Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#141

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:52 AM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #47

avaer wrote: post #32

What's funny is that extensions were supposed to be a way to let you do the things the browser didn't want you to do. Guess that was a bit too much freedom for Google to accept, so they had to make a store with a gate, and destroy the APIs so that they're useless. Then they had to make up some reasons to justify that and ram it through the pipeline despite everyone's objections, and the frog got boiled. Now we're bac…

Browser extensions were also one of the biggest ways to distribute malware. The situation was genuinely horrific. Malware distributors would offer popular extension devs millions of dollars to buy the extension, then silently insert malware which gets auto deployed to millions of people.

Why haven't they been prosecuted? And why hasn't this "cindyllm" bot account been deleted yet? Clearly a shadowban didn't send the message.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#142

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:54 AM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #81

eahm wrote: post #76

Wtf, simply not true: Brave: chrome://flags/#brave-extensions-manifest-v2 > brave://settings/extensions/v2 > Enable uBlock Origin (Brave-hosted, even better). Helium comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed. Edge even still has it https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/ublock-ori... And I'm sure others ...I personally only use/test Brave, Brave Origin, Helium and Firefox.

The title says "major browser", which none of those are.

Firefox is less popular than some of the browsers you listed as not major, so it isn't major either

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#143

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:54 AM UTC

system7rocks wrote: post #115

And we must protect it at all costs. I love Firefox. We need more browsers like Firefox - more open source, more open to standards that improve the web, that can improve our browsing experience.

Then make one.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#144

Post by rwz » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

shooly wrote: post #93

rwz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite likely that Brave itself collects data on your usage and shares at least some of it with Palantir. This isn't such an outrageous assumption to make here.

Firefox also collects and sells data to no one really knows who. https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b... https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/

I mean sure, but there's a bit of a difference between "sells data to no one really knows who" and "sells data to no one really knows who AND PALANTIR" which the original commenter seem to be flagging as a problem.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#145

Post by cindyllm » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #141

Gigachad wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Browser extensions were also one of the biggest ways to distribute malware. The situation was genuinely horrific. Malware distributors would offer popular extension devs millions of dollars to buy the extension, then silently insert malware which gets auto deployed to millions of people.

Why haven't they been prosecuted? And why hasn't this "cindyllm" bot account been deleted yet? Clearly a shadowban didn't send the message.

[dead]

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#146

Post by imglorp » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

imagetic wrote: post #50

Support Firefox. F** Chrome.

Seriously.

The web is completely unusable without UBO+FF. Any time I have to use a clean browser, I feel assaulted and dirty, plus wonder what malware just got injected into my machine.

If it were to go away, I would probably accelerate retiring to an analog, offline life.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#147

Post by ndriscoll » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

matgessel wrote: post #123

cykros wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ads on YouTube?

I got a Android tablet...I can't recommend it. YT has gotten pretty toxic with the dark patterns. There are the usual interstitial ads, but after you skip and go full screen there's another ad widget in the lower left of the video. You have carefully navigate a popup menu to dismiss it without triggering an ad popup. If you pause or double-tap to -10s the video it restores down and shows an ad on the right side. The…

Firefox works fine on Android, and supports ublock origin and playing youtube in a background tab/with screen off. Couldn't speak to DRM as I've never used it on any platform.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#148

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

Madmallard wrote: post #83

Do people not remember Firefox changing their terms of service last year and allowing them to sell your data to third parties? I don't get it did people forget? I switched over to LibreWolf and other browsers like that then and never looked back.

We all just either memory-holed it or convinced ourselves that it wasn't what it was. Easy to think you just misunderstood what they said, even though they were very explicit about it.

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#149

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 1:00 AM UTC

doubled112 wrote: post #44

BeetleB wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny. Over 20 years ago, I got people to switch to Firefox because of the AdBlock extension. In case people don't know, Firefox was the first major browser to even have extensions.

There is only XUL!

Long dead. Now there is no XUL, only (private user) data (that Mozilla sells for revenue)

Re: Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin

#150

Post by Plont » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 1:00 AM UTC

swed420 wrote: post #109

dralley wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Websites already can barely be assed to care about supporting Firefox users, doing adblocking by default is a great way to get websites to start putting up banners that say "our website does not work with your browser, please switch to Chrome" en-masse. And Mozilla did develop anti-fingerprinting tech, but they can't enable it by default because it breaks lots of websites and when a website doesn't work they're not g…

The level of mental gymnastics in this thread denying the extent to which companies like Google (and their puppets like Mozilla) control the internet is too damn high. Fortunately if projects like Ladybird gain enough momentum, websites might be forced to cater to it. Time will tell.

They literally didn't deny that. They made a separate point you appear not to have actually read.

Regardless, I don't want baked-in Firefox adblocking in part because I don't trust Mozilla with that task either. They'd absolutely end up allowing their own "acceptable" telemetry and ads. Even if they didn't, it would be unlikely to ever be as effective as Ublock Origin. Much like how Chromium browsers' built-in adblocking is barely anything in comparison, even on Manifest V2.

And yet, for now, Firefox and Mozilla is by far the lesser evil. I like a few of the Chromium browsers well enough, but they are ultimately at the mercy of Google.

I hope Ladybird does well, too.