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I'm not sure if it quite qualifies as browsing with JS disabled but I run UMatrix with the default settings set to disable all scripts on a site. Then I've set
by greycol 8y ago
I'm not sure if it quite qualifies as browsing with JS disabled but I run UMatrix with the default settings set to disable all scripts on a site. Then I've set some common domains I trust that greatly improve usability (things like ytimg, paypal, some common 3rd party scripts).
I'd say I browse the web normally. Plenty of sites load normally with scripts disabled (and may even be more pleasant to browse). Maybe a 25 to 40% of sites I hit I'll happily enable 1st party scripts and a couple of known CDNs that'll will be enough to have the site working. For I'd say 5% or less of sites I'll have to actually engage and think if the calls to a 3rd party api are required or if the cloudflare/amazon are actually part of the domain and there for a good purpose or may be being used to serve up nefarious code.
One of the things to consider about the above numbers is that they only really apply for the first time I visit a site. With exceptions for when a site changes how it's implemented (or a3rd party script calls a new domain) which is nice to know anyway. (Or when the tool I'm using to block scripts changes (3-4 times over the last 15 years + another couple for not transferring whitelist data to new machines)).
I wouldn't really recommend my approach as something to get into for 2 main reasons. Firstly because the web does work much nicer when you just turn scripts on and say 'to hell with the privacy and security concerns'. Secondly there is a fair bit of otherwise useless knowledge built up over the years of doing this that mean this set up is significantly less onerous than it would be for someone who only just starts doing it and needs to look up every 3rd party domain.
Having said that I would highly recommend that you should install some script management with the default more permissible settings (rather than my more draconian ones) as it breaks very little, takes little effort to fix most of the things it does break and will stop well known tracking and malicious sites.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> Firstly because the web does work much nicer when you just turn scripts on and say 'to hell with the privacy and security concerns'. OTOH, web works faster with uMatrix. You can probably get an extra couple years of your computer if you're aggressive about disabling ads and superfluous JS.