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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

#401

Post by ololobus »

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 zero access to the actual page content. Apple does the same for caller id apps. Afaik, Android has this API too, but the last time I checked, all relevant extensions were just “give me your whole phone control or web page access”, so Google clearly doesn’t enforce it

Yes, it kinda gives more control to the platform, but so far, iOS extensions that use this API worked surprisingly well for me

Please, correct me if I am wrong and uBclock can already work in this restricted mode

And the last thing, if people really want to give someone a full page content access, they surely should be able to do that, so kudos to Mozilla

[1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/cre...

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

#402

Post by notpushkin »

swed420 wrote: post #132
epihelix wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like suggesting that someone using LLMs to assist coding, could save themselves the trouble by writing the code by hand. Yes, Firefox could do everything, but then it'd turn back into Mozilla. The whole point of the extensions framework is to allow modular extensibility. And it's much easier to vet for malware than to code afresh and maintain. What stuns me is that most people still use browsers that cannot bl…

> That's like suggesting that someone using LLMs to assist coding, could save themselves the trouble by writing the code by hand. No it's not. > Yes, Firefox could do everything, but then it'd turn back into Mozilla. The whole point of the extensions framework is to allow modular extensibility. And it's much easier to vet for malware than to code afresh and maintain. No, quite the opposite. FF has a history of adopti…

Waterfox, a Firefox fork, has actually built a builtin qdblocker. (And yes, they do whitelist their search partner by default, but you can turn that off.) Apparently it’s faster than uBlock Origin, but there’s been problems on some websites, so I’ll be sticking with uBO for now.

Edit: actually, it seems the underlying functionality was built by Mozilla themselves, just not exposed in the UI yet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309020

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

#403

Post by Medowar »

somenameforme wrote: post #295
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…

Brave has native ad-block and anti finger-printing, enabled by default, and the web works excellently as in I don't know of a single site that doesn't work with it.

Brave is based on Chromium and inherits basically all compability, that this brings.

Firefox with Gecko is a different engine entirely and that sometimes causes compatibility issues or different behaviour, that websites have to account for.

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

#404

Post by arendtio »

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…

I think that would limit its capabilities so much that it would be much easier for ad platforms to find ways to circumvent it.

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

#405

Post by defrost »

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 limited subset of filter blocking after requests have been sent and returned.

ie: V2 allowed for less network traffic and greater amount of filtering, V3 provides slower page completes and limited filtering.

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

#407

Post by matheusmoreira »

duskdozer wrote: post #389
matheusmoreira wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We seem to have a similar philosophy. Have you found a good way to deal with modifying or selectively disabling things like webpacked js or react?

I've tried everything from relying on uBlock Origin's anti-sabotage injections to literally reverse engineering websites and directly using all the internal APIs their own javascripts consume.

My dream was to have a "custom HTTP client" for every website. Instead of one browser for all sites, I write "adapters" for them that scrape the data into my own schemas. Maintaining this was far too much work back then, but now that I've got AI... I think I might try it.

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

#408

Post by notpushkin »

flomo wrote: post #192
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…

> I want my browser to prevent random extensions from directly reading web page data. The declarative API idea is pretty good. Agreed. And you would think most paranoid HN types would too. > It's just that uBlock Origin is so insanely useful, important and trusted Maybe I'm foggy on the history. But isn't this like Fork #4 or #5 of some previous AdBlock extension? Seems like the only business model for this type of e…

> Maybe I'm foggy on the history. But isn't this like Fork #4 or #5 of some previous AdBlock extension?

IIRC it was written from scratch. It was called uBlock before, then a co-maintainer tried to pull some shit, and the original author had to fork it with a new name (I don’t remember the details, it’s been ages since then).

No selling out yet. The author also explicitly says they don’t accept donations. I don’t think he’s looking for a business model. But if that changes – yeah, the fork button is right there, so I don’t see a big problem here.

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

#409

Post by jchw »

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…

You can only get a very limited uBlock Origin facsimile, not the real thing. A lot of browsers have a uBlock Lite. It's missing a lot of useful features IMO.

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

#410

Post by commoner »

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…

Absolutely not. This is exactly why people have a problem with Chromium, which now has some of the same restrictions on extensions as Safari (Manifest V3).

- uBlock Origin works best on Firefox: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

- uBlock Origin Lite FAQ: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-as...

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