[HN Gopher] Why uBlock Origin works best on Firefox
___________________________________________________________________
 
Why uBlock Origin works best on Firefox
 
Author : anonymfus
Score  : 592 points
Date   : 2021-04-09 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
 
web link (github.com)
w3m dump (github.com)
 
| BigGreenTurtle wrote:
| uBlock Origin helped me get a vaccine appointment despite the
| scheduling system's attempt to make it as hard as possible.
| Thanks!
 
| staticassertion wrote:
| Sucks, but I'm pretty locked into Chrome. I use GSuite for
| management, ChromeOS, etc. Maybe it means that uBlock Origin
| can't protect me as well, but it's pretty hard for me to give up
| the benefits from all of those other things.
| 
| I don't see Firefox competing. Mozilla doesn't seem to believe
| that monetizing a browser is possible, whereas I pay thousands of
| dollars a year at my company because of Chrome's integrations
| with these other systems.
| 
| Until Firefox can compete like that, and maybe they just can't, I
| can't switch.
 
  | lolinder wrote:
  | ChromeOS is one thing, but what in GSuite doesn't work on
  | Firefox?
 
    | crazygringo wrote:
    | Not the parent commenter, but I'd assume it's mainly browser
    | sync.
    | 
    | Being able to log into any Chromebook and immediately have
    | all yours bookmarks/apps/tools/passwords/etc. that you use on
    | your desktop and laptop is pretty useful.
    | 
    | As great as Firefox is, if you use Chromebooks then you're
    | gonna use, well, Chrome.
 
      | pkulak wrote:
      | Eh, I use Chromebooks occasionally. The trick is just to
      | not lock things like bookmarks and passwords into you
      | browser. 1password and pinboard both work great with
      | Chrome.
 
      | lolinder wrote:
      | Ah, that does make sense. It doesn't explain why GSuite is
      | a factor, but I do get the browser sync.
 
  | rightbyte wrote:
  | Just fire up Chrome for Google stuff and picky sites and use FF
  | for everything else.
 
  | asdff wrote:
  | why not use g suite on firefox? g suite works fine for me.
 
    | entropicdrifter wrote:
    | Yeah, I use G-Suite on FF (with UBO, of course) every single
    | day for work and personal use and have never had a single
    | issue.
 
  | eikenberry wrote:
  | What situation (job or whatever) has led to such vendor lock-
  | in? Maybe if you gave more details others could avoid your
  | situation.
 
    | judge2020 wrote:
    | I think they mean they manage a Google Workplace (formerly G
    | Suite) org themselves, given:
    | 
    | > I use GSuite for management
    | 
    | Using FF would break existing MDM/DLP policies that they
    | themselves have set up.
 
| antattack wrote:
| I would use Firefox + uBlock Origin over other browsers even if
| it was half as fast.
 
| OJFord wrote:
| Such a shame uMatrix was discontinued.
| 
| uBlock Origin comes close, and surpasses in some ways (I used
| both for that reason) but lacks separate control of cookies,
| images, scripts, etc. So you can't accept a particular third
| party's images without also accepting its scripts, cookies, etc.
| 
| I mention it mainly in the hope that we can popularise its
| maintained fork 'nuTensor'.
| 
| After trying uBlock (as in attempting to also cover what I used
| to use uMatrix for) for a few weeks I think it's insufficient and
| nuTensor is the better option for me, but it quickly won't be if
| ~nobody uses it and it falls by the wayside.
| 
| Alternatively uBO could support the few details it lacks from uM?
| It seems like the problem basically was difficulty/time
| constraints in supporting both.. but I don't know why they were
| ever separate? There's plenty of overlap. If uBO had uM's
| granularity in 'advanced mode', that'd be perfect.
 
  | Demiurge wrote:
  | I agree it's a shame, and I hope there is a legit replacement.
  | However, it continues to work for me, so far, without issues.
 
| sandeepbhat wrote:
| Really nice post!! I almost got confused with uBlox at the start.
| 
| https://www.u-blox.com/en
 
| nimbius wrote:
| this process, also called cname flattening, is available in many
| dns recursors.
 
| Sephr wrote:
| > The Firefox version of uBO use LZ4 compression by default to
| store raw filter lists, compiled list data, and memory snapshots
| to disk storage.
| 
| Thais doesn't explain why the Chrome version doesn't use LZ4 or
| better by default. There are native JS implementations available
| as well that don't require WebAssembly.
 
| xoa wrote:
| Wow, what an awesome dive into some of the technical aspects
| behind one of my favorite tools for using the web. And I do think
| of it that way these days, it's fairly stunning on some sites to
| switch off all the block and see how they become genuinely
| unbrowsable. I remember seeing Gorhill discuss a few times over
| the years some of the reqs for uBO during certain times (like why
| it could no longer work with Safari following changes Apple made
| a while back), but so cool to have it all collected in one place.
| 
| Having said that I've also been fairly stunned recently to see
| how much difference a simple DNS blacklist system can make too.
| Not because it's a big technical achievement but because it _isn
| 't_ and in principle seems relatively trivial to work around. But
| as I've been switching all my routing from UniFi to OPNsense,
| I've gone ahead and tried out Unbound's basic built-in
| blacklisting. While it's no uBO, it works on every single device
| and browser including in apps and it seems like it really
| shouldn't, that more parties would just be proxying ads through
| their own infra and DNS. Been kind of an interesting illustration
| of technical vs economic influences in an ecosystem. I can see
| how proxying would add complexity and cost to setup so it must
| just be that few enough people do it the ad industry can't be
| bothered.
| 
| But should that ever catch on (and it could, Raspberry Pi seems
| fairly well known) I expect uBO to be able to keep up with the
| cat-and-mouse long after DNS has been left behind. This piece
| helps underline how incredibly important maintaining a critical
| level of diversity in the browser ecosystem is. Just shortly ago
| there were a bunch of complaints again about Apple not allowing
| Chrome to be on iOS because it "holds back the web", but what
| "holding back the web" looks like is certainly a matter of
| perspective...
 
  | estaseuropano wrote:
  | I guess the issue with proxying is that the ad provider has
  | less control/data and can't be sure whether views are genuine.
 
  | apozem wrote:
  | I really, really wish Apple would update Safari for uBlock
  | Origin. I'm about to publish a Safari extension (a NoScript
  | equivalent) and the content blocking APIs are so limited. iOS
  | is even worse than the Mac, too. On iOS AFAIK you can't even
  | reload the page for the user.
 
| grenoire wrote:
| Honestly, I can't really browse on my phone anymore. I'm...
| spoiled by FF + uBlock and I can't tolerate all the distractions.
| 
| Will we ever get enough traction on either blocking mechanisms or
| stop shoving ads everywhere? Will the general public experience
| the pleasures of an ad-less internet?
| 
| P.S. I'm on an iPhone, blockers failed me so far. Thanks for the
| suggestions fellas.
 
  | pacifika wrote:
  | Firefox focus includes a decent safari content blocker
 
  | nashashmi wrote:
  | I hear you. One of the greatest reasons I miss Firefox on
  | android was because it allowed ublock.
 
  | nonbirithm wrote:
  | If Mozilla can continue honing their mobile browsing team and
  | keep alive a mobile web browser with pre-Manifest v3
  | WebExtension support, then maybe the status quo doesn't have to
  | change. Advertisers can push whatever they want and the 0.1% of
  | users that want to use uBlock can happily block them all. As
  | far as the current landscape of adblocking goes, I have no real
  | complaints.
  | 
  | If people try to encourage too much radical change with how ads
  | are distributed, I fear that the advertising agencies will
  | panic and all start to do what YouTube does, which is to serve
  | the ads from the same domain as the content, rendering all
  | domain-based adblocking useless. At that point, the only thing
  | between the general Internet and ads will be uBlock, and if
  | Google obtains complete control of the WebExtension standards,
  | I'm not sure there would be anything else we could do.
 
  | therealmarv wrote:
  | Using Adguard on Android for some years. It works really good
  | with Chrome and all other apps. Mobile browsing without any
  | adblocker is a very bad experience.
 
  | bobiny wrote:
  | I'm using this on iOS https://better.fyi/ I don't remember last
  | time I saw ads.
 
  | kube-system wrote:
  | Run pihole or a similar dns solution at the network level, and
  | you can block domains without installing anything on your
  | devices.
 
    | approxim8ion wrote:
    | Host based blocking is certainly better than nothing, but
    | uBlock offers much more comprehensive and expansive blocking,
    | not to mention cosmetic filtering and other features that you
    | can't achieve with PiHole/NextDNS/AdguardDNS/Blokada etc..
 
      | kube-system wrote:
      | For sure, it's not as powerful as something that can modify
      | the DOM, etc. But, you can also run both, if you still
      | prefer uBlock on your PC.
 
        | approxim8ion wrote:
        | Yup, I agree. Running both right now, the additional
        | benefit of moving DNS queries away from my ISP (I pay for
        | NextDNS) is certainly a good one too
 
        | computronus wrote:
        | I use both - uBO at the browser level and a PiHole for
        | DNS. It's "defense in depth" - there's more than one
        | layer of defense for something nefarious to get through.
 
  | fsflover wrote:
  | Firefox with uBlock works fine on my Pinephone ;)
 
  | kitsunesoba wrote:
  | On iOS, Safari with a couple content blockers (like Purify
  | and/or 1Blocker) do a pretty decent job. Once in a blue moon
  | something will get through, but the goal of dramatically
  | improving load times and decrudding pages is accomplished well
  | enough for me.
  | 
  | On Android, Firefox supports a subset of extensions that
  | includes uBlock Origin. Chrome seems to be the dominant browser
  | on Android but regardless of how good it is, I can't imagine
  | _not_ using Firefox there.
 
    | rattray wrote:
    | Firefox is my default browser on Android, and I use Chrome
    | when I need to. It works fine.
    | 
    | I personally tend to use Chrome for "logged-in" internet use,
    | and Firefox for "logged-out" use like browsing, news, etc.
    | True on both desktop and mobile. Partly this is because
    | Google's password vault has great UX across Chrome and
    | Android apps.
 
  | jamesgeck0 wrote:
  | On iPhone you have Safari content blockers. Better Blocker and
  | Firefox Focus are two popular ones.
  | 
  | There's also a Lockdown, an open source firewall implemented
  | using iOS VPN capabilities (though it doesn't send your
  | requests through an external server). Lockdown is able to block
  | trackers in any app, not just Safari.
 
  | zaik wrote:
  | Firefox Mobile + uBlock works great for me.
 
    | bentcorner wrote:
    | It works pretty well but Edge/Chrome feel better than FF on
    | mobile. Scrolling performance is probably the biggest
    | difference. I've had issues with using FF as the default
    | webview too.
 
      | mminer237 wrote:
      | You can always use Brave. Not quite as good as uBO, but it
      | still blocks most ads while being Chromium-based.
 
      | kgwxd wrote:
      | Fells better even with all the ads and other annoyances uBO
      | blocks? I've never noticed a scrolling performance issue
      | myself, let alone one worth tolerating that stuff over.
 
  | godelski wrote:
  | FF Mobile has uBlock
 
    | temp0826 wrote:
    | Firefox on iOS does not support extensions, fwiw
 
      | thereare5lights wrote:
      | You can use Firefox Focus as the ad blocker for Safari on
      | iOS
 
      | benjohnson wrote:
      | As I understand it, it's Apples fault for requiring all
      | browsers delivered by it's App Store to be basically
      | wrappers around Safari.
 
        | throwaway09223 wrote:
        | How has Apple not been strung up on antitrust grounds
        | over this?
 
  | jjbinx007 wrote:
  | Blokada for Android is a pretty good DNS-based ad blocker.
 
    | leeoniya wrote:
    | or if you have root, AdAway can patch your hosts file.
 
    | ignoramous wrote:
    | You can definitely do better than use Blokada:
    | https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/8536
 
    | Ayesh wrote:
    | Or, you can just set a DoT server that blocks ads by default.
 
    | bootlooped wrote:
    | Came here to say this same thing about NextDNS. Plus they'll
    | block ads in apps, which uBlock Origin is not going to help
    | you with. It seems like DNS ad blocking is a pretty good
    | solution on mobile, with different pros and cons.
    | 
    | I do also use uBlock Origin on Firefox Mobile though.
 
  | Svperstar wrote:
  | >spoiled by FF+uBlock and I can't tolerate all the
  | distractions.
  | 
  | I run FF+uBlock on my S21 Ultra. Works just like the desktop.
 
    | sedatk wrote:
    | Not possible with an iPhone, I presume.
 
  | na85 wrote:
  | Posting this from my oneplus running firefox and ublock origin.
  | Firefox has been my daily driver on mobile for a few years now
  | (since before Quantum) and it's been reliably great.
 
  | rplnt wrote:
  | Anymore? I don't think browsing on a phone was ever viable. The
  | problems changed over time, but I never found myself using the
  | browser for anything other than absolute necessity. It's sad
  | really.
  | 
  | Back in the day Opera with Turbo (or whatever it was called)
  | was the peak of mobile browser usability for me.
 
    | timbit42 wrote:
    | FF+uBO works great on Android.
 
  | [deleted]
 
  | ub99 wrote:
  | I use AdGuard pro on an iPhone and generally don't see any ads
  | at all in Safari. I believe this app will block ads in any iOS
  | browser.
 
    | coldpie wrote:
    | I'd like to switch to iPhone, but the lack of real Firefox +
    | uBO is what keeps me from doing it. It's good to know there
    | are some options there, thanks for the pointer.
 
      | satysin wrote:
      | I was much like you but I can say that AdGuard for Safari
      | on iOS is pretty decent. Sure it isn't as flexible as
      | Firefox+uBO on Android but it does a fine job at blocking
      | ads and doesn't require any tweaking.
      | 
      | The biggest benefit is that as every web view on iOS is
      | Safari it means you get content blocking in _all_ apps that
      | use a web view (providing they don 't disable it which I'm
      | sure some do but I don't know of any that actually do it).
      | E.g. in the third-party reddit app Apollo any website you
      | load within the app also has all ads blocked.
 
      | lotsofpulp wrote:
      | If ad blocking is all you're looking for, I can't remember
      | the last time I saw an ad in Safari iOS with Firefox focus
      | content blocker, or Wipr content blocker.
      | 
      | I don't notice any difference between Firefox or Chrome +
      | ublock origin and Safari + Wipr/Firefox Focus.
 
    | pcf wrote:
    | AFAIK, ads can only be blocked in Safari on iOS. I have
    | Adguard on my iPhone, but it only works in Safari - not
    | Firefox, which is the browser I use. So that's very annoying.
 
      | axlee wrote:
      | There are DNS blockers for iOS, which block most ads,
      | including in-app ads. Just need to find the right list.
 
      | beagle3 wrote:
      | Firefox has an additional app called Firefox Focus which
      | installs a content blocker for both Safari and Firefox.
      | 
      | Also for Safari, Magic Lasso AdBlocker does a very good
      | job.
 
      | jonathanlydall wrote:
      | Edge browser on iOS has an option to make use of content
      | blockers in the same way that Safari does. Last I checked
      | Chrome doesn't.
      | 
      | I'm surprised to hear that Firefox doesn't have the option
      | to do so.
      | 
      | I don't know if it's just muscle memory, but Safari on iOS
      | is still my browser of choice due to the way you open and
      | close tabs in it.
 
  | sudosysgen wrote:
  | Well, I use FF+uBlock on my phone :) It works super well.
 
  | crocsarecool wrote:
  | I can't look up a recipe for boiled eggs without coming upon a
  | 15 paragraph essay with ads in between each paragraph. It's so
  | obnoxious now. I don't mind that people want to monetize, but
  | it's getting off putting when it is so obnoxious.
 
    | ohyeshedid wrote:
    | I, too, am tired of reading fanfic murder mysteries to get
    | basic recipe information.
 
    | bilekas wrote:
    | The same, I find news articles particularly bad examples. I
    | get advertisments, but news articles with excessive
    | clickbaiity adds (adds not internal links to other articles)
    | really do just make me close the tab down.
    | 
    | If there was some better mobile integration of the extensions
    | or built into the browser itself to be perhaps less intrusive
    | adds allowed it would be appreciated.
    | 
    | From that, are browsers legally allowed to implement an
    | adblock/ublock directly into their browser ? Seems like
    | something that would be considered against fair use or
    | something along those lines.
 
      | SilasX wrote:
      | >The same, I find news articles particularly bad examples.
      | I get advertisments, but news articles with excessive
      | clickbaiity adds (adds not internal links to other
      | articles) really do just make me close the tab down.
      | 
      | Yeah, they follow every dark pattern in the book,
      | especially on mobile. 90% of the time, I'll see a video at
      | the top that autoplays, and then if I scroll down, it will
      | make the video hover over the 75% of the article I'm trying
      | to read. Who is this supposed to benefit?
 
    | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
    | On recipe blogs, you are probably not looking at the actual
    | author monetizing. Rather, someone decided to create a
    | copycat website, hire a minimum-wage content writer off a
    | freelancing platform to rewrite the original text so that no
    | copyright violation is apparent, and then they put the
    | copycat website up with a boatload of advertising and SEO.
    | The 15 paragraphs are an SEO trick, as Google gives higher
    | weight to longform text.
    | 
    | This ecosystem is now so advanced that new copycat recipe
    | sites are based on existing copycat sites. You can easily
    | tell if a recipe website is a copycat by comparing the
    | supposed author bio to the quality of the English. If the
    | author bio claims these are recipes by a born and bred
    | Louisiana native who wants to share Southern cooking with the
    | world, but the actual text is full of grammatical mistakes
    | typical of Eastern Europeans or South/Southeast Asians, it is
    | clearly a rewritten copycat site.
 
    | MacroChip wrote:
    | I made https://thisfoodblogdoesnotexist.com as satire. It
    | uses GPT2 to generate blog content like those 15 paragraph
    | essays.
 
      | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
      | Needs more paragraphs. None of them talk about how their
      | kids are doing in school.
 
    | vorpalhex wrote:
    | FF with uBlock is available on android.
    | 
    | Alternatively check out "Paprika" which bills itself as a
    | recipe manager but actually will scrape webpages and extract
    | out recipes for you.
 
      | IronWolve wrote:
      | And darkreader addon. Addons for firefox mobile is very
      | handy.
 
    | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
    | The. Worst.
    | 
    | I don't care at all about any of this. Give me the time they
    | boil for ffs.
    | 
    | I don't know if it's sites paying by the word, or SEO, or
    | some "value added" psychological trick. It is getting worse.
 
      | bbarnett wrote:
      | I bet they've noticed 'more time spent on the page' since
      | they added interesting stories to those recipes! "When I
      | was little, Grandma did this and that and blah blah blah".
      | 
      | Of course, the time spent is cursing, and skimming and
      | hunting to find useful info. No one is finding the story
      | interesting, but it looks good on metrics?
      | 
      | I wonder if the above is accurate or not.
 
      | jlund-molfese wrote:
      | I think the idea is that Google allegedly prioritizes pages
      | by user dwell time, the idea being that if someone spends
      | 10 minutes on your page, it's more relevant than another
      | page where the user only spends 5 seconds before closing
      | the tab.
      | 
      | So forcing you to scroll through an essay on the complete
      | history of nutmeg before you can see any of the ingredients
      | in a chocolate chip cookie recipe may improve SEO
 
        | Semaphor wrote:
        | but every recipe site I've recently encountered, had a
        | "jump to recipe" link right at the top
 
      | Kelamir wrote:
      | I use https://recipe-search.typesense.org/ for finding
      | recipes, it has scraped over 2M of them. No distractions.
 
        | rightbyte wrote:
        | I have resorted to buying books after being burnt by just
        | bad receips floating around on the Internet.
 
  | LegitShady wrote:
  | If you have android you can FF + Ublock on android.
  | 
  | Sadly ios devices don't seem to have that option.
 
  | christophilus wrote:
  | Brave on iOS is great. So is the DDG browser.
 
  | blub wrote:
  | Give Brave a try on iOS. Besides offering ad blocking, it can
  | block all JS (unfortunately just an on/off toggle, no subdomain
  | specific settings) and this takes care of most annoyances like
  | cookie pop-ups, article count limiters, ads, etc. On the other
  | hand, mobile websites tend to break more often without JS
  | compared to desktop websites.
 
  | mtone wrote:
  | My iPad Air 1 is aging, slow, and I loved it but I simply won't
  | replace a machine where a publicly-funded news/docs store app
  | in particular gets laden with unskippable ads.
  | 
  | Half a thousand bucks for this frustration, no thanks! No
  | amount of content/entertainment is worth this.
 
  | dont__panic wrote:
  | I host my own VPN on a raspberry pi at home so I can use my
  | pi.hole even when I'm off my home wifi network. Unfortunately
  | that seems to be the most comprehensive solution I can find for
  | iOS, and sadly Android phones are pretty much all too large for
  | me.
 
  | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
  | > Will the general public experience the pleasures of an ad-
  | less internet?
  | 
  | Remember how cable was supposed to replace ads on over the air
  | tv? It was about minutes before it was all ads too. Streaming
  | services are starting to get there but then the shows
  | themselves are ads. And you have a scenario where Netflix and
  | YouTube couldn't exist in scenarios that didn't rely on our
  | bandwidth models and massive anti-competitive models.
  | 
  | ... so IDKMAN... I don't know how we get to an internet where
  | people making things aren't expecting to get paid for their
  | submissions, especially now that we've jumped in there with
  | both feet.
  | 
  | I personally would pay for a no-bullshit internet, but it's
  | just cable tv's promise all over again isn't it? As great as
  | something would start out, soon would come the influencers and
  | the narrative pushers and the censorship and the "forum
  | sliding" and the downvotes / echochambers / bubbles / power
  | tripping moderation...
  | 
  | I'm wondering if the solution isn't just to give it all up and
  | use the tools only when you need them. A cabin in the woods,
  | but a spotty dialup connection for when you need to find
  | something.
 
    | freebuju wrote:
    | > would pay for a no-bullshit internet
    | 
    | The money is in selling you ads, on a revolving basis. Not in
    | you ponying up a subscription fee to not see those ads.
    | 
    | If it's not the ads, it's the usual FBI or whatever
    | government surveillance program tracking you.
    | 
    | You are right on the solution however. Some ads and tracking
    | are so pervasive (e.g smart TVs) that the only truly
    | effective way to mitigate against them is to cut down on or
    | eliminate your exposure to these devices.
 
  | Dobbs wrote:
  | I run NextDNS on my phone. It isn't perfect particularly
  | because it is an all or nothing type thing which gets
  | frustrating with URL redirects. But it is far better than not.
 
  | isatty wrote:
  | On an iPhone?
  | 
  | I was a noscript user from 10+ years ago (I guess?) and I've
  | been using uBo for as long as I can remember but isn't Firefox
  | on iPhone just a wrapper? Is it battery efficient?
  | 
  | As a workaround I use a Pi-Hole (except, not on a pi).
 
    | mcyukon wrote:
    | It is just a webkit wrapper. At least the last time I looked
    | into it. UBlock Origin isn't possible. You can get some Apple
    | sanctioned Ad-Blockers, but I think most (or all?) of them
    | use a invisible VPN with DNS based ad blocking.
    | 
    | Mozilla has Firefox Focus for iOS, it does Ad Blocking but
    | it's main selling point is No Tracking, No history and No
    | synced bookmarks either
 
    | xaos____ wrote:
    | Install Firefox focus, go to Safari settings, add Firefox
    | focus as Content Blocker and Firefox ( Not Focus, the real
    | one) will show no ads anymore. Works, because Firefox on iOS
    | is mandated to use the Safari engine
 
| blub wrote:
| I started using Brave in addition to Firefox recently and I was
| curious if it supports this. Seems like it does
| (https://brave.com/privacy-updates-6/) and uBlock origin was the
| inspiration for that feature.
| 
| I never used uBlock, but I did use uMatrix which allows you very
| fine grained control over scripts and other resources based on
| the domain. Unfortunately it was a pain to get some things to
| work with that, especially online payments which use many
| subdomains and redirects. Paying for anything online was a game
| of enabling 10 domains on average, reloading the website, re-
| inputting payment info, etc. Some websites (like twitter) simply
| didn't work even if one enabled all the domains which appeared in
| the matrix.
| 
| Brave is pretty decent at blocking JS. Not as fine grained as
| uMatrix, and it apparently doesn't remember that you enabled
| things (at least in private browsing). I think it doesn't perform
| what uBlock calls HTML filtering, because it still makes requests
| to websites which were completely neutered by uMatrix. All in all
| it's more pleasant to surf using Brave than Firefox, because
| fewer websites are broken by the blocking.
| 
| I wasn't pleased with Safari's native tracking protection + a
| simple Safari blocking extension which only looks at URLs.
| Websites work the best, but it's making requests to many unwanted
| domains still. Maybe it's blocking cookies and scripts, no idea,
| but I'm not happy even with the simple requests for resources
| going through.
 
  | surround wrote:
  | Brave is Chromium-based and suffers from all of the limitations
  | stated in the parent article.
  | 
  | (Except for CNAME cloaking. However, their CNAME uncloaking
  | only applies to their built-in tracking protection. AFAIK, if
  | you use uBo on Brave it will be still unable to uncloak
  | CNAMES.)
 
    | tedivm wrote:
    | Brave even openly admits this in that blog post announcing
    | their support for native CNAME uncloaking-
    | 
    | > In version 1.25.0, uBlock Origin gained the ability to
    | detect and block CNAME-cloaked requests using Mozilla's
    | terrific browser.dns API. However, this solution only works
    | in Firefox, as Chromium does not provide the browser.dns API.
    | To some extent, these requests can be blocked using custom
    | DNS servers. However, no browsers have shipped with CNAME-
    | based adblocking protection capabilities available and on by
    | default.
 
| clircle wrote:
| This is technical and interesting, but can anyone tell the
| difference between web browsing with FF/uBo and Chrome/uBo? I
| personally cannot, other than that the fonts render a bit
| differently. Webpages load fast and no ads get through in both
| cases.
 
  | timbit42 wrote:
  | The first chart in the article explains the difference. It's
  | not so much about being able to tell the difference, but how
  | much it is protecting you in the background.
 
| pharmakom wrote:
| I love Firefox and I use it on principle. I don't think I have a
| worse web experience, although that wouldn't stop me.
| 
| What does break websites is turning on anti-tracking measures.
| The number of times a site won't work till I enable third party
| cookies shows the sad state of the web. Developers, do you only
| test in Chrome on Windows with default settings or something?
 
| sackofmugs wrote:
| This is honestly one of the first time I'm convinced in a
| technical sense to consider Firefox over Chrome. uBlock Origin
| feels as core to me to web browsing as Saved Passwords and
| Incognito Mode. That uBlock Origin can work better is like the
| browser itself being better.
 
  | paxys wrote:
  | I have been using Firefox as my daily driver for 3+ years now.
  | Haven't encountered a single case of sites working any worse
  | than on Chrome.
  | 
  | I also recently started using Firefox full-time on my work
  | machine despite IT strongly mandating that all our tools only
  | work on Chrome and everyone should use that. Have had zero
  | problems (and we use every Google service under the sun).
 
    | milesvp wrote:
    | I have to add my anecdata here as well. I've used firefox on
    | *buntu for 8+ years as my primary browser, and have found I
    | only need to open chrome ~1/mo for the rare case where I need
    | chrome (and I suspect my issues may be more tied to linux
    | than firefox specifically).
 
    | u801e wrote:
    | The only website I regularly use that doesn't work with
    | Firefox is Google voice.
 
      | BenjiWiebe wrote:
      | I use it in Firefox a lot, for several years now, with no
      | problems. I'm using Fedora + KDE but I doubt that makes
      | much difference.
 
        | u801e wrote:
        | It works for checking messages and sending them, but I've
        | never been able to get audio to work for making or
        | receiving phone calls. Then again, I even have similar
        | issues with chrome, but it works most of the time.
 
    | jay_kyburz wrote:
    | On my own videogame Neptune's Pride, I have noticed that the
    | performance of canvas rendering on Firefox noticeably worse
    | on OSX and Plasma. I still use Firefox for everything though.
 
    | karaterobot wrote:
    | > I have been using Firefox as my daily driver for 3+ years
    | now. Haven't encountered a single case of sites working any
    | worse than on Chrome.
    | 
    | Really? It happens to me all the time. I can't log into my
    | U.S. Bank account in Firefox, I can't submit a delivery order
    | on Doordash in Firefox, and (just this morning) I couldn't
    | validate a credit reporting form in Firefox.
    | 
    | Now, despite those and many other examples, I continue to use
    | Firefox as my primary browser, because Chrome has bigger
    | issues in my opinion. I don't blame FF for this, I blame the
    | websites. I just think it sucks that places do not test in or
    | support Firefox better.
 
      | paxys wrote:
      | Can't say about your bank, but I have used Doordash on
      | Firefox regularly and never had any issues.
 
      | jamespullar wrote:
      | Is it possible you have an extension blocking scripts or
      | redirects? I'm able to use Doordash just fine on Firefox.
 
        | karaterobot wrote:
        | At the risk of this being a tech support comment, I have
        | definitely tried disabling all my extensions, but no
        | luck. It might be some setting I have flipped on in
        | Firefox, but in general I am about as paranoid about my
        | privacy/security settings in both browsers.
 
      | JackC wrote:
      | Don't know if this is your issue, but it could be Enhanced
      | Tracking Protection -- I have it turned up pretty high in
      | Firefox and find that a _lot_ of sites won 't work until I
      | turn it off. One example seems to be sites that use "Google
      | Tag Manager."
 
      | linknoid wrote:
      | The only two places I use Chrome are Netflix and Costco.
      | Costco's behavior is just plain weird:
      | 
      | "Access Denied You don't have permission to access
      | "http://www.costco.com/" on this server."
      | 
      | Is this from running NoScript? Or does it affect all
      | Firefox users? (Also the URL is https://, not http://, so
      | the error message doesn't match the URL).
 
        | roca wrote:
        | Does Netflix not work in Firefox for you? Mozilla and
        | Netflix have worked together a lot to make sure it does
        | work.
 
        | linknoid wrote:
        | Nope, I get Error Code F7701-1003. I have Wildvine
        | enabled, and I tried completely disabling NoScript. It's
        | easier to just use Chrome for that one thing than have to
        | troubleshoot the problem.
 
        | wccrawford wrote:
        | I've used Costco's site plenty of times on Firefox. I
        | just double-checked Windows right now, and I'm pretty
        | sure I've used it on OSX/Firefox in the past.
 
        | linknoid wrote:
        | I cleared my cookies in Firefox for everything Costco
        | related, and it works now. Thanks for pointing out that
        | it works. No clue how it got in that state.
 
    | caoilte wrote:
    | I keep chromium for Google meet exclusively. I got awful
    | performance on Firefox... not that chrome is much better -
    | but at least I can kill it after every meeting without losing
    | other tabs.
 
      | magicalhippo wrote:
      | Used Google Meet just yesterday, only a small meeting with
      | five people, but all with webcams and of course audio.
      | Flawless and smooth with Firefox 86 on Windows 10.
      | 
      | Clearly not a universal thing then I guess.
 
        | caoilte wrote:
        | These things change frequently. I'll give it another go.
 
  | voxic11 wrote:
  | Yeah, I want to point out that uBlock Origin is fully
  | functional on mobile firefox which makes it by far the best
  | browser on Android. Plus with firefox you can do fun things
  | like disable the Wake Lock API on youtube so that you can
  | listen to audiobooks or music with the screen off and ad-free.
 
    | 725686 wrote:
    | Is it? Last time I tried, here where a bunch of sites that
    | just didn't work.
 
      | 411111111111111 wrote:
      | I haven't encountered any issues since I switched almost
      | two years ago.
 
    | [deleted]
 
    | jdubb wrote:
    | I agree, ublock origin was my single most important reason to
    | finally switch from chrome mobile to firefox mobile.
    | 
    | There are some quirks though, minor annoyances that every so
    | often get introduced in updates. For example, when closing
    | the last private browsing tab it doesn't automatically show
    | the regular tabs any more, but instead requires three more
    | taps. But I'm happy to ignore those for the sole reason of
    | having fully functional ad-blocking.
 
    | mhitza wrote:
    | I gave it a shot on Android, but the fact that it doesn't
    | support userscripts (Greasemonkey), it makes old.reddit.com
    | unreadable. For some reason Chrome increases the font size
    | for that site, whereas on Firefox I have very tiny text and
    | constantly have to zoom in. As I mostly read reddit/hacker
    | news on my phone I had to drop Firefox on Android :(
 
    | jackewiehose wrote:
    | > you can do fun things like disable the Wake Lock API
    | 
    | How? Is there a hidden about:config?
 
      | Knufen wrote:
      | I second this, if anyone knows how to configure this or has
      | a guide it would be much appreciated!
 
        | breput wrote:
        | Install the "Video Background Play Fix" add-on.
 
    | the_duke wrote:
    | My only complaint on mobile is that the UI for customizing
    | settings is annoying, eg for allowing JavaScript.
    | 
    | But that's the fault of Firefox.
    | 
    | I'm always astonished how bad/slow the mobile web experience
    | is without Ublock with JS blocked by default.
 
      | amluto wrote:
      | The desktop experience of clicking the drop down is not
      | fantastic: no tooltips and no real explanation of what
      | clicking the empty boxes does.
 
        | Semaphor wrote:
        | yeah, it's the primary reason I still use the
        | (undeveloped) uMatrix. ublock supposedly can do the same
        | things, but umatrix has an amazing interface that's clear
        | and straightforward while ublock is like one of those
        | mobile first (but also only) websites
 
        | ukyrgf wrote:
        | And you have to actually click submenus to expand them,
        | you don't just hover. And of course other menus like
        | bookmarks open submenus when you hover, so it's a gamble
        | every time.
 
    | caoilte wrote:
    | I like to use newpipe app on Android for YouTube.
 
    | ineptech wrote:
    | Same experience here! The only problem I have is that the
    | Android search bar seems to ignore the default Browser
    | setting, but avoiding it (opening FF rather than using the
    | search bar widget) is a small price to pay for avoiding ads
    | so effectively.
 
      | jdubb wrote:
      | Another option you have is to put the firefox search widget
      | above you google search widget in your home screen. It's a
      | bit ridiculous that the Google search bar can't be removed,
      | but this is second best.
 
        | pmontra wrote:
        | I did remove the Google search bar from all my phones. An
        | old and defunct Samsung Galaxy S2, a Sony Xperia X
        | Compact (Android 8) and a Samsung A40 (Android 11).
        | 
        | Which phone / OS do you use?
        | 
        | Btw, to search for something I open Firefox and type in
        | the URL bar.
 
      | NathanielK wrote:
      | You can use the launcher too. If you set the launcher to
      | open a new tab, it'll bring the keyboard up too. This means
      | you're one tap from searching your query in the browser.
      | 
      | If you have a good keyboard, you can even use DDG !bang
      | syntax. I find this very helpful for finding what I want
      | fast.
 
    | Causality1 wrote:
    | Depends. If you've also blocked ads with pi-hole or the
    | Android hosts file Firefox and Chrome get closer. Ublock on
    | Firefox is absolutely indespensible for sites that may be
    | actively hostile like piracy or porn, but for casual browsing
    | the UI of Chrome is a lot better.
    | 
    | For example, I prefer the address bar at the top. Firefox
    | doesn't like that, so the new tab button stays on the bottom,
    | meaning I have a six inch stretch between where my finger was
    | to hit the tab manager and where it has to go to open a new
    | tab. It's full of little things like that where the only
    | explanation that comes to mind is that Mozilla decided they
    | couldn't do it the best way because Chrome was already doing
    | it that way.
 
      | dredmorbius wrote:
      | Fennec Fox (Firefox for Android) can be configured with
      | controls (navbar, menus) at the top. Bottom is merely the
      | default.
 
  | AndrewKemendo wrote:
  | I've been on Firefox since I switched away from Opera year and
  | years ago and I don't know any technical reason I would use any
  | other browser - not even mentioning the other spyware reasons.
  | 
  | What technically do you find missing in FF?
 
  | shmerl wrote:
  | Never really got the appeal of Chrome. Firefox worked very well
  | for me for years.
 
    | FalconSensei wrote:
    | For me:
    | 
    | - command+d will save a bookmark to the last folder used
    | 
    | - command-y will open the history in a new, full tab
    | 
    | - bookmark manager also open full by default
    | 
    | - Recently closed shows windows and tabs together without
    | separating them
    | 
    | - I can actually see and edit a list of all search engines I
    | have registered that use the tab to autocomplete. Firefox's
    | keywords don't
 
    | jdfellow wrote:
    | Years ago I switched at a time when Chrom[e|ium] had a better
    | developer tools console than Firefox (although only slightly
    | better than Firebug). But, nowadays the console is equal if
    | not better in Firefox to Chrome.
 
    | sleepybrett wrote:
    | Back when I first started using chrome it was the snappiest
    | and had less memory usage than anything else on the block.
    | 
    | Then I started to think about what kind of tracking google
    | was doing with it, so I tried out firefox... which was just
    | as snappy and just as memory efficient.
    | 
    | Then I deleted chrome.
 
      | shmerl wrote:
      | I guess that performance gap didn't bother me at that point
      | to switch to less privacy respecting browser and Firefox
      | caught up well, so I never saw it as a problem.
 
    | andoriyu wrote:
    | Firefox, gecko specifically, performed very bad on Mac OS X
    | when chrome just came out.
    | 
    | That was also an era of websites crashing all the damn time -
    | in firefox it was crashing the entire browser.
    | 
    | Chrome was a significantly better browser for a while. Now
    | it's just "why switch?" to your average consumer.
 
    | stevewodil wrote:
    | Yeah I never really got the appeal of Firefox. Chrome worked
    | very well for me for years.
 
      | HenryBemis wrote:
      | So does the tracking ;)
 
        | stevewodil wrote:
        | Personally I enjoy being tracked, it's why I got the
        | Covid vaccine
 
      | timbit42 wrote:
      | The appeal is not having Google tracking literally
      | everything you do online.
 
      | Noughmad wrote:
      | Firefox is older than Chrome. Did you use IE before that or
      | are you just that young?
 
  | Sunspark wrote:
  | It's my regular browser for years. There's a lot of things it
  | does well or differently. For example, one UI thing I
  | appreciate about it is the ability to override a webpage's font
  | type and size choice. Chromium browsers don't let you do that,
  | you only get to pick if the website didn't pick for you.
 
    | [deleted]
 
  | tkiolp4 wrote:
  | It may sound dumb, but the only reason I don't use FF is
  | because of its UI. Somehow I think Chrome (and Safari) "look
  | better" and make browsing more enjoyable. And this comes from a
  | "techie" that knows exactly why, objectively, FF is probably
  | better than Chrome in terms of privacy.
  | 
  | Can't Mozilla "just copy" the look and feel of Chrome or Safari
  | while keeping FF's internals untouched?
 
    | ocdtrekkie wrote:
    | I have the opposite view: Google feels so obsessed with
    | pushing Google branding on Chrome users that the UI seems to
    | constantly be suffering because of it. Apart from a recent
    | discussion to remove the densest UI view, Firefox has
    | generally provided a better, more user-oriented UI than
    | Google.
 
  | teawrecks wrote:
  | Interesting, I haven't run into any issues using ff over chrome
  | for the past several years. It's way more common for my partner
  | who uses chrome to have an issue that they avoid by opening ff.
 
  | themgt wrote:
  | Google intentionally crippling their own free, market-dominant
  | browser in a way that just-so-happens to make ad-blocking
  | difficult honestly reminds me of the Microsoft anti-trust case
  | back in the late 90s. Google is an ad company doing embrace-
  | extend-extinguish on other markets just to optimize selling
  | your eyes/attention to advertisers.
 
    | matheusmoreira wrote:
    | Google's changes actually make a lot of sense. 99% of
    | extensions out there should not be able to touch user data at
    | all due to the simple fact they'd abuse this privilege.
    | 
    | uBlock Origin just happens to be so incredibly important and
    | trusted that an exception should be made for it.
 
      | paxys wrote:
      | Yet on Google's other large ecosystem (Android), they will
      | happily let apps collect _way_ more private data than this
      | with zero limits in the name of user freedom. In both
      | cases, they made the decision that best serves the company
      | bottom line, nothing more.
 
  | ravenstine wrote:
  | I think Firefox's shortcomings are overstated. Often they're
  | actually Mozilla's rather than Firefox's.
  | 
  | There are other things I consider superior about Firefox that
  | Chrome has yet to implement:                 - Multi-account
  | containers is a killer feature IMO.  I have different
  | containers for banking, Facebook, a container for every email,
  | a container for every Google/YouTube account, and so forth.
  | - The option to enable canvas permission prompts and canvas
  | obfuscation. (though there are some arguments that those make
  | you *more* trackable)            - Autoplay blocking and
  | permission prompt            - Pop-out videos (aka picture-in-
  | picture) are awesome and make it easy to keep videos on screen
  | while browsing other tabs and apps.            - Built-in anti-
  | fingerprinting            - Blocks tracking cookies by default
  | 
  | I simply won't use a browser that doesn't have these things.
 
    | trevor-e wrote:
    | I had some serious performance problems on my MBP last year,
    | back when a lot of the major Rust changes came out (no idea
    | if that's relevant). Was super laggy trying to play videos.
    | Gave it another try a couple months ago and everything is
    | fixed! Very happy user now, won't be going back to Chrome.
    | The features you highlighted are some nice added bonuses on
    | top of removing another layer of Google tracking.
 
    | EMM_386 wrote:
    | > Pop-out videos (aka picture-in-picture) are awesome
    | 
    | Agreed on all points. It's funny, I've been using Firefox 20+
    | years and when I saw them recently boasting about PiP I
    | thought "another useless feature".
    | 
    | Until I decided to try it out. Now I use it constantly.
 
    | croutonwagon wrote:
    | I had to remove multi-account containers due to issues with
    | syncing, namely on a windows 8.1 install, and it causing a
    | TON of browser bloat and CPU usage on MacOS and Linux and my
    | windows 10 desktop in a fairly recent past.
    | 
    | It's unfortunate. Plan to try it again but it was borderline
    | burdensome that x containers or place settings wouldn't sync
    | or that the Mac mini or linux box would start sounding like a
    | jet engine.
 
    | catlifeonmars wrote:
    | Privacy considerations aside, containers are great for using
    | multiple AWS accounts simultaneously. Since we use an AWS
    | account as a deployment container, it's typical to have 10s
    | of different accounts you have to jump between and it's just
    | not possible to effectively do ops with another browser.
 
      | VWWHFSfQ wrote:
      | Mutli-account containers is really a game-changing feature
      | for me. I switched from Chrome back to Firefox about 3
      | years ago (even before containers were available) and at
      | this point there's no going back. I keep chrome around for
      | some sites that require it, but that's it.
      | 
      | Now how do I get Chrome to stop auto-installing itself in
      | my login items on macOS everytime there's some kind of
      | update.
      | 
      | Edit:
      | 
      | Also, if you're on Android, set Firefox Focus as your
      | default browser! It's amazing to not have to think about
      | the tracking consequences everytime you click a link
      | somewhere on your phone. It's basically a new "container"
      | for every link click. If you need the cookies, then there's
      | a handy "Open With" menu to let you re-open the page with
      | regular Firefox, or Chrome.
      | 
      | And uBO works on the regular Firefox Android browser..
      | Again, game-changer for me.
 
      | dexterdog wrote:
      | You can use the aws switch roles addon that lets you do
      | that in one container.
 
      | paranoidrobot wrote:
      | I really wish AWS would figure out multiple accounts on one
      | session.
      | 
      | Even with multiple containers, it still means logging into
      | AWS SSO multiple times and selecting the right account.
 
      | rshm wrote:
      | By any chance you are using nightly. I am not able to login
      | as IAM user in firefox nightly. For last couple of months
      | always get 403 from AWS.
 
      | jdfellow wrote:
      | This is honestly a killer feature! I use Temporary
      | Containers and load the AWS console in a fresh container
      | automatically, making it very easy to switch between
      | accounts and have multiple open at once. (Caveat emptor: be
      | sure which account you're using at any given time!)
 
        | pablodavila wrote:
        | It really is. I think this is one of the features they
        | (Mozilla) spend some more resources into. It's really
        | unique and could drive non-tech savvy users to it.
 
    | diroussel wrote:
    | Let's not forget Tree Style Tabs, no other browser can do it.
    | Great for the tab hoarders amongst us.
 
      | Zardoz84 wrote:
      | Simple Tab Groups awesome complement. In special with
      | Firefox, not loading tabs that you not have opened. And if
      | you combine with Total Suspender... Like having infinite
      | tabs with paying any price.
 
      | jamespullar wrote:
      | I don't often keep many tabs open, but still vastly prefer
      | Tree Style Tabs. I primarily work on a widescreen monitor
      | and would rather give up horizontal space rather than
      | vertical.
 
    | katsura wrote:
    | > Pop-out videos (aka picture-in-picture)
    | 
    | Chrome has this.
 
      | wlesieutre wrote:
      | Multiple pop-outs simultaneously?
      | 
      | I know it sounds silly but I've used it for SpaceX launches
      | to keep an eye various official and unofficial streams.
 
      | abdusco wrote:
      | Firefox puts the option right in front of me, and I
      | regularly use it. But I have to hunt for it / even google
      | it to find the option in Chrome.
 
      | krisdol wrote:
      | No it doesn't? I'm on Chrome right now and cannot pop out
      | vimeo videos. Youtube appears to have a "pseudo" pop-out
      | that I suspect is their own js-driven miniplayer thing.
      | Just a fancy change to the DOM. You can't resize, drag the
      | video around, or watch it from other tabs or with chrome
      | unfocused/minimized.
 
        | nvrspyx wrote:
        | > You can't resize, drag the video around, or watch from
        | other tabs or with chrome unfocused/minimized
        | 
        | Umm...you can do all of those things. You might have to
        | right click the video twice to get the picture-in-picture
        | option (to get around the contextual menu of many video
        | players including YouTube) or you can use the official
        | extension that you click to popout whatever video is on
        | the webpage.
 
    | starik36 wrote:
    | Multi-account containers are a killer feature for sure. There
    | is an ancient bug out there to provide "home page" for the
    | container. That would truly make it a home run.
 
    | paulryanrogers wrote:
    | Strong agree on multi account containers. Keep in mind though
    | if you disable them they drop all settings, unlike every
    | other add-on ... ever. Bug is three years old but maybe we
    | can push it over the top: https://github.com/mozilla/multi-
    | account-containers/issues/1...
 
      | jabroni_salad wrote:
      | There is also no way to rearrange your containers aside
      | from deleting them and making new ones in the desired
      | order. Since I am using this for o365 administration it is
      | a little annoying that I can't keep them in alphabetical
      | order to find them easily.
 
        | jedberg wrote:
        | Are you on the latest version? I can rearrange them on
        | mine. If click on "manage containers" there is a gray on
        | gray bar on the right. If you hover it, your cursor
        | should change to an arrow to rearrange them.
 
        | gxnxcxcx wrote:
        | That allows for visual rearrangement of that particular
        | menu, but as far as I can tell the new tab button's list
        | does not change and the extension keyboard shortcuts are
        | still limited to the first 10 containers, which are bound
        | by their creation order (a non-sanctioned way to mitigate
        | this might be achieved by editing containers.json, but
        | I'm wary of inviting sync shenanigans).
 
        | [deleted]
 
        | FalconSensei wrote:
        | This is something that I don't like about firefox. They
        | have a ton of cool stuff, but I feel that they are always
        | lacking a few things.
        | 
        | What I always give as an example, is how to add custom
        | searches (Amazon, Reddit, HN, etc), you save the query
        | url and add a keyword. Works very well to type `rdt
        | something` and have the results. But: there's no option
        | in the menu to see all keywords/search engines you have
        | registered.
 
        | quesera wrote:
        | My workaround for this is to title the bookmark, e.g.
        | "kw:rdt Page Title".
        | 
        | Imperfect, but the convenience is worthwhile for the
        | dozen-or-so keyword searches I use.
 
  | fastball wrote:
  | I like Brave's adblocking better than uBlock Origin anyway.
  | 
  | Saying this as a former uBlock Origin fanatic.
 
  | grayrest wrote:
  | If you do switch, check out the temporary containers addon. It
  | makes use of the Firefox containers tech to provide the anti-
  | tracking benefits of incognito but maintains history and isn't
  | detected by websites as incognito mode.
 
  | tomc1985 wrote:
  | It amazes me that a consensus seems to have formed around this
  | conclusion that Firefox is technically inferior. I have always
  | been using it and it has always been a fantastic browser
  | relatively free of Google's icy tendrils. The technical issues
  | that people bring up about it are usually nonexistent for me,
  | and while I am troubled at its direction it remains an
  | unusually solid and reliable workhorse given the stakes
  | involved and the size of its userbase
 
    | Enginerrrd wrote:
    | On a PC I don't have any issues with firefox. On mobile I do.
    | I also am still pissed that they killed almost all the
    | extensions for firefox on mobile.
 
  | bilekas wrote:
  | Firefox does seem to have really improved over the last few
  | iterations, performance also when large numbers of tabs open.
  | 
  | I cant find the link right now, but there was a nice timings
  | done where Chrome was using less CPU at lower tab counts, but
  | when it increased count, the CPU utilization was considerably
  | higher than FF.
  | 
  | I'll be giving it a fair shake for a few months.
 
    | bennysomething wrote:
    | True but I've gone back to version 68 on Android. Latest
    | versions don't work with s load of extensions I use. Old
    | Reddit being one of them. And I don't care about cookies
 
    | alpaca128 wrote:
    | Yes, Firefox is pretty much unbeatable in performance per
    | tab. I just installed the tab counter addon and it reports
    | that I currently have >1500 tabs open in Firefox. I know from
    | experience that if I run just a tenth of that in Chromium the
    | whole system will basically lock up. And as pretty much every
    | other more conventional browser is based on Chromium nowadays
    | there's no alternative really unless I get a RAM upgrade.
 
      | diroussel wrote:
      | You can see the tab count without an addon. It's not
      | pretty, but you can do it.
      | 
      | Go to: about:telemetry#scalars-tab
      | 
      | Then look at: browser.engagement.max_concurrent_tab_count
 
        | sfink wrote:
        | Ah, but if you use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
        | US/firefox/addon/tab-stats/ then you can not only get the
        | count, but also be able to mass-close large numbers of
        | tabs (eg specific duplicate URLs, or everything for
        | specific domains). A tab hoarder's best friend.
        | 
        | (Pretty clever to use telemetry for this, though.)
 
    | whatshisface wrote:
    | Firefox recently rolled out an update that broke up the big
    | GC passes into small GC passes. That contributed to a huge
    | improvement in responsiveness.
 
      | sfink wrote:
      | That sounds great. But as someone who works on the Firefox
      | GC team, I gotta say: what?
      | 
      | Or more specifically, I'm wondering what change you could
      | be referring to. We've had incremental GC for many years
      | now, which does exactly what you describe. It's true that
      | we keep splitting up more of the uninterruptible pieces
      | into smaller chunks, but I don't recall any major change
      | there recently. (I'm not very good at marketing, am I?)
      | 
      | And according to telemetry, the incremental slices have
      | been working quite well for most people, at least within
      | the last dozen releases or so. We have a budget, and it's
      | rare that we go over it. Not that I fully trust telemetry;
      | if you have counterexamples please file a bug. (I'd _love_
      | to have a nice set of scenarios that are problematic for
      | the GC. Our telemetry errs strongly on the side of privacy,
      | as it should, so I can 't get URLs automatically.)
 
      | bilekas wrote:
      | That might have been related to what I was reading, it
      | looked impressive anyway, I did mean to go check out FF
      | then, I guess now is the time !
 
    | solarkraft wrote:
    | I use Firefox out of principle and because of Sidebery, but
    | WOW, Chromium is faster by a lot from my experience. That is
    | fresh Chromium vs. configured and used Firefox, though.
 
      | scotu wrote:
      | thanks for getting Sidebery on my radar! I tried
      | treestyletabs and unfortunately it _felt_ somewhat
      | disappointing given how much people seem to like it.
      | 
      | At a first try Sidebery looks and feels more modern/slick!
      | Might be what I was looking for!
 
  | atomicnumber3 wrote:
  | I just recently (few months ago) switched over to FF from
  | Chrom(e|ium). What pushed me was Google, on short notice,
  | revoking all Sync API keys from all Linux distros, and I'll be
  | damned if I'm going to use software that's as important as my
  | browser from a source like the AUR. The AUR is great mind you,
  | and for a small number of things I accept the risks and burdens
  | that come with using it (auditing the PKGBUILDs on updates
  | etc), but for browser software I just won't on principle. I
  | want that from my distro's packagers.
  | 
  | It's been fine so far. The biggest annoyance is that Firefox on
  | iOS struggles a lot with form autofilling, and I don't think
  | credit card autofill is allowed at all. You'd think this would
  | be a minor annoyance (don't most sites save your payments
  | methods?) but it's honestly been a big issue. So many sites are
  | so broken on mobile that I actually can't create an account
  | from mobile, and barely function well enough to get through the
  | guest checkout flow.
  | 
  | Examples: Jersey Mike's (sub sandwich shop), and another local
  | deli place that's too local for me to name without letting
  | everyone know I live in a cornfield.
 
    | simfree wrote:
    | From whar I have experienced Chrome and Chromium act
    | differently FYI. I would discourage lumping them as one in
    | the same.
 
    | maccam94 wrote:
    | Firefox on iOS isn't really Firefox, it's Webkit with a
    | Firefox skin (because Apple won't allow any other web engines
    | on iOS).
 
    | Yoofie wrote:
    | > I don't think credit card autofill is allowed at all
    | 
    | I would consider this a feature, not a bug.
 
| nwmcsween wrote:
| Just reinstalled Firefox due to this info
 
| pjfin123 wrote:
| Great write up! I hope Brave can improve on this.
 
  | blub wrote:
  | Brave is doing something similar: https://brave.com/privacy-
  | updates-6/
 
  | yepguy wrote:
  | I doubt Brave will do anything about it, because ad blocking in
  | Brave is built-in and implemented without the extension APIs.
  | 
  | https://github.com/brave/adblock-rust
 
| podiki wrote:
| I can't live without uBlock Origin and uMatrix, and was sad to
| see uMatrix archived [0]. Still works great, but I'm wondering
| what will happen long term. Anyone also use both and since drop
| uMatrix for something else, or just uBlock? How is it?
| 
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24532973
 
  | freedomben wrote:
  | uMatrix is so fundamental to my web experience, I dread the day
  | it stops working.
 
  | caoilte wrote:
  | It's been really interesting to watch recent gorhill tweets
  | where he describes some laboured efforts to type in rules to
  | block content in ublock that you can do in umatrix with the
  | click of a button.
  | 
  | I don't understand it, but I agree that unlock+umatrix on
  | desktop and mobile has been the best thing about browsing for
  | years.
  | 
  | I think maybe he wants to consolidate Dev effort and I
  | completely understand. He's probably the only person I'm
  | patriotic about right now.
 
  | donatzsky wrote:
  | As I remember it, you really shouldn't be using both at the
  | same time. Don't remember why, only that it's a bad idea. And
  | you can set up uBlock to do most of what uMatrix does anyway.
 
    | Valmar wrote:
    | It's because there was some overlap in their functionality.
    | 
    | What I did was disable the overlapping functionality in
    | uBlock Origin, and let uMatrix handle the rest.
 
| [deleted]
 
| bassdropvroom wrote:
| > The Firefox version of uBO makes use of WebAssembly code for
| core filtering code paths. This is not the case with Chromium-
| based browsers because this would require an extra permission in
| the extension manifest which could cause friction when publishing
| the extension in the Chrome Web Store.
| 
| Anyone know what this extra permission is and why requesting this
| extra permission would cause friction?
 
  | entropicdrifter wrote:
  | Presumably one that allows the extension to run Wasm code
 
  | RamRodification wrote:
  | Yeah that one sounds like a negative being described as a
  | positive.
 
    | bassdropvroom wrote:
    | I wouldn't say that. Using WASM is legitimate and will
    | certainly give a performance boost at the very least. I'm
    | just curious about the nuances of having it included in
    | Chrome.
 
  | the_duke wrote:
  | UBlock already had a new version rejected a while ago. Big HN
  | thread at the time.
  | 
  | Presumably they are just really careful to avoid giving Google
  | any excuses.
 
  | 10000truths wrote:
  | My guess is that it's much harder to review WASM bytecode to
  | make sure it doesn't do anything sketchy.
 
| throw0101a wrote:
| Can someone ELI5 the pros and cons of using uBlock Origin and/or
| uMatrix?
| 
| Should I be using one, either, both? Are they competitors or
| complementary? What does each do best?
 
  | noisem4ker wrote:
  | uMatrix is unmaintained and most of its functionality is
  | supposed to be available in uBlock Origin in advanced mode.
 
  | DannyB2 wrote:
  | uMatrix provides fine grained control in a matrix by domain
  | names (rows) vs various permissions to grant (columns).
  | 
  | Example: Allow domain foo.com to run scripts, but domain
  | bar.com cannot run script, no cookies, but css and images are
  | okay.
 
  | redis_mlc wrote:
  | If you're on a Mac, using Firefox with uBlock Origin is a realy
  | nice experience:
  | 
  | - no ads on Youtube
  | 
  | - I prefer the Firefox dev tools over Chrome for vanilla-js.
  | 
  | FYI: I'm one of the earliest and longest-term users of Firefox,
  | starting at Netscape in 2000. Never had a reason to switch.
 
| egberts1 wrote:
| Latest Firefox really does a good job supporting MULTIPLE video
| frames. - Something that I have yet to see on Chrome.
 
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