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

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

#231
post #58

Firefox is also the only browser that vets uBlock's code on every update to make sure the developer hasn't inserted spyware or malware into the extension. They don't do it for every extension, but they do so for a wide selection of popular options. > Recommended extensions differ from other extensions that are regularly reviewed by Firefox staff in that they are curated extensions that meet the highest standards of s…

> Firefox is also the only browser that vets uBlock's code on every update to make sure the developer hasn't inserted spyware or malware into the extension. They could save themselves the trouble if Firefox simply baked in its own ad-blocking, but since Google basically owns them, we all know that will never happen. Ladybird browser is going to be awesome.

In one of the monthly update videos Andreas mentioned that although they are working on a basic built-in adblocker for Ladybird, long-term they want extension support and the adblocking functionality to be in an extension.

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

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they had to make up some reasons to justify that Hate to be the one to defend Google here, but the reasons weren't that unreasonable. I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data. The declarative API idea is pretty good. It's just that uBlock Origin is so insanely useful, important and trusted, it should get full access to the entire browser regardless. Honestly, it should…

> I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data This is so funny to me. Coming from a Netscape Navigator world, when extensions first came out, they were supposed to allow the user to add functionality to websites. Why would someone install "random extensions" that they dont trust. And also, what would extensions do if not read and write data to websites? . Sign of the times I gue…

> Why would someone install "random extensions" that they dont trust.

Same reason why people download random stuff and run it with administrator permissions on Windows.

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

#233
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…

> Then they had to make up some reasons to justify that Hate to be the one to defend Google here, but the reasons weren't that unreasonable. I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data. The declarative API idea is pretty good. It's just that uBlock Origin is so insanely useful, important and trusted, it should get full access to the entire browser regardless. Honestly, it should…

"Random" is a funny thing to call an extension that you have deliberately installed.

I also don't want "random" programs accessing my home folder. That would be terrible! Who knows what programs that could be! I do however want the very specific programs that I have intentionally installed to be able to access my home folder easily. Same for extensions.

The goal here isn't really to protect me from extensions. Extensions don't do anything on their own, they just sit there and wait for me to install them. So the goal is apparently to protect me from me (installing an extension), which really is to say protect their business (ads) from me (blocking them).

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

#234
post #99
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firefox is also the only browser that vets uBlock's code on every update to make sure the developer hasn't inserted spyware or malware into the extension. They could save themselves the trouble if Firefox simply baked in its own ad-blocking, but since Google basically owns them, we all know that will never happen. Ladybird browser is going to be awesome.

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…

Websites blocking Firefox because of ad blocking has happened before:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070817224229/http://whyfirefox...

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

#235
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want my browser to prevent random extensions... Why are you installing random extensions?

I'm not. The only extension I trust enough to install is uBlock Origin.

Well great! You are already protected from random extensions then.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't defend them then. Do you believe the same should be true of your operating system? If not, then it shouldn't be true of the browser either.

> Do you believe the same should be true of your operating system? Yes, and I have actually started virtualizing everything inside my computer because of that belief. I don't want random software touching my trusted host. "Random software" is currently defined as anything outside the official repositories of my Linux distribution of choice. I don't want to share a home directory with such things. I don't want to shar…

There's a difference between you virtualizing programs and your OS vendor virtualizing programs for you without giving you an opt-out. Cough snaps cough.

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

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What flaws exactly? People on here love to moan about Firefox because Mozilla did one thing at some point in the existence of the company they didn't like. But then just cede the Internet to Google and chromium clones because at some point when they were a crappy junior JS dev, Chrome had some better tooling over Firebug so they just got used to testing in one browser. Maybe they also like to remember how Firefox, a…

Can’t speak for all users, but at least as of about six months ago, there appears to be a bug in Firefox in NixOS where the shader cache doesn’t appear to be able to write properly, and as such video acceleration doesn’t work. It became most evident when I was trying to watch 360-degree videos in Immich. Entirely possible that this is an issue specific to NixOS or my machine, but because of that issue I switched over…

the obvious thing to do is keep using firefox as your daily driver, and load up the other browser as needed for the video etc.

I'm being tongue-in-cheek here because it seems most people just give up on safari/firefox if one thing doesn't work and go to some chromium-based browser as their default driver. That's sad.

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

#238
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they had to make up some reasons to justify that Hate to be the one to defend Google here, but the reasons weren't that unreasonable. I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data. The declarative API idea is pretty good. It's just that uBlock Origin is so insanely useful, important and trusted, it should get full access to the entire browser regardless. Honestly, it should…

... the greatest danger to us is masterless men ; lacking a coercive power to tie their hands, they would destroy society. How else but by binding to lord and master can they be held to the laws? So thought men during feudal times. In fact, it is possible for people to be held to good conduct without being bound into a single hierarchy, and it should be possible for software to be held to good conduct without giving…

I'm supposed to be the master, actually. It's my computer, any foreign code is essentially a subject in my digital domain. It should be literally impossible for them to do something I don't want them to do. As the god of my little digital realm, I should have maximum power and freedom, while foreign developers get the absolute minimum amount of power that works, and in the ideal case this minimum is zero.

The fact someone gave developers a turing complete language inside the browser where random code is automatically downloaded and executed is a major reason why we even have uBlock Origin in the first place. The vast majority of developers heavily abuse this privilege and cannot be trusted, and that is why we block them with extreme prejudice.

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

#239

I often forget how browsing the web looks for most people. Can't understand why they put up with it, or do they just think that it's part and parcel of the internet to have every page look like a slot machine from hell?

I turned off my adblocker on 404 Media since I wanted to support them, I loaded one new tab in an article and it maxed my CPU at 100% for so long that I paused and had to figure out what was spiking my computer.

Immediately turned it off.

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

#240

I often forget how browsing the web looks for most people. Can't understand why they put up with it, or do they just think that it's part and parcel of the internet to have every page look like a slot machine from hell?

> every page That's a bit hyperbolic. The areas of the internet I frequent do not have egregious ads (for example, this page). Areas where I really would like good ad-blocking (youtube) are often not covered by these ad blockers. Thankfully Youtube Premium isn't too expensive and solves that issue. Maybe it's better these days but I always found browser extensions (including uBlock) had a pretty big performance hit,…

> Thankfully Youtube Premium isn't too expensive and solves that issue.

True, but some of us refuse to give that company money on principle. The minute I can't watch YouTube without ads is the minute I stop watching YouTube. (The creators I follow make way more money off me on Patreon than Google would ever pay them, anyway.)

> I always found browser extensions (including uBlock) had a pretty big performance hit

I always found that not using uBO was a pretty big performance hit. :)

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