It's Happened. Chrome Killed UBlock Origin

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 04:45, eilegz said:

time to switch to firefox

Absoluely! Having switched though and liking Firefox I must say the Passwsord Manager absolutely sucks salty ba**s! It is so unreliable and doesn't work all the time. Yet another reason why people stick with Google Chrome...it just works.

I am a long term NordVPN user and have free Nord Password Manager so will take the time to set it up.

[fintechfooty]

On 21/02/2025 at 14:51, olavinto said:

Manifest v3 is not just a Chromium thing, and it applies to all browsers. However Mozilla has decided to retain Manifest v2 support, at least for now. This will probably change at some point since most extension devs probably aren't interested in maintaining separate extensions for Chromium and Firefox. I'm also a Firefox user, so I am not arguing against it at all, just pointing out that soon we may not have anything but MV3 based extensions available.

yeah that's the crazy part. how about Brave? anyone know? will we be safe because they're built in or is this a ticking timebomb too? btw ublock origin lite isn't that bad, although in my brief experience using it, i don't think it cleaned up webpages anymore. 

[PNWDweller]

I use Google Chrome at work on my company issued Laptop, and as of today, Ublock Origin was still running like a champ.   I'd be willing to bet it's going to be a rolling removal like a lot of other things they do like that.   My corporate office though does control 100% of everything done in the browser, so they may have some sort of way to keep it there.  Along with this though, since I work from home, I have AdGuardHome at the moment as my DNS and DHCP server, and the laptop goes through it and I see stuff get blocked.   Additionally, my Freshtomato router is my gateway and it has a built in ad-block I can turn on if needed. 

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases

You can download chromium.zip and unpack/unzip it then install it.

[+Good Bot, Bad Bot Subscriber¹]

On 21/02/2025 at 17:51, olavinto said:

Manifest v3 is not just a Chromium thing, and it applies to all browsers. However Mozilla has decided to retain Manifest v2 support, at least for now. This will probably change at some point since most extension devs probably aren't interested in maintaining separate extensions for Chromium and Firefox. I'm also a Firefox user, so I am not arguing against it at all, just pointing out that soon we may not have anything but MV3 based extensions available.

That is not correct... Even when Mozilla drops Manifest v2 they will continue to maintain support for blocking WebRequest in their Manifest v3 implementation which is what gimps ad blockers.

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2022/05/18/manifest-v3-in-firefox-recap-next-steps/

[Werct]

I'll just lay my thoughts here in relation to adblocking🙂

My main browser on Windows and Android is Firefox (nightly on desktop and beta on mobile). I use Ublock Origin there with some custom filters (EasyPrivacy, Fanboy annoyance + Ublock Annoyances and country-specific filter lists).

The second best choice IMO would be Brave, but I really dislike their crypto affiliation and unnecessary bloat (news, search, AI integration and such). Yes, I know many things can be disabled, but I dislike them anyways. Besides, it's Chromium, and as long as Firefox is still usable, I don't feel the need to use it instead.

I use DNS blocking on desktop and mobile (DNSCrypt, DoH, DoT and hosts blocking). On Android I use AdAway for hosts DNS blocking with root using some custom lists. I also use DoT server with blocking capabilities (I used Adguard DNS until recently and switched to something else as of late. Big list of working encrypted DNS servers can be found here.)

Besides that, I use DoH server with blocking capabilities on Firefox (both desktop and mobile). List is also here, as I mentioned previously (search by keyword "adblocking", for example).

Also, I have Dnscrypt-proxy2 running locally on my Windows machines. It has DNS blocking capabilities too, I use it instead of editing hosts file directly on Windows (hosts file is known to be very slow on Windows). Blocking\allowlists must be synthesized manually using a python script though. It's a bit cumbersome to setup, but nothing too hard.

And lastly, I have a router with OpenWRT which has DoH resolver installed. It may enable the capability to filter DNS requests using a filtering DoH server too, but I haven't set it up yet.

Also, I have a question to Adguard users: how exactly does it work? Isn't it just a DNS blocker with extra eye-candy? I think so, at least, without the "HTTPS filtering" option enabled, which I believe is a large security hole (I'm not comfortable with anyone decrypting my HTTPS connections).

Excuse my English

Edited February 22, 2025 by Werct
Adguard question

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 13:35, fintechfooty said:

yeah that's the crazy part. how about Brave? anyone know? will we be safe because they're built in or is this a ticking timebomb too? btw ublock origin lite isn't that bad, although in my brief experience using it, i don't think it cleaned up webpages anymore. 

So then, you've been using UBlock Origin Lite. Can you provide a more detailed assessment on its abilities please. Its advantages and disadvantages.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 16:27, thexfile said:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases

You can download chromium.zip and unpack/unzip it then install it.

Yeah, I'm a basic everyday user and really don't want to go to those lengths.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 16:39, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

That is not correct... Even when Mozilla drops Manifest v2 they will continue to maintain support for blocking WebRequest in their Manifest v3 implementation which is what gimps ad blockers.

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2022/05/18/manifest-v3-in-firefox-recap-next-steps/

Well, I hope Mozilla hold to that.

I am concerned though that Mozilla only survives on Google handouts. As I stated earlier, who knows what happens if FF gains in market share and those users are blocking ads.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 17:20, Werct said:

I'll just lay my thoughts here in relation to adblocking🙂

My main browser on Windows and Android is Firefox (nightly on desktop and beta on mobile). I use Ublock Origin there with some custom filters (EasyPrivacy, Fanboy annoyance + Ublock Annoyances and country-specific filter lists).

The second best choice IMO would be Brave, but I really dislike their crypto affiliation and unnecessary bloat (news, search, AI integration and such). Yes, I know many things can be disabled, but I dislike them anyways. Besides, it's Chromium, and as long as Firefox is still usable, I don't feel the need to use it instead.

I use DNS blocking on desktop and mobile (DNSCrypt, DoH, DoT and hosts blocking). On Android I use AdAway for hosts DNS blocking with root using some custom lists. I also use DoT server with blocking capabilities (I used Adguard DNS until recently and switched to something else as of late. Big list of working encrypted DNS servers can be found here.)

Besides that, I use DoH server with blocking capabilities on Firefox (both desktop and mobile). List is also here, as I mentioned previously (search by keyword "adblocking", for example).

Also, I have Dnscrypt-proxy2 running locally on my Windows machines. It has DNS blocking capabilities too, I use it instead of editing hosts file directly on Windows (hosts file is known to be very slow on Windows). Blocking\allowlists must be synthesized manually using a python script though. It's a bit cumbersome to setup, but nothing too hard.

And lastly, I have a router with OpenWRT which has DoH resolver installed. It may enable the capability to filter DNS requests using a filtering DoH server too, but I haven't set it up yet.

Also, I have a question to Adguard users: how exactly does it work? Isn't it just a DNS blocker with extra eye-candy? I think so, at least, without the "HTTPS filtering" option enabled, which I believe is a large security hole (I'm not comfortable with anyone decrypting my HTTPS connections).

Excuse my English

Well, I can't answer your question on Adguard.

Other than that there is a lot there for a novice like myself to dig into.

I appreciate you taking the time to format and post your response though. 👍

[fintechfooty]

On 21/02/2025 at 18:35, fintechfooty said:

yeah that's the crazy part. how about Brave? anyone know? will we be safe because they're built in or is this a ticking timebomb too? btw ublock origin lite isn't that bad, although in my brief experience using it, i don't think it cleaned up webpages anymore. 

ok sorry guys FYI for anyone reading this post, i got confused with Manifest V3 and Web Environment Integrity (WEI). 

[fintechfooty]

On 22/02/2025 at 01:55, Edouard said:

So then, you've been using UBlock Origin Lite. Can you provide a more detailed assessment on its abilities please. Its advantages and disadvantages.

no honestly, i use Adguard now or get ads blocked through Mullvad. but from what experienced, on the websites I visit daily, the only difference was that it didn't clean the pages up, so you'd have like white spaces etc. nothing crazy and still a better browsing experience then no ad block. all this discussion reminds me that its probably time to pay my dues to Neowin soon, in adclicks or somethin else 😅.

[olavinto]

On 22/02/2025 at 07:39, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

That is not correct... Even when Mozilla drops Manifest v2 they will continue to maintain support for blocking WebRequest in their Manifest v3 implementation which is what gimps ad blockers.

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2022/05/18/manifest-v3-in-firefox-recap-next-steps/

I didn't claim otherwise. That doesn't change the fact that it is platform specific implementation, and for developers that means that they have to build their extensions specifically for it. Personally I am a (and have been for ages) Firefox first user but I use extensions that work identically on all browser and rather drop some functionality for the ability to jump freely around without losing anything. Gesturefy is the only Firefox specific extension that I use, not just because it is very customizable and pretty (and I also maintain its Finnish translation), but also because gestures are built-in in many other browsers (Vivaldi and Edge for example),

[+Good Bot, Bad Bot Subscriber¹]

On 23/02/2025 at 19:39, olavinto said:

I didn't claim otherwise. That doesn't change the fact that it is platform specific implementation, and for developers that means that they have to build their extensions specifically for it. Personally I am a (and have been for ages) Firefox first user but I use extensions that work identically on all browser and rather drop some functionality for the ability to jump freely around without losing anything. Gesturefy is the only Firefox specific extension that I use, not just because it is very customizable and pretty (and I also maintain its Finnish translation), but also because gestures are built-in in many other browsers (Vivaldi and Edge for example),

You implied if Firefox drops MV2 support they would be in the same situation as Chrome where ad-blockers would be gimped or would stop supporting the browser and that is not true. 

A source developers need do anything significant to support Firefox's MV3 implementation please. It doesn't even matter as uBlock Origin which is the best ad-blocker out there will always support Firefox and the developer himself said it works the best on Firefox.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

On 21/02/2025 at 20:59, Edouard said:

Absoluely! Having switched though and liking Firefox I must say the Passwsord Manager absolutely sucks salty ba**s! It is so unreliable and doesn't work all the time. Yet another reason why people stick with Google Chrome...it just works.

I am a long term NordVPN user and have free Nord Password Manager so will take the time to set it up.

For password management, you should consider comparing it to free tier of Proton Pass. Works on all browsers and all three major OS's, and smart phones.

[erpster3]

On 23/02/2025 at 19:28, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

You implied if Firefox drops MV2 support they would be in the same situation as Chrome where ad-blockers would be gimped or would stop supporting the browser and that is not true. 

A source developers need do anything significant to support Firefox's MV3 implementation please. It doesn't even matter as uBlock Origin which is the best ad-blocker out there will always support Firefox and the developer himself said it works the best on Firefox.

and indeed it is NOT true

this recent blog from Mozilla proves they're still keeping MV2 alongside MV3 and are not dropping MV2 support in Firefox anytime soon

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-manifest-v3-adblockers/

Quote

Support for both Manifest V2 and V3 — While some browsers are phasing out Manifest V2 entirely, Firefox is keeping it alongside Manifest V3.

 

[olavinto]

On 24/02/2025 at 05:28, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

You implied if Firefox drops MV2 support they would be in the same situation as Chrome where ad-blockers would be gimped or would stop supporting the browser and that is not true. 

A source developers need do anything significant to support Firefox's MV3 implementation please. It doesn't even matter as uBlock Origin which is the best ad-blocker out there will always support Firefox and the developer himself said it works the best on Firefox.

I never claimed that it requires anything especially significant, nor did I mean to imply that Mozilla is going to do something. Anything platform specific requires changes, no matter how small or large they are, and many developers just do not bother and take the option that works on everything. A simple example would be Smart TV apps - we would have all apps on every TV if the developers bothered to support them, but as it happens, we do not. Reasons may vary, but time and/or money, i.e. recources are the usual one. We would also have a lot more Windows apps on Linux, and iOS apps on Android, and vice versa...

I have not once even hinted about anything uBlock's or any other specific developer is going to do, that is just something you argue out of nowhere. If someone says "IF" they most certainly do not mean that it is going to happen or even that they believe it will happen. For some reason people just spin things to fit some narrative. IF I stop proofreading uBlock's Finnish translation at Crowdin no one is doing it, but that doesn't mean that someone won't do it in the future. IF I die tomorrow, I won't be alive, but you can certainly state the obvious that it is very unlikely that I will die tomorrow or even state that I will, although I didn't even imply it in any way...

[olavinto]

On 26/02/2025 at 10:15, erpster3 said:

and indeed it is NOT true

this recent blog from Mozilla proves they're still keeping MV2 alongside MV3 and are not dropping MV2 support in Firefox anytime soon

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-manifest-v3-adblockers/

 

I never said so, or even implied so. That is something that others spun into what I wrote. IF was the important part, yet for some reason that kind of vanished it seems...

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

uBlock Origin Lite for Chrome.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh

[Rigby]

I switched to Brave, it still supports Ublock Origin and I'm liking it much better than Chrome anyway.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

On 07/03/2025 at 10:34, Rigby said:

I switched to Brave, it still supports Ublock Origin and I'm liking it much better than Chrome anyway.

Brave is not trustworthy in my opinion.

I'm not going to tell anyone what browser to use though. Here is a link so you have info on things that might influence your discission depending on what bothers you: List of Brave browser controversies