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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

#81

Post by weaksauce »

syshum wrote: post #65
weaksauce wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/issues/1224 Seems they have all the APIs needed for it at the very least approved. It's not like Mozilla just said screw everyone... Let's become chrome. They are putting in the effort to make web extensions viable for even the more advanced uses.

They are making to where a version of TreeTabs are possible, this new API will enable functionality like in Chrome (see my other comment) but it will not be the same. if I wanted Chrome style Vertical tabs I would have moved to chrome years ago

Seeing as how there is an api in place to have a built in sidebar in firefox, plenty of tab and window API methods available, a way to hide the horizontal tabs at the top of the screen and the developer of treeStyleTabs saying that they will be able to move to webextensions fine... I fail to see how this will be inferior to an XUL extension. Can you elaborate on how the old tree style tabs is different other than using XUL?

Unrelated, but the fact that the developer doesn't get the extension AMO approved and uses eval() all over the place should give some pause as well.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#82

Post by zymhan »

eridius wrote: post #78
Hasknewbie wrote: post #52

Slightly OT: is that what a 'Discourse' page looks like? It's pretty awful: it will automatically update the URL as you scroll past each post in any direction, while breaking the Back button, so good luck getting back to the original post, since neither clicking on Back nor reloading the page will get you there. Basic UX failure.

What browser are you using? Because when I scroll on that page and the URL changes, it doesn't affect my Back stack (this is in Safari).

That's the behavior I see using Firefox.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#83

Post by nvr219 »

msla wrote: post #26
homero wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think of Opera becoming Chrome?

I don't know. I haven't used Opera since the 1990s. I fully expect most people will share my view.

Man I remember when Opera was THE one to use

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#84

Post by sp332 »

Silhouette wrote: post #76
smkdtr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone worried about security; I hope that is not the majority opinion.

It's not entirely unreasonable. We use software because it's useful. If you make it so secure that it is no longer useful, what have you got left? In the case of Firefox extensions, I'm aware of the risks of the old model, but the fact is that the only observable difference it has made to me so far is that when I accidentally hit back on a page with an unsubmitted form the other day I lost about 20 minutes' worth of…

Lazarus: Form Recovery hasn't been maintained in years. But I don't think there's anything about it that can't be done with web extensions. There's already one that has the base functionality: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/textarea-cach...

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#85

Post by Manishearth »

syshum wrote: post #59
kibwen wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people recommend this as a WebExtension-compatible replacement for TreeStyle Tabs, though I can't vouch for it myself: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-tabs/

It is no where near the same and has the same failing of the Chrome Vertical Tab Solutions like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-side-tabs/h... https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vtabs/okpnlgbgcfch... It is not part of the UI part of the browser like the XUL TreeStyleTabs but a separate Panel that ends up being buggy and feeling separate from the experience almost like managing your tabs from a…

Hiding the top tabbar is one of the webextension APIs folks are working on, IIRC.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#86

Post by floatingatoll »

smkdtr wrote: post #61
Karunamon wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be perfectly honest I'm not at all interested in "better permissions" for plugins when it comes with the removal of flexibility that you get for free. If I've got plugin-installing malware on my system, I've got worse problems than a rogue plugin. Give me more useful over more secure any day of the week.

As someone worried about security; I hope that is not the majority opinion.

Sadly, it is.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#87

Post by kemayo »

i2shar wrote: post #32
yborg wrote: 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?

I would suspect it's sniffing for the window-size suddenly changing in certain ways, perhaps along with watching for the normal dev-tools keyboard shortcuts via keydown listeners. I can't actually remember off the top of my head if Chrome suppresses the event in that case, but it wouldn't be surprising if it didn't.

The easy check for this would be to see whether opening the devtools in detached mode via the menus makes it notice.

Note that this would actually be quite a pain to hide from the page, just because it's something the page needs to know to display some stuff and make rendering calculations. If it was hidden from the page, we'd suddenly be complaining about debugging floating footers which are hiding under the devtools.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#88

Post by gsnedders »

Paul-ish wrote: post #33
NewEntryHN wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And, similarly, you can't go to any sort of multiprocess architecture (or multithread) model if extensions can mutate more or less anything at any point, and that's not just about security, that's also about what plenty of users have been asking for for years—performance.

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#89

Post by BuuQu9hu »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

> 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.

That's because he doesn't understand the sentiment people are conveying when they say "Chrome clone". Very few mean "Firefox is literally becoming the same as Chrome". They mean that Mozilla has begun following the same design philosophy as Google:

1) limit the ability to change the browser behavior and interface

2) over-simplify the default interface

Re: uBlock Origin Maintainer on Chrome vs. Firefox WebExtensions

#90

Post by wfunction »

yborg wrote: 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…

Any more reading on the Instart Logic tech detecting dev tools and hiding itself? I can't find much online.
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