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uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

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Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: > The purpose of Instart Logic technology is to disguise 3rd-party requests as 1st-party requests, thus bypassing content blockers, and even the ability of browsers to block 3rd-party cookies (because they are stored as 1st-party cookies): https://github.com/gorhill/uBO-Extra/wiki/Sites-on-which-uBO...

How exactly does this work? The link mentions that it detects when Dev tools are opened and changes something?

Here are a few suggestions https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7798748/find-out-whether...

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#32
post #9

I found this disturbing: "Chromium-based browsers are being “infested” by Instart Logic tech which works around blockers and worst, around browser privacy settings (they may start “infecting” Firefox eventually, but that is not happening now)." From his linked post: "Instart Logic will detect when the developer console opens, and cleanup everything then to hide what it does" Is this implemented via a CDN-delivered sc…

It is indeed disturbing. Why should a web page be able to detect if dev tools has been opened? Isn't this a browser security issue?

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#33

> It baffles me that some people thinks Firefox is becoming a “Chrome clone”, it’s just not the case, it’s just plain silly to make such statement. That's probably the single most reassuring statement about Firefox that I've heard in some time, coming from a serious dev who makes a popular cross-platform addon for both Firefox and Chrome.

I think as an extension developer he is particularly sensitive to the tech behind Firefox, which makes him understand some of Mozilla's decisions. For example, the move from legacy add-ons to WebExtensions is surely one less maintenance burden for Mozilla. As a user who doesn't think about such issues, it terribly looks like it's becoming a Chrome clone. I think it's Mozilla's responsibility to have a clearer communi…

Also, the move to WebExtensions is a move to a more secure extension model. Traditional XUL extensions were comparable to the extension developer compiling their own code into the browser. Yikes.

WebExtensions should be better sandboxed and have better permissions management.

You can't get those security benefits if you allow older XUL extensions to stick around. You have to sunset XUL extension at some point.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I qualify as a poweruser by some standards, I tend to have 100's of tabs open and I've never left Firefox for speed reasons or others because it has held up extremely well over the years. My machine has a lot of RAM so maybe that's one reason things have been quick, and the main drive is an SSD. Is there anything specific about the 57 release that makes you feel caused the speed bottle-neck to disappear?

57 is lightning fast. Like, almost uncomfortably so on my machine. Broay this is because quantum is much further along in nightly than on the other channels. Specifically, they're more aggressive with multithreaded settings, multiprocess is enabled, and the quantum css component is turned on, too. Is also helps that we compare to chrome. On Linux chrome doesn't even do GPU rendering. So the HN crowd probably has a di…

Firefox has always been unbearably slow on Linux for me. It's the main reason I swapped to Chrome in the first place. I tried switching back to Firefox about 6 months ago, same problem of extremely slow and laggy UI. Interesting to hear 57 is faster now, it may be worth trying again.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#35

Huh. These actually sound like good arguments to switch to Firefox, arguments I've never heard before until now.

One thing I learned several years ago when I decided to jump on the bandwagon and try Chrome was that Chrome was unable to safely block javascript the way NoScript does because the plugin framework doesn't allow a plugin to block Javascript before it's loaded. So all the noscript equivalent for Chrome could offer was to block Javascript after it had loaded. Which seemed unreal and pointless. So I stayed on Firefox. B…

NoScript block all three: javascript, java and flash.

Javascript can be used to deliver/encode/decode exploit payload. Usually the exploit itself is java or flash.

At least, that's what I noticed for the zero day RCE that made it up to the first page of Google.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#37
post #9

I found this disturbing: "Chromium-based browsers are being “infested” by Instart Logic tech which works around blockers and worst, around browser privacy settings (they may start “infecting” Firefox eventually, but that is not happening now)." From his linked post: "Instart Logic will detect when the developer console opens, and cleanup everything then to hide what it does" Is this implemented via a CDN-delivered sc…

I still don't actually understand what "Instart Logic" is, can anyone explain it?

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#38
Web/browser Extensions is a terrible standard is it EXTREMELY limiting for power users.

While that my not impact a ad blocker, there are countless extensions that can not work with Web Extensions and will make Chrome err sorry Firefox far less appealing to people.

For me, more than a few of the extensions I use regularly are not compatible with Web Extensions, and a few of them that are critical to my productivity are in limbo still

That is the Source of the "Chrome Clone". The switch to Web Extensions is hated by many many firefox power users.

Sadly they feel the users that have stuck around all of these years, that did not abandoned them for Chrome are worthless, and have chosen to attempt to attract those users that did abandon FF for Chrome back. They are doing this by making a browser that is unappealing to me (and many others actual FF users, not Chrome Users who are the most vocal proponents of Firefox's current direction), a user that has been a FF loyalist since FF version 1.

I am not 100% sure I will switch to another browser, the options are very thin these days but it will be a sad day for me when FF57 is all that is left

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#39
post #38

Web/browser Extensions is a terrible standard is it EXTREMELY limiting for power users. While that my not impact a ad blocker, there are countless extensions that can not work with Web Extensions and will make Chrome err sorry Firefox far less appealing to people. For me, more than a few of the extensions I use regularly are not compatible with Web Extensions, and a few of them that are critical to my productivity ar…

Do you have one example of such extension that won't work with web extensions?

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#40
post #37
post #9

I found this disturbing: "Chromium-based browsers are being “infested” by Instart Logic tech which works around blockers and worst, around browser privacy settings (they may start “infecting” Firefox eventually, but that is not happening now)." From his linked post: "Instart Logic will detect when the developer console opens, and cleanup everything then to hide what it does" Is this implemented via a CDN-delivered sc…

I still don't actually understand what "Instart Logic" is, can anyone explain it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instart_Logic
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