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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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Agreed, and I do think it's unfortunate that our browsers are funded by ad tech. I want that to change.

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

#262
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of browser extensions is to build up an install base then sell out to some corporation that then promptly leverages that user base to exfiltrate data and monetize it. No thanks. They should have to declare to the browser what it is they want done instead.

This point would be far more credible if browsers weren't in business to do what you claimed extensions are there to do. I'd also argue that creating a full browser without a profit motive is more unrealistic than creating an extension and uploading it - for free - to a web store.

Right, basically no web browser has a profitable business model except through licensing or being subsidized through some other branch of the business.

The best pure browser company in history was Opera, and they didn't fail because they weren't innovating. It is simply not a survivable model. People don't remember anything, but during Google's recent anti trust case, one floated "solution" was to spin Chrome off as a separate company, but that was regarded as unrealistic partly because such a company would not have a credible path to profitability separate from Google.

I happen to disagree, they could have collected a search licensing fee just like Firefox but that model is already being regarded as monopoly adjacent.

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

#263
post #104
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not GP, but sometimes I want my browser to do pretty random/niche things without that compromising all of my browsing data.

Create a new profile, do the niche thing there, separately from the rest of your browsing.

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

#264
post #231
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.

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.

Why does ad blocking always have to be relegated to an extension? Browsers build in so many things. Why do they all draw the line at a feature like ad blocking that every user wants?

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

#265
post #241

I was shaking my head when my fellow developers, and some hackers, moved from Firefox to mostly Chrome. “It has better dev tools you see”, “it’s so much faster you see”, and a boatload of other excuses. But what about the remonopolization of the web? I remember how much it SUCKED when internet explorer had 95% of the web thanks to Microsoft’s illegal practices. I saw the same behaviour from Google, the ad company and…

Yep. Chrome is the new IE. Zero difference. And Chrome was created to break the grip that IE had.

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty cool. Thanks for pointing that out. I don't see where it says 'on every update' unless you're referring to the automated checks? I've always wished extensions had more granular permissions though (a la phones, but more so). I think automated ai security checks sound promising soon.

what permissions do you suggest?

I'd like a way to easily specify exactly what sites an extension can run on. There are extensions that I'd like to run on a subset - often just one or two sites - without giving them access do anything else. For that matter, a way to only activate an extension as a one-off when I click it and on no other tabs.

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

#267
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... 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 so…

This is the way. The owner of the computer should be the ultimate authority over what gets run and not run on that computer. Not Microsoft. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Mozilla. Not some web site developer.

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

#268

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.

I mean did you try with Chrome and Ublock Original Lite? Because I have and there's literally no difference at all.

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

#269
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. The declarative API idea is pretty good.

I was under the impression that manifest v3 still allowed extensions to read anything, just not modify. Is that not the case? (Random link because this is hard to search for: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38303446 )

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

#270
post #5

Thank God for the Brave browser. For those disliking their built-in adblocker, there is a Manifest v2 opt-out specifically for uBlock if you need it.

Brave is malware, I don't understand how anyone on HN can use it, baffles me every time.

They've literally been caught MITMing web pages for their own financial gains.

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