but also there
         | have been numerous examples over the last year of extensions
         | being sold and then having the extensions getting malware,
         | crypto miners, etc.
         | 
         | Second, there are real performance problems - the non-JS filter
         | rules are vastly more efficient, for memory usage, cpu usage,
         | and load time (I recall people doing benchmarks a while ago,
         | showing ad blocker extensions that actually slowed down page
         | loads).
         | 
         | So those are the engineering arguments for not supporting this
         | model of extension.
         | 
         | However, the engineers on the chrome team are not stupid, or
         | malicious, and understand that the trade offs are something
         | users want. But those engineers work for Google, and google is
         | an advertising company.
         | 
         | So it does not matter what those engineers want, or think is
         | better, if the company management says "you cannot block our
         | revenue model" they do not have a choice. Well, they could
         | quit, but that's basically it.
        
           | denkmoon wrote:
           | Does MV3 do anything to stop the behaviour of Honey?
        
       | CLiED wrote:
       | I'm superlatively surprised Google has followed through on what
       | it has promised to do over and over again.
        
         | kacesensitive wrote:
         | "I'm surprised they did what they said they would do" will be
         | the anthem of 2025 unfortunately
        
       | mindcrash wrote:
       | If you want a Chromium based browser Brave has a uBlock-esque
       | blocker built right into its core but it's disabled by default
       | because "Brave Shields is enough protection" (it isn't, given the
       | stats I see when enabled). Anyway, you can turn it on and it uses
       | the same blocklists uBlock uses aswell.
        
         | cbluth wrote:
         | Any reference or instructions on how to do that?
        
         | JPLeRouzic wrote:
         | > " _if you want a Chromium based browser_ '
         | 
         | There is also Vivaldi:
         | 
         | https://help.vivaldi.com
        
           | Filligree wrote:
           | Alas, it crashes every time I try to import my Chrome
           | profile.
        
           | zamalek wrote:
           | Vivaldi would not stop offering to sign me into google
           | automatically on sites that support it, it kept re-enabling
           | it somehow. How this is enabled on a privacy-aware browser is
           | beyond me. Brave is pretty good once you disable all the
           | crypto stuff.
        
         | nyarlathotep_ wrote:
         | Wait, really? There's something other than the default
         | "shields" thing? Where is this and how do I enable it? Been
         | using Brave for years with all the "aggressive" boxes checked
         | and I've never seen such an option anywhere.
        
       | cwillu wrote:
       | ~$ cat /etc/chromium/policies/managed/ubo-policies.json {
       | "ExtensionManifestV2Availability": 2 }
       | 
       | Will save you for another year.
        
         | kkfx wrote:
         | If I recall correctly only till June 2025, did they change the
         | date?
        
       | dizhn wrote:
       | There's some chrome attestation stuff I've been starting to see
       | for implementing security related services. The support for that
       | is probably bundled with this manifest v3 thing? Or is the device
       | attestation separate? If they are bundled, Firefox will disappear
       | even more in corporate and probably at home too.
        
       | olliej wrote:
       | I just use Safari and 1Blocker and everything works fine for me
       | :D
        
       | gaws wrote:
       | Replace Chrome with Firefox. Reinstall uBlock Origin. Problem
       | solved.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-25 23:01 UTC)