4 ms·

uBlock should really just instruct users to "switch to firefox for a fast, up-to-date ad-blocking experience"

rohan1024 7y ago
Yes we can ditch chrome. But what about general population? Now that websites may choose to give incompatiblity prompts to Firefox since it impacts there revenue through ads. They will ask users to switch to chrome. This might affect Firefox in long run. It's market share might drop.
- pmlnr 7y ago
  See Firefox vs IE6. It's the same story all over again.
- dotancohen 7y ago
  Google already blocks some of its features from working in Firefox. We discussed this in April: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19669586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19669586
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- rando444 7y ago
  General population will follow the tech crowd. The main reason Chrome is so popular is because tech people have been saying "just use chrome" for forever. Firefox is taking back that role. It'll take time, but with google becoming such a PII hoarder, it's a change that will likely continue.
  - otabdeveloper1 7y ago
    > The main reason Chrome is so popular is because tech people have been saying "just use chrome" for forever. Utter bullshit. Chrome is dominant due to two factors: a) Distribution deals by Google to bundle Chrome everywhere they can. (Including shady crap like 'warez' sites, illegal music, OEMs, etc.) b) Google aggressively peddling Chrome on their properties and making them deliberately slow and buggy with other browsers. It's not a coincidence that Gmail suddenly became slow and buggy under Firefox with their latest redesign.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  I'll bring out the "computer has viruses" argument. As in: "Remember how you asked me to clean your computer from these toolbars and make it faster? This problem may happen again if you browse the web without uBlock Origin installed. Chrome doesn't support it now, so you have to use Firefox. Ignore websites pleading you to switch back to Chrome. Some of them will try to sneak in this toolbar garbage to you. Actually, stop visiting such websites because they're staffed with assholes who want to abuse you. But if you must, do it in Firefox. Yes, preferably in Private Browsing." As others said, regular people follow the tech crowd. My family uses Chrome because that's what I've been telling them to install and/or installing for them for the past few years. But the very first thing I also install for them is uBO, and if that stops working, Chrome goes out of the window.
pps 7y ago
How about Vivaldi? Or Opera with built-in ad-blocker (which I'm currently using and it works great, at least with uBlock Origin installed too)? Unfortunately I can't use Firefox on my system ( https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/a42xei/state_of_firefox_in_macos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/a42xei/state_of_fi... nothing changed for years with these problems and I believe it will unfortunately stay that way)
- bad_user 7y ago
  Aren't Opera and Vivaldi just a re-skinning of Chromium? If yes, then it probably won’t save you. And here you have the actual problem with Chrome — unless you fork it and have resources to maintain that fork, its open source nature is absolutely irrelevant. And even if you manage to fork it, you’re not operating at Google’s scale so your fork will be irrelevant. PS: I use Firefox on top of MacOS and works just fine for me ;-)
  - pps 7y ago
    I don't know how much different they need to be from Chrome/Chromium to not be affected (and if some built-in blocker like in Opera still will be fine), that's why I'm asking :) There is also Safari, but I would rather cook my CPU with FF than use Safari.
    - andrethegiant 7y ago
      What don't you like about Safari?
      - pps 7y ago
        Basically everything except the fact that it doesn't eat huge amount of RAM. I can't stand iOS either, so not being able to sync tabs/bookmarks between my devices is probably the biggest drawback.

Yes we can ditch chrome. But what about general population? Now that websites may choose to give incompatiblity prompts to Firefox since it impacts there revenue through ads. They will ask users to switch to chrome. This might affect Firefox in long run. It's market share might drop.

pmlnr 7y ago
See Firefox vs IE6. It's the same story all over again.
dotancohen 7y ago
Google already blocks some of its features from working in Firefox. We discussed this in April: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19669586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19669586
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
rando444 7y ago
General population will follow the tech crowd. The main reason Chrome is so popular is because tech people have been saying "just use chrome" for forever. Firefox is taking back that role. It'll take time, but with google becoming such a PII hoarder, it's a change that will likely continue.
- otabdeveloper1 7y ago
  > The main reason Chrome is so popular is because tech people have been saying "just use chrome" for forever. Utter bullshit. Chrome is dominant due to two factors: a) Distribution deals by Google to bundle Chrome everywhere they can. (Including shady crap like 'warez' sites, illegal music, OEMs, etc.) b) Google aggressively peddling Chrome on their properties and making them deliberately slow and buggy with other browsers. It's not a coincidence that Gmail suddenly became slow and buggy under Firefox with their latest redesign.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
I'll bring out the "computer has viruses" argument. As in: "Remember how you asked me to clean your computer from these toolbars and make it faster? This problem may happen again if you browse the web without uBlock Origin installed. Chrome doesn't support it now, so you have to use Firefox. Ignore websites pleading you to switch back to Chrome. Some of them will try to sneak in this toolbar garbage to you. Actually, stop visiting such websites because they're staffed with assholes who want to abuse you. But if you must, do it in Firefox. Yes, preferably in Private Browsing." As others said, regular people follow the tech crowd. My family uses Chrome because that's what I've been telling them to install and/or installing for them for the past few years. But the very first thing I also install for them is uBO, and if that stops working, Chrome goes out of the window.

pps 7y ago

How about Vivaldi? Or Opera with built-in ad-blocker (which I'm currently using and it works great, at least with uBlock Origin installed too)? Unfortunately I can't use Firefox on my system ( https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/a42xei/state_of_firefox_in_macos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/a42xei/state_of_fi... nothing changed for years with these problems and I believe it will unfortunately stay that way)

bad_user 7y ago
Aren't Opera and Vivaldi just a re-skinning of Chromium? If yes, then it probably won’t save you. And here you have the actual problem with Chrome — unless you fork it and have resources to maintain that fork, its open source nature is absolutely irrelevant. And even if you manage to fork it, you’re not operating at Google’s scale so your fork will be irrelevant. PS: I use Firefox on top of MacOS and works just fine for me ;-)
- pps 7y ago
  I don't know how much different they need to be from Chrome/Chromium to not be affected (and if some built-in blocker like in Opera still will be fine), that's why I'm asking :) There is also Safari, but I would rather cook my CPU with FF than use Safari.
  - andrethegiant 7y ago
    What don't you like about Safari?
    - pps 7y ago
      Basically everything except the fact that it doesn't eat huge amount of RAM. I can't stand iOS either, so not being able to sync tabs/bookmarks between my devices is probably the biggest drawback.