Ask HN: What are you replacing uBlock Origin with?

Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41757178

18 points | by gtirloni 70 days ago

23 comments

  • itohihiyt 70 days ago
    Wrong question.

    Question should be: What are you replacing Chrome with?

  • thot_experiment 69 days ago
    I gave up on chrome 6 years ago and I haven't regretted it one bit. I think I'm in a similar boat with windows now, it's gotten so user hostile and I don't have the patience I once had for regedits etc to get it to a usable state. Once I can no longer use W10 I think it'll be time for Linux and proton
    • fracus 69 days ago
      I made the switch 3 years ago and haven't looked back. Fuck Chrome.
  • cebert 70 days ago
    I use Firefox and don’t have any issues.
  • washadjeffmad 70 days ago
    Why? It still works, arguably better than ever.

    I block meta and google adservices domains at the network level. I've never really used Chrome except on my Chromebook because of the obvious, and I'll probably end up filing an FTC complaint as soon as the v2 rollback hits it.

  • anthk 70 days ago
    A hosts file from https://github.com/stevenblack/hosts, not using JavaScript with LibreSJS + https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/workarounds-f... to browse on some pages which require JS.

    Also I use the News Waflle service from gemini://gemi.dev from Lagrange and Offpunk (a Gemini protocol client) which can cut down a web size to a 3% of the original. OFC no ads are shown.

    Before anyone jumps into me on the motto but news sites need money to run, blah, blah..., most newspaper sites in Spain have more than 700 tracking related cookies and tons of bloat in form of JS. I am not exxagerating. 700, FFS.

    Browse https://elindependiente.com from a web browser. Then, paste the full URL into gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/waffle.cgi/view and open any news.

    As a test under Lagrange or any Gemini client:

    gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/waffle.cgi/view?https%3A%2F%2Felindependiente.com

    Open any link, don't worry if you don't understand Spanish. Just scroll down to the bottom, and read the line on the saved up size. It varies between 90% and 99%. And that with a web scrapper and converter into Gemini.

    If we compared the whole size of the webs against the cut-down Gemini site (but with the whole news), the percentage of saved data wound't be lower than 98% for sure.

  • dotcoma 70 days ago
    Why should I replace Ublock Origin? Why not dump Chrome instead?
    • 7373737373 69 days ago
      Indeed - why keep something that doesn't want to be your (user) agent?
  • runjake 70 days ago
    I’m not. Despite Mozilla, I use Firefox.
  • al_borland 70 days ago
    Interesting timing that my company just emailed me this week to tell me they will be removing Firefox from my system for “security reasons”. They suggest I move to Chrome, Edge, or Safari (with no App Store access).

    I had been using Firefox for years, as I try to avoid Chromium based browsers at all costs. It’s only a matter of time before they block Safari.

    • ravshan 66 days ago
      The reason might be the recent 0day exploit.
    • itohihiyt 70 days ago
      Did they specify what those security reasons were?
      • al_borland 70 days ago
        No, and any time I’ve tried to question anything I’m met with shrugs. I’m not sure who makes these decisions.

        Funny enough, Firefox is still listed as software I can download and install through the company software portal, at the same time as I’m being told they are going to remove it.

    • speedgoose 70 days ago
      Time to download Firefox Developer Edition.
  • slater 70 days ago
    Firefox is right. there.
    • thomassmith65 70 days ago
      Yes. Whenever possible, I avoid Google products, but say I had been using Chrome and I read:

      "Chrome Canary just killed uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2 extensions"

      My takeaway would be: Google is against the way I use Chrome, and they will continue introducing ways to stop it.

      Personally, I would want the matter resolved once and for all.

      So I would either (a) give up on ad-blockers and privacy add-ons, or (b) switch to a browser I don't have to fight (eg: Firefox, or a Firefox-based offshoot)

  • gumboshoes 69 days ago
    I have several lifetime AdGuard licenses and went back to using them, which actually simplifies filtering for all of my browsers and virtual machines. It's so far been great, and it blocks YouTube ads on desktop (and mobile but less seamlessly).
  • christophilus 70 days ago
    I use Firefox, and Brave is my backup.
  • aabiji 68 days ago
    You could setup a proxy server to block ads. This might be of interest to you:

    https://github.com/0xERR0R/blocky

    • bad_user 67 days ago
      DNS-level blocking is worse than the MV3-compatible uBO Lite.

      It can't block ads coming from 1st party domains, it can't do cosmetic filtering, it can't work with shims to prevent the breakage of websites, and it's easily detected and circumvented.

  • neilsimp1 70 days ago
    Google Chrome is malware.
  • mindcrash 69 days ago
    Brave has native support for uBlock Origin lists, you only need to activate them manually.

    Right now it's probably the best privacy-minding commercial browser out there.

  • paulcole 69 days ago
    I just don’t use an adblocker. Somehow life goes on.
  • keernan 69 days ago
    uMatrix by author of uBlock Origin. I love uMatrix even though it takes work experimenting to with each site's settings. But it allows me to see the links to all 3rd party sites and control which I allow and disallow.
  • sergiotapia 68 days ago
    Brave Browser. Made by a solid dude with a proven track record.
  • tssva 70 days ago
    uBlock Origin Lite
  • emmanueloga_ 69 days ago
    Works fine in Edge, afaict.
    • bad_user 67 days ago
      It will go away in Edge as well.

      Furthermore, Microsoft's Edge is sharing your data with the entire advertising industry.

  • gaws 69 days ago
    Just use Firefox.
  • SeanAnderson 70 days ago
    Going to Firefox
  • 2024user 70 days ago
    Firefox
  • Timorthy 70 days ago
    vivo