There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

uBlock Origin developer recommends switching to Firefox as Chrome flags the extension

~~www.neowin.net/news/…/~~

EDIT: Apologies. Updated with a link to what gorhill REALLY said:

Manifest v2 uBO will not be automatically replaced by Manifest v3 uBOL[ight]. uBOL is too different from uBO for it to silently replace uBO – you will have to explicitly make a choice as to which extension should replace uBO according to your own prerogatives.

Ultimately whether uBOL is an acceptable alternative to uBO is up to you, it’s not a choice that will be made for you.

**Will development of uBO continue?**Yes, there are other browsers which are not deprecating Manifest v2, e.g. Firefox.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

So many kids with assigned school Chromebooks are going to get fucked over by this. You can apparently install Firefox on a Chromebook via the Google Play Store, but that was disabled on my daughter’s Chromebook. I don’t want her exposed to constant advertising while she’s doing her schoolwork. It’s bad enough that she’s exposed to it the rest of the time just being in America.

ILikeBoobies ,

It’s normal for system admins to not let their users install non-whitelist software

You should PTA to switch from Chrome to Firefox

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I think it’s very unlikely that they would pay for the IT department to install Firefox on every Chromebook. You’re talking 14,000 students in this county and only the kindergartners don’t get Chromebooks.

GnuLinuxDude ,
@GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml avatar

That’s really wild to me. They give each grade school student a chromebook? That is honestly terrifying.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Why is it terrifying? A lot of kids don’t have computers of their own and this gives them access to the internet. It’s also, in my opinion, a far better way to give kids tests than filling in bubbles on a sheet of paper.

I mean I wish there were other good, cheap options, but there aren’t.

GnuLinuxDude ,
@GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml avatar

I really hate to “back in my day” this but we had computer labs for that when I was younger. And that didn’t require giving a monopoly company my name or any other information about me. And I wasn’t being ad-tracked all day long going to websites.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Computer labs aren’t going to help the kids going home at night to study and I don’t really think shuffling kids into a computer lab every time there’s a test in any class makes much sense.

CaptainSpaceman ,

I mean, both can be true if we’re living in a cloud-based world.

Schools can provide workstations and households can either opt in to using their own computer at home or be assigned a laptop or laptop credit. Choice is the important part here, and limiting kids choices at the benefit of major oligarchy organizations sucks big floppy donkey dick.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Schools are not about choice, they’re about an even playing field. You cannot give students the kind of education you can give them on a per-classroom basis if they don’t all have access to the same technology. What if a parent chooses to not give the kid a laptop even though the kid doesn’t have a computer at home?

You don’t advocate for that for the same reason that you don’t advocate for parents to choose whether or not their kids get taught about evolution.

CaptainSpaceman ,

What if a parent chooses to not give the kid a laptop even though the kid doesn’t have a computer at home?

Why would that happen? What weird strawman scenario is this?

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Who knows? Maybe because they don’t allow that demonic technology in their house. People are crazy. It doesn’t matter why. Assuming parents, given the choice, will make the correct choice for their child has been shown to be wrong again and again.

But let’s say all the kids with notebooks at home don’t get them and all the kids without notebooks at home get them. Ok. Now, the software we’re using for art class this year runs in Windows. Your kid has a Macbook.

CaptainSpaceman ,

Virtual environments exist and are the backbone of modern IT. Surely we can teach kids how to boot Docker?

Also your demonic line doesnt add up, the ye can still say the Chromebooks are demonic and make the kid leave it outside the house or something.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Except they have to use the Chromebook to do schoolwork. I’m not sure why you are acting like this is some weird rarity when it’s really standard.

And no, expecting a six-year-old to understand much more than clicking on the default home page is not something we can “surely teach.” Because they’re six.

CaptainSpaceman ,

What about 7 year olds?

Is it just 6 year olds we need to handhold docker image launching?

I understand Chromebooks are standard and I desire that to change, hence this entire thread you’ve been commenting on.

I seem to interact with you a lot, and sometimes it feels like you get lost in all the posts and comments you make and lose focus of the entire conversation at hand.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Expecting all, or even most, children in an elementary school to understand that is silly.

All I can think is you’ve never raised any children if you think most six or seven-year-olds could understand that.

School, again, is supposed to be about fairness, not catering to the smartest kids.

ILikeBoobies ,

Should be able to do either remotely or by including it in the image

I imagine personal work is saved to a server not locally

But it doesn’t hurt to try

_tezz ,

You might be surprised! This type of change is usually automated and centralized, so an administrator shouldn’t ever have to even touch any of those Chromebooks. Might be worth having a chat with your school administrators.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

My own daughter is in online school now (it’s still a public school, it’s just not in a physical location) so she can use her own computer… but I have to do the user agent switcher thing because the school’s own website testing software isn’t Firefox-compatible. And the school is run by evil Pierson who basically has a monopoly on American public schools, so I’m guessing that’s true for all of those Chromebooks out there too.

Still, I might suggest it to them anyway just for the benefit of the other kids.

CaptainSpaceman ,

Yeah, they sign major contracts that have a lot of stipulations so they get the best deals since theyre govt funded. This backfires, ofc, by locking them into bad products.

Im not saying dont try, definitely do.

mwalimu ,
@mwalimu@baraza.africa avatar

I think this is something most people rarely talk about but it strikes home to many of us. As a parent, I have a responsibility to defend my children against this persistent cognitive manipulation and experimentation. Just as I would not want a random stranger at the corner have exclusive attention of my kid and sell them insurance or grammarly or mesothelioma, I would also never want them to have that unfiltered access to my kids online. One can then say AdBlocks are a parental obligation.

CaptainSpaceman ,

there has to be collective voices and collective action taken. do parents unions exist?

boywar3 ,

Usually, they are used to burn books :/

ARg94 ,

*Limit access to pornography in grade school libraries. Translated your groomer speak to English for you.

boywar3 ,

What a weird thing to say

ARg94 ,

You think little kids need to view explicit material? I hope no one trusts you around children. Parents have a right and a responsibility to know and approve of the curriculum taught to their children by state schools financed by their taxes. If they do not approve they should have the right to send their children and their money elsewhere. This will be the law.

boywar3 ,

And, pray tell, what library or school has pornography in it that is easily accessible to minors?

Furthermore, having lived my entire life around educators and now working for an educational institution: parents are fucking stupid lol

The sheer numbers of videos of parents bitching and crying at school meetings or libraries about “X book is pornographic” or “this book has witchcraft and should be burned” is absurd. Those mouth breathers don’t even know how to critically examine a fucking facebook post for bullshit, let alone comprehend the difficulty in teaching children.

Don’t like your kid learning about how Trans people exist? Go fuck yourself and homeschool your kid so they can be permanently stunted in terms of preparation for the real world. Let the vast majority of regular people make sure their kids grow up socially aware and at least passingly prepared for the future.

Also, “this will be the law?” Have you seen the flailing Republican party? Guess what fucker - the average American thinks project 2025 is batshit and the republican party got hijacked by a manchild and ruined their stupid plans. It’s only downhill from here now that they went mask off - most people think they’re nuts.

ARg94 ,

Nah. I’m gonna keep advocating for sanity in public schools and for parents to have oversight of their children’s education.

boywar3 ,

Lol ok whatever you say. Enjoy the consequences of letting the uneducated run things

StupidBrotherInLaw ,

Wow, I was wrong. You’re even stupider than I thought!

suction ,

How about a DNS-based ad-blocking service? NextDNS is pretty good and not expensive. You should check if you can set custom DNS servers on that Chromebook, though.

kalpol ,

DNS over https bypasses much of that, right? till you find and block those DNS servers

r3df0x ,

I have Yunohost installed on my local network and they have DNS adblocking apps that you can install.

You can also very easily install apps like Owncloud to have your own version of Google Drive.

suction ,

That probably will not be suitable because the Chromebook could leave the home network.

mp3 ,
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    suction ,

    Don’t tell me that, there’s a Dad yearnin’ to help his spawn?!?!

    Swarfega ,

    They should update the Chrome extension to tell people to download Firefox instead

    r3df0x ,

    Imagine if Google’s decision to do this to fight adblockers results in them losing the lead in the browser war because everyone switches to other browsers.

    setsneedtofeed ,
    @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

    Dreaming is one thing, but I remain skeptical. Tech people always seem to vastly overestimate how much the average population will react to tech news. Most people don’t care. They should but they don’t. In addition to that, use of Chrome by businesses is heavily entrenched. The IT guys probably hate it on a personal level, but it takes a lot to make business bigwigs change direction away from a “trustworthy” big company like Google.

    r3df0x ,

    The vast majority of people aren’t even going to know or care. A lot of people will probably just continue on even when their adblocker becomes less effective. Of course the type of people who use adblockers are also more likely to wonder why their adblocker suddenly became less effective and then switch to a browser where it’s more effective.

    It takes a lot to change the inertia that already exists. People have been predicting the rise of the Linux desktop for at least a decade now and it still hasn’t really caught on.

    WereCat ,

    Tech people are niche but over time we will pre-install what we consider “good” on our grandmas, dads, moms, friends, etc… PCs

    setsneedtofeed ,
    @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

    The older generation demographic continues to shrink, while it seems the great majority of Gen Z and A are perfectly happy to use whatever ecosystem is built into their device. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t want better software, merely being realistic about the choices of populations.

    FiskFisk33 ,

    I mostly agree, but lets remember

    use of Chrome by businesses is heavily entrenched.

    So was internet explorer

    Llewellyn ,

    And we had it like forever.

    FiskFisk33 ,

    “like” being a very important word in that sentence.

    setsneedtofeed ,
    @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

    Chrome was backed by Google, a multifaceted staple of the Internet ecosystem and rolled out with a ton of marketing behind it.

    I remain skeptical that Firefox could plausibly overtake Chrome. The mere word of mouth of tech enthusiasts simply isn’t enough to make a population majority proactively switch.

    kartoffelsaft ,

    The thing that finally got businesses to finally get off IE wasn’t from the browser being worse than every other option. Heck, it wasn’t even because it was a decrepit piece of software that lost it’s former market dominance (and if anything businesses see that as a positive, not a negative).

    What finally did that was microsoft saying there won’t be any security updates. That’s what finally got them off their ass; subtly threatening them with data breaches, exploits, etc. if they continue to use it. I don’t see google doing this anytime soon, at least not without a “sequel” like microsoft had with edge.

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Why not just recommend not using Chrome…?

    warm ,

    Avoid chromium browsers

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    …no?

    moriquende ,

    why not?

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Why?

    moriquende ,

    a good reason is that they are controlled by Google and without competition they can implement any anti-consumer features they want

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    No they’re not. Your don’t know what you’re talking about.

    exu ,

    None of the other Chromium based browsers have the engineering power to go their own way. They are dependent on what Google adds or removes in Chromium.

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Wrong again.

    tyler ,

    github.com/…/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox

    helenslunch , (edited )
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    You know there are other ad blockers? Other browsers have them built into the browser itself so there’s no need for any extensions at all.

    You realize Mozilla is selling your data, regardless of what extensions you have?

    ReveredOxygen ,
    @ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Mozilla doesn’t sell your data if you use Librewolf (or if you just opt out)

    helenslunch , (edited )
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Then use LibreWolf.

    I just think it’s hilarious that people fall over themselves lambasting private Chromium alternatives while vehemently supporting a browser that is openly selling your data.

    ReveredOxygen ,
    @ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I do?

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Was that a question? I dunno, do you?

    Ibuthyr ,

    uBO is the best one though. And Firefox is one of the major mainstream browsers. Is easier to get people to change to something well known rather than an obscure browser like librewolf.

    AnAmericanPotato ,

    Switching to another Chromium-based browser is a half-measure. Other Chromium-based browsers are on borrowed time.

    As time goes on, it will become more difficult for them to maintain v2 support. Nobody has the resources to properly maintain a browser fork with more than minor modifications. And you can bet Google will go out of their way to make this difficult for everybody else.

    I mean, sure, use what you’re comfortable with if you really can’t use a non-Chromium-based browser for some reason. But it means you’re likely going to have to jump ship again sooner or later. Why not just jump once, to something with better long-term prospects?

    Then again, the folks behind Arc Browser have expressed interest in becoming engine-agnostic, so perhaps there will be a Chromium-free Arc version in the future. That would be very cool.

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Other Chromium-based browsers are on borrowed time. As time goes on, it will become more difficult for them to maintain v2 support.

    And Firefox won’t? I just explained why you don’t even need v2 support.

    Nobody has the resources to properly maintain a browser fork with more than minor modifications.

    Except…all of them?

    And you can bet Google will go out of their way to make this difficult for everybody else.

    If and when that becomes a problem, I can change later just like I can today… Today it is not a problem.

    brucethemoose ,

    They don’t need to maintain V2, they can bundle native adblockers like Cromite.

    BarbecueCowboy ,

    Did I miss a piece? I don’t see anywhere in the original statement where firefox is actively recommended, just mentioned as an example.

    Aatube ,

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

    _haha_oh_wow_ ,
    @_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I recommend switching to another browser like Firefox or Librewolf.

    ipkpjersi , (edited )

    I love Librewolf currently but I worry it’s going to stray too much from what it originally was like Waterfox and others ended up doing, and then end up randomly breaking compatibility with certain plugins or introducing other issues.

    Right now, Librewolf is the best way to experience Firefox. Will that still be the case in 5, 10, 15 years? That remains to be seen. I hope it’s still the best way to experience Firefox years from now. Having to change browsers every so often does suck tbh.

    fine_sandy_bottom ,

    Meh.

    Librewolf already breaks loads of websites with it’s fingerprinting resistance - just get used to turning it off.

    In any case, you already need a chromium fork handy for all the sites that just plain don’t support firefox any more. I’ve run in to weird issues in firefox that don’t arise in chromium several times in the last month. This is going to get much worse.

    As for changing browsers. I don’t care very much. I don’t use many browser features like bookmarks or passwords.

    ipkpjersi ,

    Which websites did you run into issues with Firefox? I haven’t had any issues with any websites. I do think you’re right that it’s probably going to get worse over time, but maybe not if more people make the switch to Firefox.

    fine_sandy_bottom , (edited )

    booking.com is the worst I’ve encountered. There’s a captcha type anti-bot thing that I can’t pass with firefox. I think it uses canvas.

    edit: another I use all the time is called echo360. It’s the platform my university uses to host lecture videos. The player just plain doesn’t work in firefox - blank screen.

    xavier666 ,

    Those are jumping to Librewolf from Firefox, keep the following things in mind

    • It’s a privacy first, usability second browser
    • It’s not a browser for your grandparents. You have you take some steps to give it the same functionality as Firefox
    • Good news is it removes a lot of Mozilla cruft
    • Browser fingerprinting, which allows websites to recognize an individual user, is disabled on this browser. This feature greatly enhances privacy.
    • But it means it will ‘slightly’ break some websites. Nothing very serious but certain QoL features will be missing at first. Eg. When downloading a software, it can’t determine which OS you are using.
    • You can enable browser fingerprinting and get those QoL features back.

    Hope you have a good experience on Librewolf. I’ve been using it for the past 1 year and it’s fine.

    exanime ,

    Using firedragon for desktop (Linux) and between iceraven and mull for mobile

    AShadyRaven ,

    hello, i have chosen to value your opinion above my own based on very shaky reasoning i will not be sharing

    I abandoned chrome for being too RAM-hungry when im playing games w the browser open

    i abandoned Internet Explorer for being too slow

    and i abandoned firefox for being too bloated and sluggish, but that was like 2010 and things change

    im currently using Opera but why do you choose firefox over its contemporaries?

    megopie ,

    Because it’s not based on chromium(blink web engine), there are two other well supported web engines which browsers can be based on, WebKit (Apple), and Gecko (Mozilla).

    At the end of the day, if it’s built on Blink, it’s liable to have Google break things they don’t like on the back end. Including ad blockers.

    Opera used to be built on it’s own web engine (presto) but since 2013 it’s been built on Blink.

    AShadyRaven ,

    that was a great summary, thank you

    trying to research such a broad topic was overwhelming

    _haha_oh_wow_ ,
    @_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Firefox is open source and Opera is still based on Chromium (the engine for Chrome, same as Edge and a number of other browsers).

    For practical use, Firefox seems plenty fast on my devices including mobile.

    Mars2k21 ,
    @Mars2k21@sh.itjust.works avatar

    This has been a long time in the making…hopefully Firefox will see a market share increase. Google is doing this right as they get slapped by an antitrust ruling ironically lol. If you haven’t already just go ahead and switch, if you like Lemmy you’ll probably like Firefox as well.

    Side note: I try not to be negative here, but this would be a great time for Mozilla to get their act together as an organization. Love Firefox and the idea, but Mozilla has been pissing off the FOSS space for a while now with their decisions. If they’ve improved in recent years, disregard this.

    PM_Your_Nudes_Please ,

    The tricky part is that Google isn’t wrong about Manifest v3 increasing security for some people. Just allowing any extension to access the full URLs from a webpage is honestly pretty sketchy for most things that aren’t adblockers. Think about Beth in accounting who has 27 bloatware toolbar extensions installed on her home PC, which are happily collecting her full browser history and sending it off to gods know where. Manifest v3 is targeted at increasing security for those users, by making it more difficult for extensions to track you.

    The issue is that it also makes ad blocking virtually impossible, because the blocker is forced to just trust that the browser is being truthful about what is and isn’t on the page. And when the browser (developed by one of the largest advertisers in the world) has a vested financial interest in displaying ads, there’s very little trust that the browser will actually be honest.

    The issue is that there’s not some sort of “yes, I really want this extension to have full access” legacy workaround built in. Yes, it would inevitably be abused by those scummy extensions, which would just nag idiot users to allow them full access. And the idiot users, being idiots, would just do it without understanding the risks. Even if Chrome threw up all kinds of big red “hey make sure this extension actually needs full access and isn’t just tracking your shit” warning flags, there are still plenty of users who would happily give bloatware full access without reading any of the warnings. But it would also allow ad blockers to continue to function.

    x00z ,
    @x00z@lemmy.world avatar

    If it was about security then they should simply block Manifest v2 extensions from their store or at least start doing some actual verification of the extensions they host. Taking away freedom claiming it to be for security is almost always a lie.

    helpImTrappedOnline ,

    Verify! But what will all the “Cändy Crunch 7 Browser Edition with 12 Free Play Levels” players do?

    Voroxpete ,

    The single biggest security improvement you could make for Beth in accounting would be to install UBO. Where do you think she gets all those shitty toolbar extensions? That’s right, from ads.

    This is targeted at destroying adblockers because Google is, first and foremost, an ad serving company. That’s their business model. It incidentally improves security for certain users in certain edge cases, because they need some kind of figleaf of legitimacy.

    helpImTrappedOnline ,

    Ads and crappy installers, all though that seems less common than it used to be. I can’t say if that’s a general trend or tunnel vision due to me not installing crapware.

    send_cortical_nodes ,

    Can you share some examples of things that pisses off the FOSS space? Mostly just curious to understand more

    irreticent ,
    @irreticent@lemmy.world avatar

    Here’s the most recent example:

    The browser that promises “no shady privacy notices or advertiser backdoors” on its storefront has suddenly added an experimental feature to beam user interactions to advertisers and enables it by default. Many are not happy.

    TheGrandNagus , (edited )

    It should be noted that the advertisers get zero personal information, neither does Mozilla, and it has been designed in a way so that the data is impossible to fingerprint in a way that can tie it back to any individual person, machine, or specific location.

    It’s a way for advertisers (and like it or not, a decent amount of the content we want has to be paid for somehow) to see how effective their ads are without anybody’s privacy being encroached on.

    Should it have been turned on without informing the user? Fuck no. But there’s a lot of misinformation going around about this.

    Personally I’ll still be using uBO, because I despise any ads at all, but if we are to have ads, the system Mozilla has built is just about the most ethical and privacy-respecting way to do it.

    smayonak ,

    Even if Mozilla takes precautions to avoid de-anonymizing our data, any private data sold to data brokers becomes a part of the puzzle for learning our identities

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_re-identification

    Even knowing something a trivial as two movie ratings led to a 68% success rate in learning an identity.

    TheGrandNagus , (edited )

    I suggest you actually look into how their system works. This kind of strategy is not possible with Mozilla’s system.

    In fact, your very link points to ‘Differential Privacy’ as a very effective foil to re-identification, and that’s basically how the Mozilla system operates.

    This is not a matter of Mozilla having a load of data about your account or IP, then Mozilla scrubbing that information then sending the database to advertisers.

    smayonak ,

    I appreciate your informed response but no system other than advertising-abstinence is fool proof.

    Im saying this as a supporter. My browser of choice is firefox and I send them money regularly. And I understand their need to generate more revenue. But there has never been a company who has sold customer data discretely. My understanding is that every piece of data that’s sold can be de anonymized when combined with other data sets. And the data is horsetraded until it gets into some very marginal actors’ hands.

    Mozilla’s need for money is largely driven by massive mismanagement. It should have been fully funded in perpetuity through establishing a foundation that operates off interest payments but they decided to try and build a headquarters in Mountainview. They also operate offices in some of the most expensive cities in the world. They have made expensive software aquisitions. These are not necessary and have only whetted mozilla’s thirst for other revenue sources. It’s guaranteed that they will look for more customer data to sell because that’s the path of least resistance.

    I wish them luck but I also wish they’d not chase advertising money.

    claudiop ,

    As for the “no system is foolproof”, you’re thinking of implementations, not algorithms. An algorithm can indeed be something-proof. Most “known” algorithms are built on top of very strong mathematical foundations stating what is possible, what is not and what is a maybe.

    As for the ads thing, Mozilla is not making a dime off this. It is not monetizable. They’re basically expecting that by giving advertisers a fairly “benign” way to do their shenanigans they will stop doing things the way they currently do (with per-individual tracking).

    The absolutists might say that there’s no such thing as benign ads, however truth is that the market forces behind ads are big enough that you’d get website-integrity-bullshit rather ad-free web. Having tracking less ads is better than having a “this website only works in chrome” or “only without extensions” internet.

    Is there any other possibility? Maybe. Is is reasonable to think that the moment tracking starts getting blocked em masse, we risk a web-integrity-bullshit +wherever-said-tracking-can-exist-only internet? I think so.

    smayonak ,

    I think you’re right and that I’ve horribly misunderstood how this data is collected and used. According to their yearly report, mozilla’s advertising revenue is explicitly not drawn from user data and is only related to tiles and default search engine sponsorships. The fact that they are not selling this information is heartening and it inspires confidence that they have not flipped on the ad money spigot.

    ILikeBoobies ,

    That’s a good thing

    Getting trackers out of cookies is something users want

    Dettweiler42 ,

    I switched to Firefox last year when talks of chromium manifest V3 First started popping up. I had used Firefox many years ago when Chrome was first coming out. I was blown away at how well it worked compared to old Firefox, plus how easy they made it to switch. I even changed my phone browser and my desktop browser ties in with it seamlessly. Very happy with the switch and I wish I had switched earlier.

    Now, I just wish I could use it at work. Not sure how I’m going to block ads on my work browser.

    the_radness ,

    My work blocks all kinds random software, Firefox included. My workaround is using Brave browser and a service like NextDNS either as an app or as the DNS provider for my home network. It’s not perfect but it’s flexible enough.

    Dettweiler42 ,

    What’s odd is that we have Firefox pre-installed on our computers, but installing uBlock causes a lot of websites to stop loading. I forget the error, but I recall doing a lot of searching and it quickly becoming more effort than it was worth at the time since I’d have to do it all over again almost every day.

    the_radness ,

    That’s by design. uBlock is blocking ad and spyware network requests. It’s common for sites to crash or error because of this. They’ll depend on a call to Google or Sentry or DataDog to succeed before continuing with their initialization. As a platform engineer for several web properties, I die a little inside every time I see this happen.

    Dettweiler42 ,

    It works flawlessly on my personal devices. I’m assuming the errors are due to something with our intranet security.

    the_radness ,

    Have you tried VPN?

    Dettweiler42 ,

    Can’t add that to work PCs, plus we already use our own VPN service for external devices

    Suavevillain ,
    @Suavevillain@lemmy.world avatar

    Welcome to Firefox to anyone who is switching. I use a fork for Firefox (Floorp) Becuase I like it’s features.

    LowtierComputer ,

    What does that do?

    ILikeBoobies ,

    Mozilla telemetry disabled (you can do this on normal firefox)

    Some themes

    Sidebar extensions

    More easily move titlebar (firefoxcss)

    LowtierComputer ,

    Thank you fellow Boob liker.

    ekZepp ,
    @ekZepp@lemmy.world avatar

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/376e6956-36f6-454d-9aac-62a656f140e8.png

    Muffi ,

    What are the main differences, for someone considering going from Firefox to Librewolf?

    itslilith ,
    @itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Librewolf is to Firefox what Chromium is to Chrome, essentially. Removed many bloated Mozilla anti-features, has sensible (but not paranoid) privacy and security defaults and ships with uBlock origin pre-installed. You can archive all of that with Firefox, but Librewolf makes things easy for you.

    JaddedFauceet ,

    the first comparison is not technically correct, in the sense:

    • Chrome is built on top of Chromium
    • LibreWolf is built on top of Firefox

    LibreWolf implements additional privacy features and settings on top of Firefox. Chromium is the base browser that everyone else built on top of. It does not implement additional privacy features.

    perhaps a better comparison would be: LibreWolf is to Firefox what Ungoogled Chromium is to Chromium

    owiseedoubleyou ,
    @owiseedoubleyou@lemmy.ml avatar

    Librewolf is hardened out of the box whereas with Firefox, you have to harden it yourslf

    br3ad ,

    You should also consider arkenfox user.js

    Zink ,

    I’ve been eyeing up librewolf, having made the switch to Firefox on all machines a while back.

    If I’m using DDG for search, uBlock Origin, bitwarden, strict tracking protection, disabled data collection and ad measurements, and then have https-only in all windows and max protection dns over https, will I see any practical difference?

    In this case I do prefer functionality over 100% perfect privacy and anti-advertising. I’m fortunate to be able to run Linux on my work machine (I use mint, btw) and so I use the browser versions of M365 including Teams video conferencing.

    aceshigh ,
    @aceshigh@lemmy.world avatar

    I have a Chromebook, what do I need to do to get ubo? From my understanding, Firefox is not supported in the browser so I’d need to get Linux? How does security work with Linux?

    nexussapphire ,

    Firewalled for limiting untrustworthy connections to the computer(public networks, hotels, even work).

    apparmor for protecting the kernel and controlling file access to applications. SELinux is also a good option but if you need to load kernel modules, it can take a few minutes to sign and register it. It is automated on redhat systems though.

    Other than that, do your research and don’t run random scripts and install random apps.

    aceshigh ,
    @aceshigh@lemmy.world avatar

    I wonder why you’re getting downvoted

    nexussapphire ,

    I don’t know, they’re just security measures you can take. Maybe some personal preference thing. I don’t bother with the app guard thing and SELinux is pretty annoying with my Nvidia graphics card but a firewall is something I always setup.

    dyc3 ,

    www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/…/chromebook/

    sturmblast ,

    I haven’t used Chrome in years now. Firefox has always been my home.

    pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

    PPAPI really ruined this all NPAPI FTW

    hOrni ,

    I know, that some day I will have to switch to Firefox. But I’m putting it off as long as I can, as I don’t like that browser. I will have to instal a shit load of add-ons to get the customisability of Vivaldi, and I doubt k will get it all.

    QuantumSoul ,

    Use floorp.app/en

    drathvedro ,

    Do you even need uBO on vivaldi, though? A friend of mine recently had an issue of sites breaking, even with all addons disabled. As we found out, vivaldi already has a built-in adblocker, which uses pretty much the same lists as uBO. In the end it turned out to be one of the easylist’s borked rules…

    Butterpaderp ,

    I just got firefox yesterday, cause I noticed youtube started baking unskippable ads into their site.

    Phoenicianpirate ,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Avoid chromium browsers

    grubbyweasel ,

    I don’t like or use brave for multiple reasons but why is the fact that it’s built on chromium a problem?

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Because every browser is becoming 3 chromes in a trench coat.

    Long term this will be an issue.

    Anti_Iridium ,

    LONG LIVE GECKO

    aStonedSanta ,

    They are doing what Apple has done to browsers on iPhones. It’s all safari all the way down… lol

    boonhet ,

    Ironically, Apple forcing Safari on iPhones is the single greatest thing standing between Chromium and total market domination.

    Not that it’s a good thing for Apple users, but it’s the one remaining reason not to slap a “Not on Chromium? Don’t bother visiting” sign on every website. Us Firefox users don’t matter, statistically speaking

    aStonedSanta ,

    Fuck. I hadn’t even thought of that perspective. You are totally right.

    Burghler ,

    Link is borked, add another ) at the end

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Works fine for me and has the ), what are you using to look at it?

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)…)

    Burghler ,

    This link works for me but the previous has the same broken link. I’m using the Sync android client. ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

    The 1st opens a link to the wiki page: Chromium (web browser

    Missing the ending ) for me

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Odd so it does not like the link getting renamed then.

    rozodru , (edited )
    @rozodru@lemmy.ca avatar

    yup I recently switched from Vivaldi to librewolf which is a shame cause I really liked vivaldi and it’s customization and embedded email but since it’s chromium I knew it was just a matter of time before I had to switch.

    edit: annnnnnd nevermind I just found Floorp so I’m happy again.

    icedterminal ,

    Vivaldi does have it’s own built in adblocker. You can add sources. It’s not as robust at uBO, but than nothing

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Tell us more of the Floorp. (as long as its not based on chrome)

    rozodru ,
    @rozodru@lemmy.ca avatar

    it’s firefox based. Japanese browser that has the same customization as vivaldi (which is why I really liked vivaldi) so I can have my address bar and navigation bar at the bottom, my tabs up top, and all my other stuff on the side of the window.

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Any issues with not being set up in Japanese?

    rozodru ,
    @rozodru@lemmy.ca avatar

    nope, runs great I really dig it. set it as my default.

    M0oP0o ,
    @M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

    Neat, thanks for letting us know. Will have to try it.

    priapus ,

    Floorp is an excellent browser. I mainly use it for the first class vertical tab support, but it’s ability to pin websites to open in a sidebar is great. I use it for stuff like Proton mail and drive.

    I will say in case anyone here saw it in the past, it had a bit of drama around the author making part of it closed source, but that was fortunately resolved before it was ever released with any proprietary code.

    Jakeroxs ,

    In case it matters vivaldi.com/…/manifest-v3-update-vivaldi-is-futur…

    Summzashi ,

    It should be bannable to recommend that trojan here

    rozodru ,
    @rozodru@lemmy.ca avatar

    you will soon though.

    Darkshadow5 ,
    @Darkshadow5@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    i use brave on my phone since its harder to adblock on phones for me

    Anti_Iridium ,

    Firefox mobile has ublock origin

    Darkshadow5 ,
    @Darkshadow5@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    ooh ty i’ll try it :)

    bluewing ,

    I switched my phone browser the Firefox Mobile and have installed ublock and I am quite satisfied so far.

    douglasg14b , (edited )
    @douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

    Ah yes, the browser that monetizers based on activity tracking. The one based on chromium, handing Google further control over web standards. The browser with a a mysterious nearly unlimited budget for advertising before they even had a handful of users. That browser.

    irotsoma ,
    @irotsoma@lemmy.world avatar

    I’ve been using LibreWolf on Desktop and Mull on Android. Basically more securely configured versions of Firefox with the proprietary telemetry and some other stuff removed. Takes some tweaking to get certain websites to work that need more access than they should or use Certificate Authorities that don’t have working OSCP servers.

    can , (edited )

    If any site doesn’t work you can try this official addon Chrome Mask. If it works with it on you can report it Mozilla.

    Edit: a bit of context:

    https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/797473c8-9717-4bc0-98ec-ea2632a92e2c.jpeg

    bluewing ,

    I"m going to try that extension to see if it helps with a couple of websites. So thanks for the recommendation!

    can ,

    If it does help be sure to report it to Mozilla! Otherwise the site admins will just see another Chrome user and have little. Incentive to focus on FF.

    saplyng ,

    Thanks for sharing the extension! I just got some passkeys and they just weren’t working on several websites for Firefox (looking at you Azure) but that solved the issue immediately!

    can ,

    Be sure to report a bug to Mozilla regarding those pages!

    Dju ,

    Comment from gorhill (the developer of uBO and uBOL):

    I didn’t recommend to switch to uBO Lite, the article made that up. I merely pointed out Google Chrome currently presents uBO Lite as an alternative (along with 3 other content blockers), explained what uBO Lite is, and concluded that it may or may not be considered an acceptable alternative, it’s for each person to decide.

    www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/…/lgdmthd/

    Telorand ,

    “uBlock Origin developer slams NeoWin, backpedals on recommendation!” —NeoWin editors, probably.

    TeoTwawki ,
    @TeoTwawki@lemmy.world avatar

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/080da8df-297f-4b96-bf0e-6b26be969367.gif

    Sounds about right for any news outlet. “Slams” is so overused, and usually nowhere near an accurate euphamism.

    TrickDacy ,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    How did supposedly intellectual people ever conclude that we should use the word “slam” on the daily in headlines?

    It’s straight out of Idiocracy and I will never get used to it.

    SpaceCadet ,
    @SpaceCadet@feddit.nl avatar

    Ragebait gets more clicks.

    TrickDacy ,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    Well yes, obviously. My question is more about how they pretend it’s not just ragebait.

    SpaceCadet ,
    @SpaceCadet@feddit.nl avatar

    Very simple, they learned not to care and the ones who did care got weeded out.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    Intellectual? Shit, that doesn’t pay.

    jabathekek ,
    @jabathekek@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Unless you’re lucky enough to get tenure, or stumble upon a fact of the universe that no one knew and just happens to be relevant to a modern economy.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    Because not only is it emotive (and they love emotive language to get you to click), it’s also just an objectively fantastic word for a headline in that it’s very concise and helps headlines fit on a single line.

    Headline space is limited, so it’s easier to go with “X slams Y over Z” as opposed to “X criticises Y over Z” or “X denounces Y over Z” or “X castigates Y over Z”

    It’s annoying how much it’s seen. But I get why they do it.

    TrickDacy ,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    it’s also just an objectively fantastic word

    100% disagree

    “X criticises Y over Z” or “X denounces Y over Z” or “X castigates Y over Z”

    All of these are better. They’re honest about what’s happening and most people understand them. “Slams” implies some level of violence or at least force. Not only isn’t that dishonest most of the time, it could devalue the word to that point that it just simply has no meaning. I refuse to internalize it as best as I can, but if they had their way I would think “slam” means a brutal vitriolic takedown. Instead I know it normally means “mildly comments on” these days.

    Fuck “slam” in headlines.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    You’re interpreting me saying “it’s objectively good in headlines because it’s extremely short and clear what it means” as “I love it when they say ‘slams’!”

    I was very explicit in saying I don’t like it. It’s just objectively (not subjectively) a good word for headlines.

    I am not making an emotional argument to you. I’m just answering the question of why they use it. If you didn’t actually want an answer to the question, you should’ve made it clearer it was a rhetorical question.

    All of these are better

    No they aren’t, for the very reason I already stated. They aren’t concise, which is paramount when it comes to crafting a headline.

    Slam in headlines implies violence

    Slam does not imply violence or force lol.

    TrickDacy ,
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    If you didn’t actually want an answer to the question

    I thought it’s clear when we ask a question that can’t actually be answered, because thousands of journalists are not one person we can ask, it’s not meant to be taken 100% literally.

    Slam does not imply violence or force lol.

    Of course it does. That’s 100% the only reason why they use it this way. Notice how that’s explicit in every definition but the last (the newer, still less-common usage I’m taking issue with):

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0a0a9a94-70ed-40fb-81f9-52123ea95e11.png

    I love when people want to quibble about word definitions, being super strict or loose whenever it suits them. In the real world, people use words loosely and over time the connotation changes. Hence definition 4’s existence here.

    My main problem with using the word this way is that it’s rarely honest. I am annoyed by it because it sounds stupid, but like I said, more importantly:

    if they had their way I would think “slam” means a brutal vitriolic takedown. Instead I know it normally means “mildly comments on” these days.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    I thought it’s clear when we ask a question that can’t actually be answered

    Except… it can, because I did? We’re talking about a common industry practice here, not some enigmatic unsolvable mystery of the universe.

    Of course it does.

    No.

    That’s 100% the only reason why they use it this way.

    Oh is it? Do you have an assertion for that? You really think that when they say “X slams Y” they’re trying to make you think there’s a physical altercation going on?

    Notice how that’s explicit in every definition but the last (the newer, still less-common usage I’m taking issue with):

    You’ll notice I said in the context of headlines. Of course in other contexts slam can mean violence. But because we’re specifically talking about headlines here, not, say, discussing a WWE performance, it’s very obvious what “slams” means.

    You’re really going into the weeds here. You asked why they use “slams” in headlines so often, and I gave you an answer. I don’t see why you feel the need to argue about it so much.

    They use it because people understand what it means, it’s emotive, and it’s very concise compared to “criticises”, “chastises”, “denounces”, “castigates”, or “attacks”

    Actually, based on your previous argument, you’d probably hate it if they said “attacks” too, as you could also interpret it as violence.

    TrickDacy , (edited )
    @TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

    I stopped reading. Being an idiot on purpose isn’t as cool as you think it is

    It’s just flat out ridiculous to say that the word slam has no connotations of forcefulness or violence. Even if I didn’t put the goddamned dictionary entry in your face to prove it. Bye.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    That’s not what I said, can you even read? Are you afflicted with cretinism, lad?

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