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WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

github.com

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Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#51

Post by gamedever »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #8
wobfan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While everything you're saying is correct, Safari is only the biggest competitor to Chrome because Apple is going out of their way to make it hard or even impossible in the case of iOS for developers to develop well-oiled browsers for their OSes. Just wanted to add that, because I'm pissed.

No; it’s because then, the internet would go from 80% Chromium, to 95% Chromium. Allowing alternative browser engines does not mean Firefox gets a footing. It means Chromium gets a footing even on iOS, and we start seeing Electron apps on iOS, with every app bundling their own Chromium renderer. If Apple were forced to allow 3rd party engines on iOS, they might as well shut down WebKit. All hail Blink, the universal…

Good! because people prefer Chrome. People have to go out of their way to install it and they do.

If Safari was better then Safari would stay #1 on iOS. They shouldn't be allowed force this any more than Microsoft was allowed to force IE.

If 3rd party browsers were allowed we'd have had WebGL2 on iOS 4 years earlier. WebGPU 2 years earlier. WebXR several years earlier (Apple is only adding it now and only for Vision Pro), and many other features.

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#53

Post by gruez »

TingPing wrote: post #33
busymom0 wrote: post #20

Can someone explain what "wide-spectrum content blocker" means and how it differs from other ad blockers available for Safari?

To set a baseline: Ad blockers work by a combination of static rulesets and dynamic javascript. Safari does not support the ruleset format of Chrome/Firefox, so a ruleset has to be maintained for it specifically. In practice this is always the AdGuard ruleset. I doubt a single adblocker doesn't use this as a base. Beyond that is the custom JS they inject. It's hard to say how good it is but that is the only selling p…

>AdGuard has its own too:

AFAIK only the paid version of adguard has access to these scriptlets. The free version only has content blockers, which puts webshield ahead of adguard.

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#55

Post by themadturk »

velcrovan wrote: post #35
layer8 wrote: post #18

It would be useful to describe what specifically this adds over existing Safari content blockers in that space.

Maybe, unlike the existing ones, this one works

I've been pretty happy with 1Blocker across all my Apple devices, but I will probably give this one a try.

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#56

Post by wobfan »

troupo wrote: post #37
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No; it’s because then, the internet would go from 80% Chromium, to 95% Chromium. Allowing alternative browser engines does not mean Firefox gets a footing. It means Chromium gets a footing even on iOS, and we start seeing Electron apps on iOS, with every app bundling their own Chromium renderer. If Apple were forced to allow 3rd party engines on iOS, they might as well shut down WebKit. All hail Blink, the universal…

Yeah, that's the downside. I'm all for Apple to open up their platform. But the browsers will be dead, and everything will be Chrome

I'd rather have an open platform with free choice (including the side effect of Chrome taking even more market share) instead of Apple forcing users to use their browser. I definitely dislike Chrome and you may unfortunately be right with your projection, but forcing people to use a different browser does not help the greater cause IMO.

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#58

Post by wobfan »

atonse wrote: post #10
wobfan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While everything you're saying is correct, Safari is only the biggest competitor to Chrome because Apple is going out of their way to make it hard or even impossible in the case of iOS for developers to develop well-oiled browsers for their OSes. Just wanted to add that, because I'm pissed.

Eh not quite. I switched off Chrome many years ago (on macOS) because it had gotten so bloated and was constantly running my fans. I remember reading that Chrome had worked on fixing a lot of that bloat (so did FF). But Safari was a breath of fresh air in how fast it worked and didn't seem to constantly kill my battery. Yes it has the occasional quirks. But I do like that Apple focuses more on UX than just DevEx by t…

That's true, I'm mostly pissed about Apple locking down the iOS browser ecosystem, which is not the case on macOS. While I think Firefox and Chrome did not have a level playing field especially the release of the M1, because Apple has started optimizing Safari for their arm64 platform for example way earlier than FF/Chrome even could. Also, obviously, Safari can focus on a single OS while Chrome/Firefox has a lot more to manage here. But I mean, that's not Apples fault.

Still, while I also experienced the problems you referenced with Firefox on my M1 for months or a year, it has greatly improved and IMO is at this point on par with Safari. With the plus of being open, having a huge community and heavy customization options, and privacy. But with the minus of being ugly in comparison to Safari, I must say.

So yeah I mostly am in line with your opinion, apart from one thing:

> so it's not like there's all that much competition.

This, at least this is my opionion, is no argument. It's playing down the importance of free choice IMO. It should not be more okay to disallow alternative browsers based on the existence of alternatives. I mean, if they never allow it, there will never be any. We can just hope that at some point some competitors will rise again, maybe Firefox will get a bigger foothold, or Ladybird, or Servo, or whatever. I'm just trying to keep my hopes high here, haha.

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#59

Post by troupo »

wobfan wrote: post #56
troupo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's the downside. I'm all for Apple to open up their platform. But the browsers will be dead, and everything will be Chrome

I'd rather have an open platform with free choice (including the side effect of Chrome taking even more market share) instead of Apple forcing users to use their browser. I definitely dislike Chrome and you may unfortunately be right with your projection, but forcing people to use a different browser does not help the greater cause IMO.

I agree, I'm just sad it has come down to this

Re: WebShield – A new wide-spectrum content blocker for Safari

#60

Post by InfiniteVortex »

twilo wrote: post #54

Is this similar to wBlock?

Yes! Me and 0xCube created WebShield & wBlock respectively in parallel in close collaboration with each other. They're pretty much sister projects. I do think since I create more free time for myself, WebShield has (some) more features - just off the top of my head: iOS/iPadOS/visionOS support. wBlock does currently have an auto updater for filter lists when you open the app though, which WebShield doesn't have, but I'm working on it!
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