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Posted by DemiGuru 16 hours ago

Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin(www.pcworld.com)
1038 points | 392 commentspage 3
alentred 3 hours ago|
It is worth mentioning that there are other options like NextDNS and similar, which complement uBO(L) nicely.
sammularczyk 7 hours ago||
I just started using Zen (Firefox-based Arc clone) after Arc updated to Manifest V3. It's great! Last time I installed zen it was a battery hog, but it's much better now.
search_facility 2 hours ago||
Great, this is unique trait and helpful one - Firefox is here to stay
dadass 7 hours ago||
Firefox is also the only browser that supports anything like userChrome.css for customizing tabs, toolbar, address bar, menus, spacing, etc.
vovavili 15 hours ago||
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.
culi 4 hours ago||
It's on a time limit. Chromium deprecated MV2 but still keeps the webRequest API in the codebase. Google could at any time decide to strip it entirely. Or it could just stop working due to lack of maintenance as Chromium grows.

Brave is relying on a fork that takes advantage of the fact that the webRequest API is still technically there

AstralSerenity 12 hours ago|||
Peter Theil was an angel investor in Brave. That alone is all the reason privacy-minded users need to avoid it.
TiredOfLife 4 hours ago|||
As someone who lives in a country bordering russia, I will certainly switch to Brave now.
fragmede 12 hours ago|||
Because Peter Thiel gave them some money, there's some secret backdoor code that's sending all your information to Palantir?
rwz 12 hours ago|||
It's quite likely that Brave itself collects data on your usage and shares at least some of it with Palantir.

This isn't such an outrageous assumption to make here.

EbNar 7 hours ago|||
There's no need to make assumptions. The source code is out there. Please, show us the relevant commits which do what you said.
tredre3 8 hours ago||||
Telemetry can be disabled in Brave. Any kind of history/bookmark syncing is opt-in.

You're just spreading FUD unless you have evidence that Brave funnels usage data in secret.

shooly 11 hours ago|||
Firefox also collects and sells data to no one really knows who.

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b...

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/

rwz 10 hours ago||
I mean sure, but there's a bit of a difference between "sells data to no one really knows who" and "sells data to no one really knows who AND PALANTIR" which the original commenter seem to be flagging as a problem.
inigyou 10 hours ago|||
"no one really knows who" is probably also Palantir or someone who resells to Palantir.
shooly 8 hours ago|||
Well Thiel investing in Brave once at the beginning doesn't necessarily mean that Palantir is getting any data now (even though it's presented as if it was a fact in other comments here). It's probable, but really it's just speculation, just like anyone can speculate about who's getting data from Firefox.

But at least with Brave, the initial funding information was made public, so there's already more information available to users in comparison with Mozilla. Mozilla just said: "there are a number of places where we collect and share some data with our partners" - that could mean literally anyone.

downrightmike 11 hours ago|||
That is their MO
jollyllama 15 hours ago|||
It's good but I find they EOL devices/OS's earlier than Firefox.
matheusmoreira 12 hours ago|||
It's certainly better than stock Chrome but Firefox becoming relevant again is still the ideal option.
culi 4 hours ago||
I think it's necessary for the future of the web. Ever since Opera gave up on Presto and Edge gave up on Trident, we've seen a massive and sudden consolidation towards Chromium. It's sad how quickly we forgot the lessons we learned from the days of IE's dominance
matheusmoreira 3 hours ago||
Sad indeed. What trully pisses me off though is the fact Mozilla has like hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, possibly a billion dollars, and yet they continue to neglect Firefox.
ipsum2 11 hours ago|||
Brave is great. Works across windows/mac/ios/android/linux.
odidiejdiwjd 13 hours ago|||
Isn’t Brave just another Chromium variant?

Chromium is detestable. In whatever form it takes.

armadyl 12 hours ago||
What’s detestable is Firefox’s lack of security and Mozilla’s priorities surrounding it compared to Chromium

https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1unhtxu/initial...

iLoveOncall 5 hours ago||
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.

TiredOfLife 4 hours ago|||
In that case Firefox is also out. They have been caught auto installing random hidden extensions with full read/write access to all websites and blocking uBlock Origin from working on, for example, the Firefox extension site.
iLoveOncall 1 hour ago||
> have been caught auto installing random hidden extensions with full read/write access to all websites

Lol, they chose to ship parts of their browser as extensions, it's definitely now "random extensions".

> and blocking uBlock Origin from working on, for example, the Firefox extension site

Any other example? Bypassing an extension on their own website has absolutely no link to the browser itself being a malware, this is ridiculous.

I don't even use Firefox and I think Mozilla is a shit organization misusing its funds to pursue bad ventures lately, but even I think your claims are bullshit.

culi 4 hours ago|||
[dead]
self_awareness 1 hour ago||
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 gave up their shares of relevance to Chrome and now they're paying for it.

defrost 1 hour ago|
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.

zarzavat 7 hours ago||
I don't know why with LLMs we can't just add MV2/blocking web request support to Chromium in a fork.

The argument against was always that it's "too hard to keep a fork in sync". Now it's easier.

culi 4 hours ago|
That's basically exactly what Brave (the only Chromium browser still supporting uBO) is doing to support uBlock Origin. But it's flimsy and likely has an expiration date.
zarzavat 4 hours ago||
AFAIK they are using the built-in support which Google still maintains even if they don't expose it.

My point is that when MV3 was announced there was an assumption that maintaining a Chromium fork to continue supporting MV2 would be too much work and too expensive. But now with LLMs that's no longer a safe assumption. The non-Chrome chromium based browsers can fork chromium and add back MV2. No need for any expiration date.

hgomersall 2 hours ago||
Or you could just use Firefox.
zarzavat 17 minutes ago||
The only reason that Google keep Firefox around is because they find it beneficial for antitrust reasons.

We should prepare for a future without Firefox, because one day it won't be there anymore.

system7rocks 11 hours ago|
And we must protect it at all costs.

I love Firefox.

We need more browsers like Firefox - more open source, more open to standards that improve the web, that can improve our browsing experience.

culi 4 hours ago||
I agree. The death of Edge's Trident and Opera's Presto has been really scary for the web. I know it's really far off but I truly hope Ladybird, Servo, and Flow succeed in building mature and competitive web engines
inigyou 10 hours ago||
Then make one.
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