19 ms·

uMatrix has been archived

631 points by bscphil 6y ago

asymmetric 6y ago
Some more info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques... TL;DR: gorhill didn’t have time to maintain both extensions, and won’t transfer the repo after having been burnt once already.
TekMol 6y ago
Uhm, what?? uMatrix is an essential part of my everyday life. Will it still work? If not, is there a trustworthy replacement? I don't want an "ad blocker" with blocking lists etc. I just want to see the page I navigated to. And then allow it to load additional resources as I see fit. If uMatrix goes out of existence, then that would be the biggest loss due to discontinued software in my lifetime.
- ffpip 6y ago
  It still works. Continue using it till Mozilla shuts down or the extension permission model changes.
  - 4cao 6y ago
    > Continue using it till Mozilla shuts down Firefox add-ons can be installed from third-party sources as well, and in the case of uMatrix it's worth doing it anyway, since the latest version (1.4.1b6) is on GitHub only: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases It's a beta but seems to work just fine. Mozilla is still at the last stable version (1.4.0): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/
    - fwn 6y ago
      *on desktops they recently disabled that feature on Android.
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  uBlock origin advanced mode is very similar to uMatrix
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    What's the difference?
  - Arnavion 6y ago
    AFAICT uBO even in advanced mode doesn't differentiate between the kinds of requests that can be filtered, so filtering is only per domain and filters every kind of request for the domain equally. uM on the other hand differentiates between scripts, CSS, images, XHR, media and frames, and allows you to filter them individually. But most importantly, uM also allows you to filter cookies with the same fidelity, which is the number one thing I would miss if I had to rely solely on uBO, because it means I can default to blocking even first-party cookies from sites I don't want leaving cookies on my machine. FF by itself gets close, by letting me set a policy that says "block all cookies except for cookies from these domains", but that doesn't let me filter which site is allowed to access those cookies. Frankly, I find uBO redundant if one has uM installed but for two things: uBO can use the usual content-blocker lists (I personally don't need them because my router's DNS server does filtering using those same lists already, but it's useful for people without such a setup), and uBO can block remote fonts whereas uM can't. It would be great if uM's kind-based filtering was merged into uBO and remote fonts were kept as just another kind of request that can be filtered, but I don't know what gorhill plans to do.
    - eikenberry 6y ago
      Check out "Cookie AutoDelete" for cookie management. It automatically deletes all cookies (not whitelisted) when you close a website. I've used it for a while and it is pretty nice. https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete
    - rasz 6y ago
      > uBO even in advanced mode doesn't differentiate ....scripts, CSS, images, XHR, media and frames $script $image $subdocument $stylesheet $first-party $third-party $xmlhttprequest $csp $inline-script $inline-font ... https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax
pa7x1 6y ago
This is a tragic loss, I can't be grateful enough to the author, such a fantastic tool. I even started installing it in my parent's computers (not advanced users), reducing to 0 the amount of time I had to intervene to fix their computers. The trick is to configure it in blacklist mode, instead of whitelist. This way it only blocks requests from domains in the blacklist and frame elements. Just with this change you get non-power users out of trouble in their surfing habits and impacts negligibly their use. I have taught them that if a web is blocked or doesn't work properly is most likely not a web they want to use but that there is also the possibility to turn it off using the on/off button (that they should use very judiciously). In this mode it is not too different from setting up Hosts file but they can understand better what's going on and how to turn it off if needed. EDIT: fixed typos
- ffpip 6y ago
  > The trick is to configure it in blacklist mode, instead of whitelist. Or you can use it in whitelist mode, but with all things like Cloudflare and ReCaptcha globally whitelisted. It's good that way too. But yes, for your parents, black list mode would be good. It would be like uBlock Origin.
  - 02020202 6y ago
    > Or you can use it in whitelist mode, but with all things like Cloudflare and ReCaptcha globally whitelisted. those two specifically are always the first entries in my blacklist :D
    - josephcsible 6y ago
      Most people want to block annoyances like advertising or tracking without breaking the pages they want to visit. What you're suggesting does the opposite.
      - daveFNbuck 6y ago
        If that's your goal, why would you use uMatrix and not ad and tracking blockers?
cameronhowe 6y ago
Noooooooo, why? I hope this addon keeps working without patches for a long time, I absolutely love how it has improved my web experience. So easy to use.
chippy 6y ago
Good project for someone to pick up on and carry forward I guess?
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  No. Gorhill is protecting it from seizure. But someone can fork it.
4cao 6y ago
There is a comment from @gorhill saying: > Anyway, as it is, I've archived uMatrix's repo, I can't and won't be spending any more time on this project, and neither on all such issues [linking to all issues closed as invalid]. https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uMatrix-issues/issues/291#issuecomment-694988696 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uMatrix-issues/issues/291#is... So it's really confirmed then. Very sad news. Edit: there's also a glimmer of hope: > Whoever is free to fork under a new name -- I may re-open and resume development in some future if ever I feel for it.
- jiofih 6y ago
  That is actually a quite hostile move for OSS, which has become common lately. Unless you have trademarked the name, you don’t get to reserve it for a rainy day, anyone should be able to pick up the torch and continue the project without having to start from scratch with a new unknown name.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - chrismorgan 6y ago
    Are you familiar with the story about uBlock and uBlock Origin? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin#History gorhill stopped doing uBlock and passed it to others, who subsequently took it in a direction he didn’t like, so that he resumed maintenance under the name uBlock Origin (since the name “uBlock” had been transferred). So this time when he stops maintaining a project, he’s avoiding the same thing happening.
    - 4cao 6y ago
      @gorhill explains this in a Reddit post from a month ago: > I will never hand over development to whoever, I had my lesson in the past -- I wouldn't like that someone would turn the project into something I never intended it to become (monetization, feature bloat, etc.). At most I would archive the project and whoever is free to fork under a new name. For now I resisted doing this, so people will have to be patient for new stable release. 1. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/g0bh51n/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques...
noisy_boy 6y ago
uMatrix has been the first app where I can exactly see what domains are being used and over a period build a whitelist that basically works seamlessly while blocking the analytics stuff. I'm just hoping browser internal security changes in the future don't render it broken.
bscphil 6y ago
IMO the genius of uMatrix was that Raymond realized that an in-browser requests firewall should have two dimensions, instead of one: (1) the (sub-)domains that the requests pointed at, and (2) the type of request (i.e. cookie, image, XHR, etc). Now, obviously you could always write an ABP compatible filter that could block any combination of these two, but that's hard. What uMatrix did is present the underlying complexity in a way that's easy to intuit for a power user, giving you point-and-click request filtering power over both domains simultaneously. For that reason, I'm skeptical that uMatrix can be replaced with a traditional blocker, not even one with an advanced mode like uBo, because it simply doesn't allow the specificity that a two-dimensional model like uMatrix did. That makes uMatrix's being archived incredibly tragic and a great loss for the web. I hope someone as trustworthy and competent as Raymond will pick it up in the future, and I thank him for all his work on it up to this point.
- aembleton 6y ago
  > you could always write an ABP compatible filter that could block any combination of these two I don't think you can for cookies. You can block cookies in the browser, but I'd like a filter list so that it is possible to change across all my browsers by subscribing to the same filter list.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- cookiengineer 6y ago
  This is so true, the two dimensions allow such a nice simplification of what should be rendered even in UX terms. What I personally didn't like about it though are the tech specific parts (e.g. xhr and other both require script anyways, as not a single website will work with xhr disabled). So for my browser project [1] I decided to split it up into "text", "image", "audio", "video" and "other" which I hope will make more sense for most people. Back in February when the debate about the manifest and requests api started, I started my own semantic browser project which aims to filter out all UX-interfering CSS and HTML and probably won't allow JS anyhow. It tries to focus on the automation and caching parts that are broken in current web browsers, so that everything is peer to peer, and that other trusted peers can be used to share bandwidth, content, or metadata with each other and that each one has a 100% persistent local cache that only gets refreshed once the user tells the browser to. If there'll be a need to support webapps later, they will probably be sandboxed in a new window that represents a temporary cache located in /tmp/... in order to prevent abuse of local storage and cookies. I've learned to not trust any site these days, even my bank's website uses foreign overseas-located trackers, which is technically a GDPR violation. [1] https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth
Raed667 6y ago
I tried using uMatrix a few times and always ended-up disabling it. It was too disruptive and breaking too many things compared to uBlock Origin. I hope whoever forks the project can work on the UI and onboarding experience.
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  I did the same thing twice, then actually spent ten minutes reading the wiki. It's very simple to use, and I doubt a new UI could perform the same functions any easier.
- Lammy 6y ago
  I felt the same way before I realized the flexibility of the domain scoping UI and that I could allow certain things (e.g. reCAPTCHA and the million Google scripts it depends on) on a global basis instead of on a tedious per-domain basis.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  Umatrix isn't for casual users. It was for hard-core I want complete control of what's being sent into my browser users. ublock origin is more than enough for casual users who won't put the time in to tame umatrix
elorant 6y ago
Dear HN community. Pretty, pretty please with sugar on the top, keep maintaining this project. It's absolutely essential for a sane browsing of contemporary web.
- marcinzm 6y ago
  You're free to fork it or organize a fork of it yourself or start an initiative for paying maintainers of a fork.
  - elorant 6y ago
    I'd gladly pay an annual subscription for anyone willing to maintain it.
    - anaganisk 6y ago
      Instead fork it and pay some freelancer to fix bugs if any.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
I wonder why uMatrix was completely shelved while he created a new team to continue uBlock.
- wyclif 6y ago
  I think it's because uBlock Origin has a lot more users. uMatrix was always for power users.
  - squarefoot 6y ago
    He probably could have saved time and resources by incorporating uMatrix most granular blocking functions into uBlock Origin, say as an "expert mode" users had to enable explicitly. I mean, many of us probably have both installed; since they do essentially the same things, although at different levels, merging some functionalities of the latter into the former doesn't seem that absurd to me. Anyway, big thanks to gorhill for putting great effort in software that today is absolutely necessary to surf the web, and that makes it even more sad to see uMatrix go.
    - wyclif 6y ago
      Can you explain the advantage of installing both uBlock Origin and uMatrix? I never tried that, thinking that there was too much functional overlap and guessing that I would have to check and uncheck numerous lists to keep one from stepping on the other. Or maybe I'm just lazy and didn't feel like diving deeply into how to make them play nice together.
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        They don't interfere with each other much, if something is broken 90% of the time it's uMatrix and 10% of the time it's both. From my understanding, uBlock Origin will stop a few things uMatrix misses, but mostly I already had uBlock set up and have never seen a reason to ditch it.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
Maha-pudma 6y ago
What's the alternative to this? This was on all my browsers, with ublock origin, the first extension I install. Now what? I'm not a good enough programmer to take this on but I suggest 'uMatrix Reloaded' as the new name.
- ffpip 6y ago
  Are there any issues with uMatrix that you are looking for alternatives? Only the repo has been archived. The extension is perfect. Just think you haven't seen this post and continue to use it.
  - bscphil 6y ago
    Mozilla has modified their extensions API pretty regularly (with major changes every few years at least, recently), and they're also still in the process of developing the API for the Android browser, which is likely to remain incomplete and different from the desktop API for the forseeable future. Granted, maybe not a lot of people use uMatrix on their phone, but both of these seem like valid reasons to worry.
    - ffpip 6y ago
      You can't use uMatrix on phone. Mozilla updated their browser right? Also very few can manage it on such a small screen. >they're also still in the process of developing the API The API is there. They are just whitelisting addons.
      - bscphil 6y ago
        > You can't use uMatrix on phone. You can't use it currently if you have a release version of Firefox after 68, yes. The API is buggy and in fact quite a few extensions don't work, even if you force-install them. It's still unclear if they will ever whitelist stuff that's outside of their "recommended extensions" program, and presumably the best chance it would have of getting whitelisted is if it were actively maintained and bugs encountered with the new FFA could be worked on in coordination with the developer.
ffpip 6y ago
Thank you Gorhill. For such great resources. Your extensions are the only reason I use FF on mobile and desktop. uMatrix helped me realize how much of 3rd party resources are crap. Actual crap. Completely unnecessary. It also helped me get familiar with new 3rd party crap that pops up on the internet. I'll use uMatrix 1.4.0 as long as it works. Many thanks
- newyorker2 6y ago
  Haven't used any chromium in years, hence the question. Is uMatrix not available on their addon store?
  - ffpip 6y ago
    In my experience uMatrix and uBO work better in Firefox compared to Chromium. You don't have to completely reload the whole page to see what's blocked or hidden. They can also block the sneakiest trackers that hide behind other domains. Not possible in Chromium. Chromium mobile doesnt even have addons because they are shit scared of adblockers.
    - pmoriarty 6y ago
      "Chromium mobile doesnt even have addons because they are shit scared of adblockers." Paradoxically, I'm kind of half-happy to hear this. It means that finally a large number of users are using adblockers. For many years the standard theme of many threads on adblockers was that companies like Google didn't care about them because too small a percentage of their users used them for it to matter. Now finally there are enough adblocker users for it to hurt their bottom line, and that means that there are more people than ever who clearly just don't want to see ads. That gives me hope that there will some day be anti-advertising legislation, and that we might not even need adblockers... some day... some day...
      - bad_user 6y ago
        I think your hope is misguided. People dreamed of an Internet where sharing of information was free (as in freedom). Then DRM happened. And even if DRM cannot be 100% reliable, being broken by design, it's reliable enough, plus in the US at least it's a felony to break it. And as years go by, we see more DRM, not less. This happens, because the practice is normalized, and because small inconveniences are taken care of (usually by monopolies winning the market—e.g. you stop complaining that alternative e-book readers don't work, when everybody is using the Kindle or the Audible apps). Similarly, for the open web — the action has been moving on mobile devices. A majority of people now consume content via mobile devices. So what do you see? More websites? Or more apps? And for all ad-blocking happening at the DNS level (e.g. Pi-hole), how long do you think it is before apps start doing DNS over HTTPS on their own, bypassing the OS's stack? This is a wack-a-mole game, and the big publishers have enough resources to push for both technical and legal changes for outlawing ad-blocking. I'm actually surprised that content blockers remained legal thus far. But the writing is on the wall IMO. --- There's also another side of this coin. I see more and more people on HN complaining that articles are submitted from publications that are setting up paywalls. People also hate paying for content. And even those that pay for content, they don't recognize what an incredible privilege it is to afford it. Either content is monetized somehow, or the only content that we get will be content created by hobbyists, in their spare time, for free, while working a regular job. Well I for one don't want a world in which the poor don't get access to online resources, or a world in which people can't make ends meet doing what they love.
jonchang 6y ago
Looks like the maintainer just didn't have time and there weren't enough people in the community willing to step up and do issue triage or contribute code. > What would actually help is that people help to completely investigate existing issues instead of keep asking me to add yet more features. Turns out people willing to step in the code to investigate and pinpoint exactly where is an issue (or that there is no issue) is incredibly rare.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- jobigoud 6y ago
  It's a general trait we have as a civilization, everybody wants to innovate, nobody wants to do maintenance.
pineyboi 6y ago
uMatrix is awesome. I wish there were more tools like this -- just advanced enough to do some real heavy lifting yet still quick and intuitive after even a little investment. The browsers brought SSL awareness with the padlock, but most users are still woefully unaware of just how many websites they hit when they load any page. It's insanity. I hope this isn't due to browser vendors making things difficult, but it wouldn't surprise me. Since the concerns are similar, it would be great if there was a way to marry the two. uBlock - advanced interface mode or something. Just a thought, not a feature request. Thank you Gorhill for all your work. Sad to see it go, I actually can't fathom how I'll surf the web without it.
- ffpip 6y ago
  > just advanced enough to do some real heavy lifting yet still quick and intuitive after even a little investment. This describes uMatrix perfectly. I didn't understand a single thing after installing it, but one day, I spent 20 mins reading the wiki on Github and then understood what to use each tool for.
Semaphor 6y ago
This is a shame, I find the interface for uMatrix much more intuitive than uBO’s.
fxtentacle 6y ago
This is sad for me as a user, but I can fully understand his unwillingness to further engage with requests from entitled users. I myself had bad experiences with releasing open source, too. That said, this is clearly a useful tool and I wouldn't be surprised if the user base was 10,000+ which means that if you'd make it $3 monthly to use as a commercial product, the revenue (after attrition) should be enough to pay for at least one part time employee to do the maintenance. I would also expect that releasing this as a paid product, as opposed to open source, will actually reduce entitlement by users. Or at the very least, you can always just issue a refund and be done with it. I would still hope for source code insight to make it transparent how this tool works. But that is not necessary a hindrance towards productizing it. Unreal Engine 4 is a commercial success, despite shipping with full source code.
- jsjohnst 6y ago
  > I would also expect that releasing this as a paid product, as opposed to open source, will actually reduce entitlement by users. That is the very opposite of what I’d expect and have observed personally over the years. The folks who’ve paid a small amount are virtually always the most demanding and refunding them and asking them politely to go away just fuels their indignation further.
  - fxtentacle 6y ago
    I've been selling a $9 Windows app for 5 years now and never had a case where someone continued to contact support after a refund. We did have people who had a system straight from hell where nothing worked as planned, but then again the users of those systems seemed to be aware that it's their computer and not my app.
    - jsjohnst 6y ago
      So you are lucky I guess? That’s the great thing about anecdata, everyone will have a somewhat different experience.
einpoklum 6y ago
I have been a (lay) user of uBlock Origin for some years now. I haven't heard about uMatrix before. Can someone link to a tutorial or a detailed review for it?
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  uMatrix extends the notion of uBlock (DNS-based content blocking) to a matrix of domains, subdomains, and sites (the vertical column) against specific Web capabilities; content, images, CSS, JS, XSR, and other elements. It affords fine-grained control over what sites are permitted to do on your browser. There are numerous explainer videos on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TVozpo3zUBk https://youtube.com/watch?v=TVozpo3zUBk Search: https://youtube.com/results?search_query=umatrix https://youtube.com/results?search_query=umatrix
hardwaresofton 6y ago
For those who are wondering the difference between ublock origin and umatrix, a cursory quick search turned up this forum post[0]: > uMatrix is a blocker(cookie,css,image,plugin,script,XHR,frame, and other) you can control what you block and what you want to allow(like uBlock Origin dynamic filtering but way more flexible and can be way more strict) uMatrix just blocks ads through the use of host files, uBlock Origin blocks them more deeper per se then uMatrix because of cosmetic and patteren-based filtering like adblock plus. I use both of them together just uncheck the malware domains in uBlock and peter Lowe's and the host files. Also you have more privacy and security when running uMatrix because of the switches(user agent spoofing and referrer spoofing, clearing blocked cookies, blocking hyperlink auditing attempts etc.) and also if you run uBlock it gets whatever ads uMatrix does not get from its blocking) Look at my sig to see how I run them. If you need help just PM me.:thumb::):cool: I personally run ublock origin and have been super happy with it, never even think about it these days, if I was supposed to switch to uMatrix at some point (I know uBlock and uBlock origin are different now and origin is preferred) I must have missed it. [0]: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ublock-vs-umatrix.376016/ https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ublock-vs-umatrix.37...
- pimlottc 6y ago
  Thanks, the project readme could definitely do a better job of introducing the project to those not familiar with it.
CincinnatiMan 6y ago
Man, I absolutely love uMatrix. Now I feel bad for not contributing back to it, maybe that would have helped the author keep going with it.
sippingjippers 6y ago
I seem to remember this movie. In the following scene, some spammer forks the code and claims to be the new maintainer, but threads some horrible spammy behaviour into the code. The spammy fork (under the original name) gains significant popularity. Final scene. In disgust, the valiant OP returns with a new fork, possibly called "uMatrix Origin". Curtains and lights
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  That's a miscomprehension of what happened with uBlock. The problem with uBlock was that gorhill legally gave away the trademark to a spammer.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    He got tired of kids complaining of issues without contributing code. Just filter list issues, which are not really his fault but the list maintainers.
Drawde 6y ago
If you're using uBlock Origin already, then you don't really need uMatrix or NoScript. Just enable medium mode or hard mode: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium... https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-hard-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-hard-m...
- dastx 6y ago
  Medium and hard mode are nowhere near as flexible as as uMatrix. It's good, but it's not uMatrix.
  - prvc 6y ago
    Could you elaborate as to what the specific differences are?
    - dastx 6y ago
      For starters with uBO you can individually block types of requests (images, js, css, cookies, frames, "other") per domain and/or per subhuman.
      - surround 6y ago
        *uMatrix, not uBO
        takeda 6y ago
        And subdomain not subhuman :)
  - Lammy 6y ago
    I’m willing to put up with if it it means gorhill will have the energy to maintain just uBO instead of burning out entirely :)
    - 6y ago
jccalhoun 6y ago
I could never figure out how to use umatrix or the advanced mode of ublock origin. I've read the instructions and could never figure them out.
- Lammy 6y ago
  There’s a “save” button you have to click to persist your changes after you’ve toggled the green/red cells of the media-types-per-domain table to suit what you want to block and what you want to allow. i gave up on uMatrix once before figuring that out.
Bayart 6y ago
uMatrix has to have been the most useful, all-rounded, intelligent browser extension I've ever used. I see it as a gold standard. It truly extends the browser, rather than use it as a platform to deploy « apps ».
- acomar 6y ago
  treestyle tabs and container tabs are the others I can think of. they also integrate very well with each other.
t0astbread 6y ago
A huge loss but thank you gorhill for developing this awesome extension! Like many others I'll probably keep using it while it still works. On another note, how does uMatrix even work internally? I guess the bulk of its functionality is based on the webRequest API and I think it uses some kind of CSP hack for inline scripts and workers? (And is it only my perception or does uMatrix have to resort to a lot of hacky workarounds to implement some of its features?)
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
/me sniffles in sadness.
Havoc 6y ago
Literally 12 hours after I switched from Noscript. :(
arendtio 6y ago
I like uBlock Origin better than uMatrix, so my primary concern is what I can do to support uBO so that it won't share the same fate?
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Gorhill has clearly stated: if you want to help, fix bugs. He doesn't want to do this as a job, so if you want to pay someone to help instead of helping directly, then find someone who wants to be paid to fix bugs in uBO. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Why-don't-you-accept-donations%3F https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Why-don't-you-accept-...
soulofmischief 6y ago
The developer, Raymond Hill had this to say on reddit a month ago: I will never hand over development to whoever, I had my lesson in the past -- I wouldn't like that someone would turn the project into something I never intended it to become (monetization, feature bloat, etc.). At most I would archive the project and whoever is free to fork under a new name. For now I resisted doing this, so people will have to be patient for new stable release. What would actually help is that people help to completely investigate existing issues instead of keep asking me to add yet more features. Turns out people willing to step in the code to investigate and pinpoint exactly where is an issue (or that there is no issue) is incredibly rare. https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/g0bh51n/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques...
- NelsonMinar 6y ago
  Presumably referring to the mess that happened with uBlock when he tried to step away. That's why it's called "uBlock Origin" now; the original name was taken over by someone who then developed it in ways against Gorhill's intentions.
  - soulofmischief 6y ago
    That's what I assumed as well. That situation was quite a mess.
  - propogandist 6y ago
    >the original name was taken over by someone it was taken over by the same people behind "AdBlockPlus" which is a shakedown operation. They're allowing ads to be unblocked if advertisers pay them money. Some history; https://old.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/32ory7/ublock_is_back_under_a_new_name/ https://old.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/32ory7/ublock_is_ba...
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Well, today that is what it is. Before that it was just a "donate to the developers" that was basically a money grab for the person running it.
sloshnmosh 6y ago
uMatrix IMHO is an absolute necessity when viewing the web these days. It is said that 20% of the ads on the web are malicious so browsing the web without a dependable script/adblocker is just asking for trouble. And until the adtech industry finds a way to stop malvertising I will continue blocking scripts and ads.
makecheck 6y ago
Many notable or even vital software projects are literally maintained by one person, sometimes even in companies. I am certain that most users don’t “get” this about software. And from experience, most users don’t contribute anything at all, not even the most basic bug reports. They do however complain. The best way to “mourn” a lost software project is to ask yourself what you will do to maintain the software ecosystem. How many things do you use for free? How many things have bugs you never bothered to tell anyone about? Has each of you contributed something (even a short E-mail thank-you) to some software project?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
squanch 6y ago
I am sad to hear this. I have been using uMatrix now for quite some time, it has always been one of the extensions I install directly after setting up a new browser (together with uBlock Origin). If the author, Raymond Hill, ends up reading this: thank you Sir, for all the (probably unpaid!) effort you have been putting into this extension for years. It's certainly an inspiration to actively contribute to the open source community.
unethical_ban 6y ago
What does uMatrix do that uBlock Origin can't? I use uBO and it seems powerful enough to block the vast majority of nonsense.
- Drdrdrq 6y ago
  Blocks the rest of the nonsense? :) I see it as a very configurable privacy tool for powerusers. It also clearly shows the parts of the page and where they were (not) loaded from. Incredible tool, sad to see it go.
doublesCs 6y ago
Can someone clarify for a layman what this means in practice? I still want to use uMatrix on Firefox. Does this mean that over time, uMatrix will eventually stop working? Separate question, is there somewhere can we can read from the author about this decision to archive uMatrix?
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  It will until they change their extension API or some detrimental bug is found and they block it.
propogandist 6y ago
uMatrix is one of the first add-ons I've installed on my browsers for many years. It exposes so much crap on the web that browsing the www without uMatrix feels unsafe. The fine grain controls on uMatrix are so powerful and quite intuitive, especially once you get oriented. You can see (and block) websites trying to load in crap asynchronously, see the problematic iFrame that's loading in a scripts, see all the trackers and even the cloudflare endpoints that may be responsible for bringing in malicious content. Gorhill's uBo project is nice, but geared towards simplicity and it's too simple, even with the advanced interface, imo. Although Gorhill never accepted donations, someone forking uMatrix will hopefully use something like github.com/sponsors to ensure it's sustainable. I'd love to see uMatrix around for the long haul.
sebow 6y ago
A loss for freedom lovers on the internet
antonyh 6y ago
This is so critical to my internet use, I plan to maintain a fork. No new features, no distribution, just minimum changes to make it run on FF desktop. I don't have the time to do it justice, and I expect others will do a better job of running a project, but it's something I can't work without. Fingers crossed it's just version bumps when new FF versions come out.
hernan604 6y ago
Was grohill paid to archive it ?

631 points by bscphil 6y ago

Some more info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques... TL;DR: gorhill didn’t have time to maintain both extensions, and won’t transfer the repo after having been burnt once already.

TekMol 6y ago

Uhm, what?? uMatrix is an essential part of my everyday life. Will it still work? If not, is there a trustworthy replacement? I don't want an "ad blocker" with blocking lists etc. I just want to see the page I navigated to. And then allow it to load additional resources as I see fit. If uMatrix goes out of existence, then that would be the biggest loss due to discontinued software in my lifetime.

ffpip 6y ago
It still works. Continue using it till Mozilla shuts down or the extension permission model changes.
- 4cao 6y ago
  > Continue using it till Mozilla shuts down Firefox add-ons can be installed from third-party sources as well, and in the case of uMatrix it's worth doing it anyway, since the latest version (1.4.1b6) is on GitHub only: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases It's a beta but seems to work just fine. Mozilla is still at the last stable version (1.4.0): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/
  - fwn 6y ago
    *on desktops they recently disabled that feature on Android.
throwaway2048 6y ago
uBlock origin advanced mode is very similar to uMatrix
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  What's the difference?
- Arnavion 6y ago
  AFAICT uBO even in advanced mode doesn't differentiate between the kinds of requests that can be filtered, so filtering is only per domain and filters every kind of request for the domain equally. uM on the other hand differentiates between scripts, CSS, images, XHR, media and frames, and allows you to filter them individually. But most importantly, uM also allows you to filter cookies with the same fidelity, which is the number one thing I would miss if I had to rely solely on uBO, because it means I can default to blocking even first-party cookies from sites I don't want leaving cookies on my machine. FF by itself gets close, by letting me set a policy that says "block all cookies except for cookies from these domains", but that doesn't let me filter which site is allowed to access those cookies. Frankly, I find uBO redundant if one has uM installed but for two things: uBO can use the usual content-blocker lists (I personally don't need them because my router's DNS server does filtering using those same lists already, but it's useful for people without such a setup), and uBO can block remote fonts whereas uM can't. It would be great if uM's kind-based filtering was merged into uBO and remote fonts were kept as just another kind of request that can be filtered, but I don't know what gorhill plans to do.
  - eikenberry 6y ago
    Check out "Cookie AutoDelete" for cookie management. It automatically deletes all cookies (not whitelisted) when you close a website. I've used it for a while and it is pretty nice. https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete
  - rasz 6y ago
    > uBO even in advanced mode doesn't differentiate ....scripts, CSS, images, XHR, media and frames $script $image $subdocument $stylesheet $first-party $third-party $xmlhttprequest $csp $inline-script $inline-font ... https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax

pa7x1 6y ago

This is a tragic loss, I can't be grateful enough to the author, such a fantastic tool. I even started installing it in my parent's computers (not advanced users), reducing to 0 the amount of time I had to intervene to fix their computers. The trick is to configure it in blacklist mode, instead of whitelist. This way it only blocks requests from domains in the blacklist and frame elements. Just with this change you get non-power users out of trouble in their surfing habits and impacts negligibly their use. I have taught them that if a web is blocked or doesn't work properly is most likely not a web they want to use but that there is also the possibility to turn it off using the on/off button (that they should use very judiciously). In this mode it is not too different from setting up Hosts file but they can understand better what's going on and how to turn it off if needed. EDIT: fixed typos

ffpip 6y ago
> The trick is to configure it in blacklist mode, instead of whitelist. Or you can use it in whitelist mode, but with all things like Cloudflare and ReCaptcha globally whitelisted. It's good that way too. But yes, for your parents, black list mode would be good. It would be like uBlock Origin.
- 02020202 6y ago
  > Or you can use it in whitelist mode, but with all things like Cloudflare and ReCaptcha globally whitelisted. those two specifically are always the first entries in my blacklist :D
  - josephcsible 6y ago
    Most people want to block annoyances like advertising or tracking without breaking the pages they want to visit. What you're suggesting does the opposite.
    - daveFNbuck 6y ago
      If that's your goal, why would you use uMatrix and not ad and tracking blockers?

cameronhowe 6y ago

Noooooooo, why? I hope this addon keeps working without patches for a long time, I absolutely love how it has improved my web experience. So easy to use.

chippy 6y ago

Good project for someone to pick up on and carry forward I guess?

srtjstjsj 6y ago
No. Gorhill is protecting it from seizure. But someone can fork it.

4cao 6y ago

There is a comment from @gorhill saying: > Anyway, as it is, I've archived uMatrix's repo, I can't and won't be spending any more time on this project, and neither on all such issues [linking to all issues closed as invalid]. https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uMatrix-issues/issues/291#issuecomment-694988696 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uMatrix-issues/issues/291#is... So it's really confirmed then. Very sad news. Edit: there's also a glimmer of hope: > Whoever is free to fork under a new name -- I may re-open and resume development in some future if ever I feel for it.

jiofih 6y ago
That is actually a quite hostile move for OSS, which has become common lately. Unless you have trademarked the name, you don’t get to reserve it for a rainy day, anyone should be able to pick up the torch and continue the project without having to start from scratch with a new unknown name.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- chrismorgan 6y ago
  Are you familiar with the story about uBlock and uBlock Origin? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin#History gorhill stopped doing uBlock and passed it to others, who subsequently took it in a direction he didn’t like, so that he resumed maintenance under the name uBlock Origin (since the name “uBlock” had been transferred). So this time when he stops maintaining a project, he’s avoiding the same thing happening.
  - 4cao 6y ago
    @gorhill explains this in a Reddit post from a month ago: > I will never hand over development to whoever, I had my lesson in the past -- I wouldn't like that someone would turn the project into something I never intended it to become (monetization, feature bloat, etc.). At most I would archive the project and whoever is free to fork under a new name. For now I resisted doing this, so people will have to be patient for new stable release. 1. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/g0bh51n/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques...

noisy_boy 6y ago

uMatrix has been the first app where I can exactly see what domains are being used and over a period build a whitelist that basically works seamlessly while blocking the analytics stuff. I'm just hoping browser internal security changes in the future don't render it broken.

bscphil 6y ago

IMO the genius of uMatrix was that Raymond realized that an in-browser requests firewall should have two dimensions, instead of one: (1) the (sub-)domains that the requests pointed at, and (2) the type of request (i.e. cookie, image, XHR, etc). Now, obviously you could always write an ABP compatible filter that could block any combination of these two, but that's hard. What uMatrix did is present the underlying complexity in a way that's easy to intuit for a power user, giving you point-and-click request filtering power over both domains simultaneously. For that reason, I'm skeptical that uMatrix can be replaced with a traditional blocker, not even one with an advanced mode like uBo, because it simply doesn't allow the specificity that a two-dimensional model like uMatrix did. That makes uMatrix's being archived incredibly tragic and a great loss for the web. I hope someone as trustworthy and competent as Raymond will pick it up in the future, and I thank him for all his work on it up to this point.

aembleton 6y ago
> you could always write an ABP compatible filter that could block any combination of these two I don't think you can for cookies. You can block cookies in the browser, but I'd like a filter list so that it is possible to change across all my browsers by subscribing to the same filter list.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
cookiengineer 6y ago
This is so true, the two dimensions allow such a nice simplification of what should be rendered even in UX terms. What I personally didn't like about it though are the tech specific parts (e.g. xhr and other both require script anyways, as not a single website will work with xhr disabled). So for my browser project [1] I decided to split it up into "text", "image", "audio", "video" and "other" which I hope will make more sense for most people. Back in February when the debate about the manifest and requests api started, I started my own semantic browser project which aims to filter out all UX-interfering CSS and HTML and probably won't allow JS anyhow. It tries to focus on the automation and caching parts that are broken in current web browsers, so that everything is peer to peer, and that other trusted peers can be used to share bandwidth, content, or metadata with each other and that each one has a 100% persistent local cache that only gets refreshed once the user tells the browser to. If there'll be a need to support webapps later, they will probably be sandboxed in a new window that represents a temporary cache located in /tmp/... in order to prevent abuse of local storage and cookies. I've learned to not trust any site these days, even my bank's website uses foreign overseas-located trackers, which is technically a GDPR violation. [1] https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth

Raed667 6y ago

I tried using uMatrix a few times and always ended-up disabling it. It was too disruptive and breaking too many things compared to uBlock Origin. I hope whoever forks the project can work on the UI and onboarding experience.

boomboomsubban 6y ago
I did the same thing twice, then actually spent ten minutes reading the wiki. It's very simple to use, and I doubt a new UI could perform the same functions any easier.
Lammy 6y ago
I felt the same way before I realized the flexibility of the domain scoping UI and that I could allow certain things (e.g. reCAPTCHA and the million Google scripts it depends on) on a global basis instead of on a tedious per-domain basis.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
Umatrix isn't for casual users. It was for hard-core I want complete control of what's being sent into my browser users. ublock origin is more than enough for casual users who won't put the time in to tame umatrix

elorant 6y ago

Dear HN community. Pretty, pretty please with sugar on the top, keep maintaining this project. It's absolutely essential for a sane browsing of contemporary web.

marcinzm 6y ago
You're free to fork it or organize a fork of it yourself or start an initiative for paying maintainers of a fork.
- elorant 6y ago
  I'd gladly pay an annual subscription for anyone willing to maintain it.
  - anaganisk 6y ago
    Instead fork it and pay some freelancer to fix bugs if any.

boomboomsubban 6y ago

I wonder why uMatrix was completely shelved while he created a new team to continue uBlock.

wyclif 6y ago
I think it's because uBlock Origin has a lot more users. uMatrix was always for power users.
- squarefoot 6y ago
  He probably could have saved time and resources by incorporating uMatrix most granular blocking functions into uBlock Origin, say as an "expert mode" users had to enable explicitly. I mean, many of us probably have both installed; since they do essentially the same things, although at different levels, merging some functionalities of the latter into the former doesn't seem that absurd to me. Anyway, big thanks to gorhill for putting great effort in software that today is absolutely necessary to surf the web, and that makes it even more sad to see uMatrix go.
  - wyclif 6y ago
    Can you explain the advantage of installing both uBlock Origin and uMatrix? I never tried that, thinking that there was too much functional overlap and guessing that I would have to check and uncheck numerous lists to keep one from stepping on the other. Or maybe I'm just lazy and didn't feel like diving deeply into how to make them play nice together.
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      They don't interfere with each other much, if something is broken 90% of the time it's uMatrix and 10% of the time it's both. From my understanding, uBlock Origin will stop a few things uMatrix misses, but mostly I already had uBlock set up and have never seen a reason to ditch it.
srtjstjsj 6y ago

Maha-pudma 6y ago

What's the alternative to this? This was on all my browsers, with ublock origin, the first extension I install. Now what? I'm not a good enough programmer to take this on but I suggest 'uMatrix Reloaded' as the new name.

ffpip 6y ago
Are there any issues with uMatrix that you are looking for alternatives? Only the repo has been archived. The extension is perfect. Just think you haven't seen this post and continue to use it.
- bscphil 6y ago
  Mozilla has modified their extensions API pretty regularly (with major changes every few years at least, recently), and they're also still in the process of developing the API for the Android browser, which is likely to remain incomplete and different from the desktop API for the forseeable future. Granted, maybe not a lot of people use uMatrix on their phone, but both of these seem like valid reasons to worry.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    You can't use uMatrix on phone. Mozilla updated their browser right? Also very few can manage it on such a small screen. >they're also still in the process of developing the API The API is there. They are just whitelisting addons.
    - bscphil 6y ago
      > You can't use uMatrix on phone. You can't use it currently if you have a release version of Firefox after 68, yes. The API is buggy and in fact quite a few extensions don't work, even if you force-install them. It's still unclear if they will ever whitelist stuff that's outside of their "recommended extensions" program, and presumably the best chance it would have of getting whitelisted is if it were actively maintained and bugs encountered with the new FFA could be worked on in coordination with the developer.

ffpip 6y ago

Thank you Gorhill. For such great resources. Your extensions are the only reason I use FF on mobile and desktop. uMatrix helped me realize how much of 3rd party resources are crap. Actual crap. Completely unnecessary. It also helped me get familiar with new 3rd party crap that pops up on the internet. I'll use uMatrix 1.4.0 as long as it works. Many thanks

newyorker2 6y ago
Haven't used any chromium in years, hence the question. Is uMatrix not available on their addon store?
- ffpip 6y ago
  In my experience uMatrix and uBO work better in Firefox compared to Chromium. You don't have to completely reload the whole page to see what's blocked or hidden. They can also block the sneakiest trackers that hide behind other domains. Not possible in Chromium. Chromium mobile doesnt even have addons because they are shit scared of adblockers.
  - pmoriarty 6y ago
    "Chromium mobile doesnt even have addons because they are shit scared of adblockers." Paradoxically, I'm kind of half-happy to hear this. It means that finally a large number of users are using adblockers. For many years the standard theme of many threads on adblockers was that companies like Google didn't care about them because too small a percentage of their users used them for it to matter. Now finally there are enough adblocker users for it to hurt their bottom line, and that means that there are more people than ever who clearly just don't want to see ads. That gives me hope that there will some day be anti-advertising legislation, and that we might not even need adblockers... some day... some day...
    - bad_user 6y ago
      I think your hope is misguided. People dreamed of an Internet where sharing of information was free (as in freedom). Then DRM happened. And even if DRM cannot be 100% reliable, being broken by design, it's reliable enough, plus in the US at least it's a felony to break it. And as years go by, we see more DRM, not less. This happens, because the practice is normalized, and because small inconveniences are taken care of (usually by monopolies winning the market—e.g. you stop complaining that alternative e-book readers don't work, when everybody is using the Kindle or the Audible apps). Similarly, for the open web — the action has been moving on mobile devices. A majority of people now consume content via mobile devices. So what do you see? More websites? Or more apps? And for all ad-blocking happening at the DNS level (e.g. Pi-hole), how long do you think it is before apps start doing DNS over HTTPS on their own, bypassing the OS's stack? This is a wack-a-mole game, and the big publishers have enough resources to push for both technical and legal changes for outlawing ad-blocking. I'm actually surprised that content blockers remained legal thus far. But the writing is on the wall IMO. --- There's also another side of this coin. I see more and more people on HN complaining that articles are submitted from publications that are setting up paywalls. People also hate paying for content. And even those that pay for content, they don't recognize what an incredible privilege it is to afford it. Either content is monetized somehow, or the only content that we get will be content created by hobbyists, in their spare time, for free, while working a regular job. Well I for one don't want a world in which the poor don't get access to online resources, or a world in which people can't make ends meet doing what they love.

jonchang 6y ago

Looks like the maintainer just didn't have time and there weren't enough people in the community willing to step up and do issue triage or contribute code. > What would actually help is that people help to completely investigate existing issues instead of keep asking me to add yet more features. Turns out people willing to step in the code to investigate and pinpoint exactly where is an issue (or that there is no issue) is incredibly rare.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jobigoud 6y ago
It's a general trait we have as a civilization, everybody wants to innovate, nobody wants to do maintenance.

pineyboi 6y ago

uMatrix is awesome. I wish there were more tools like this -- just advanced enough to do some real heavy lifting yet still quick and intuitive after even a little investment. The browsers brought SSL awareness with the padlock, but most users are still woefully unaware of just how many websites they hit when they load any page. It's insanity. I hope this isn't due to browser vendors making things difficult, but it wouldn't surprise me. Since the concerns are similar, it would be great if there was a way to marry the two. uBlock - advanced interface mode or something. Just a thought, not a feature request. Thank you Gorhill for all your work. Sad to see it go, I actually can't fathom how I'll surf the web without it.

ffpip 6y ago
> just advanced enough to do some real heavy lifting yet still quick and intuitive after even a little investment. This describes uMatrix perfectly. I didn't understand a single thing after installing it, but one day, I spent 20 mins reading the wiki on Github and then understood what to use each tool for.

Semaphor 6y ago

This is a shame, I find the interface for uMatrix much more intuitive than uBO’s.

fxtentacle 6y ago

This is sad for me as a user, but I can fully understand his unwillingness to further engage with requests from entitled users. I myself had bad experiences with releasing open source, too. That said, this is clearly a useful tool and I wouldn't be surprised if the user base was 10,000+ which means that if you'd make it $3 monthly to use as a commercial product, the revenue (after attrition) should be enough to pay for at least one part time employee to do the maintenance. I would also expect that releasing this as a paid product, as opposed to open source, will actually reduce entitlement by users. Or at the very least, you can always just issue a refund and be done with it. I would still hope for source code insight to make it transparent how this tool works. But that is not necessary a hindrance towards productizing it. Unreal Engine 4 is a commercial success, despite shipping with full source code.

jsjohnst 6y ago
> I would also expect that releasing this as a paid product, as opposed to open source, will actually reduce entitlement by users. That is the very opposite of what I’d expect and have observed personally over the years. The folks who’ve paid a small amount are virtually always the most demanding and refunding them and asking them politely to go away just fuels their indignation further.
- fxtentacle 6y ago
  I've been selling a $9 Windows app for 5 years now and never had a case where someone continued to contact support after a refund. We did have people who had a system straight from hell where nothing worked as planned, but then again the users of those systems seemed to be aware that it's their computer and not my app.
  - jsjohnst 6y ago
    So you are lucky I guess? That’s the great thing about anecdata, everyone will have a somewhat different experience.

einpoklum 6y ago

I have been a (lay) user of uBlock Origin for some years now. I haven't heard about uMatrix before. Can someone link to a tutorial or a detailed review for it?

dredmorbius 6y ago
uMatrix extends the notion of uBlock (DNS-based content blocking) to a matrix of domains, subdomains, and sites (the vertical column) against specific Web capabilities; content, images, CSS, JS, XSR, and other elements. It affords fine-grained control over what sites are permitted to do on your browser. There are numerous explainer videos on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TVozpo3zUBk https://youtube.com/watch?v=TVozpo3zUBk Search: https://youtube.com/results?search_query=umatrix https://youtube.com/results?search_query=umatrix

hardwaresofton 6y ago

For those who are wondering the difference between ublock origin and umatrix, a cursory quick search turned up this forum post[0]: > uMatrix is a blocker(cookie,css,image,plugin,script,XHR,frame, and other) you can control what you block and what you want to allow(like uBlock Origin dynamic filtering but way more flexible and can be way more strict) uMatrix just blocks ads through the use of host files, uBlock Origin blocks them more deeper per se then uMatrix because of cosmetic and patteren-based filtering like adblock plus. I use both of them together just uncheck the malware domains in uBlock and peter Lowe's and the host files. Also you have more privacy and security when running uMatrix because of the switches(user agent spoofing and referrer spoofing, clearing blocked cookies, blocking hyperlink auditing attempts etc.) and also if you run uBlock it gets whatever ads uMatrix does not get from its blocking) Look at my sig to see how I run them. If you need help just PM me.:thumb::):cool: I personally run ublock origin and have been super happy with it, never even think about it these days, if I was supposed to switch to uMatrix at some point (I know uBlock and uBlock origin are different now and origin is preferred) I must have missed it. [0]: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ublock-vs-umatrix.376016/ https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ublock-vs-umatrix.37...

pimlottc 6y ago
Thanks, the project readme could definitely do a better job of introducing the project to those not familiar with it.

CincinnatiMan 6y ago

Man, I absolutely love uMatrix. Now I feel bad for not contributing back to it, maybe that would have helped the author keep going with it.

sippingjippers 6y ago

I seem to remember this movie. In the following scene, some spammer forks the code and claims to be the new maintainer, but threads some horrible spammy behaviour into the code. The spammy fork (under the original name) gains significant popularity. Final scene. In disgust, the valiant OP returns with a new fork, possibly called "uMatrix Origin". Curtains and lights

srtjstjsj 6y ago
That's a miscomprehension of what happened with uBlock. The problem with uBlock was that gorhill legally gave away the trademark to a spammer.
- ffpip 6y ago
  He got tired of kids complaining of issues without contributing code. Just filter list issues, which are not really his fault but the list maintainers.

Drawde 6y ago

If you're using uBlock Origin already, then you don't really need uMatrix or NoScript. Just enable medium mode or hard mode: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium... https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-hard-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-hard-m...

dastx 6y ago
Medium and hard mode are nowhere near as flexible as as uMatrix. It's good, but it's not uMatrix.
- prvc 6y ago
  Could you elaborate as to what the specific differences are?
  - dastx 6y ago
    For starters with uBO you can individually block types of requests (images, js, css, cookies, frames, "other") per domain and/or per subhuman.
    - surround 6y ago
      *uMatrix, not uBO
      - takeda 6y ago
        And subdomain not subhuman :)
- Lammy 6y ago
  I’m willing to put up with if it it means gorhill will have the energy to maintain just uBO instead of burning out entirely :)
  - 6y ago

jccalhoun 6y ago

I could never figure out how to use umatrix or the advanced mode of ublock origin. I've read the instructions and could never figure them out.

Lammy 6y ago
There’s a “save” button you have to click to persist your changes after you’ve toggled the green/red cells of the media-types-per-domain table to suit what you want to block and what you want to allow. i gave up on uMatrix once before figuring that out.

Bayart 6y ago

uMatrix has to have been the most useful, all-rounded, intelligent browser extension I've ever used. I see it as a gold standard. It truly extends the browser, rather than use it as a platform to deploy « apps ».

acomar 6y ago
treestyle tabs and container tabs are the others I can think of. they also integrate very well with each other.

t0astbread 6y ago

A huge loss but thank you gorhill for developing this awesome extension! Like many others I'll probably keep using it while it still works. On another note, how does uMatrix even work internally? I guess the bulk of its functionality is based on the webRequest API and I think it uses some kind of CSP hack for inline scripts and workers? (And is it only my perception or does uMatrix have to resort to a lot of hacky workarounds to implement some of its features?)

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

/me sniffles in sadness.

Havoc 6y ago

Literally 12 hours after I switched from Noscript. :(

arendtio 6y ago

I like uBlock Origin better than uMatrix, so my primary concern is what I can do to support uBO so that it won't share the same fate?

srtjstjsj 6y ago
Gorhill has clearly stated: if you want to help, fix bugs. He doesn't want to do this as a job, so if you want to pay someone to help instead of helping directly, then find someone who wants to be paid to fix bugs in uBO. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Why-don't-you-accept-donations%3F https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Why-don't-you-accept-...

soulofmischief 6y ago

The developer, Raymond Hill had this to say on reddit a month ago: I will never hand over development to whoever, I had my lesson in the past -- I wouldn't like that someone would turn the project into something I never intended it to become (monetization, feature bloat, etc.). At most I would archive the project and whoever is free to fork under a new name. For now I resisted doing this, so people will have to be patient for new stable release. What would actually help is that people help to completely investigate existing issues instead of keep asking me to add yet more features. Turns out people willing to step in the code to investigate and pinpoint exactly where is an issue (or that there is no issue) is incredibly rare. https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/request_for_a_stable_umatrix_release_for_cname/g0bh51n/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/i240ds/reques...

NelsonMinar 6y ago
Presumably referring to the mess that happened with uBlock when he tried to step away. That's why it's called "uBlock Origin" now; the original name was taken over by someone who then developed it in ways against Gorhill's intentions.
- soulofmischief 6y ago
  That's what I assumed as well. That situation was quite a mess.
- propogandist 6y ago
  >the original name was taken over by someone it was taken over by the same people behind "AdBlockPlus" which is a shakedown operation. They're allowing ads to be unblocked if advertisers pay them money. Some history; https://old.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/32ory7/ublock_is_back_under_a_new_name/ https://old.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/32ory7/ublock_is_ba...
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Well, today that is what it is. Before that it was just a "donate to the developers" that was basically a money grab for the person running it.

sloshnmosh 6y ago

uMatrix IMHO is an absolute necessity when viewing the web these days. It is said that 20% of the ads on the web are malicious so browsing the web without a dependable script/adblocker is just asking for trouble. And until the adtech industry finds a way to stop malvertising I will continue blocking scripts and ads.

makecheck 6y ago

Many notable or even vital software projects are literally maintained by one person, sometimes even in companies. I am certain that most users don’t “get” this about software. And from experience, most users don’t contribute anything at all, not even the most basic bug reports. They do however complain. The best way to “mourn” a lost software project is to ask yourself what you will do to maintain the software ecosystem. How many things do you use for free? How many things have bugs you never bothered to tell anyone about? Has each of you contributed something (even a short E-mail thank-you) to some software project?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

squanch 6y ago

I am sad to hear this. I have been using uMatrix now for quite some time, it has always been one of the extensions I install directly after setting up a new browser (together with uBlock Origin). If the author, Raymond Hill, ends up reading this: thank you Sir, for all the (probably unpaid!) effort you have been putting into this extension for years. It's certainly an inspiration to actively contribute to the open source community.

unethical_ban 6y ago

What does uMatrix do that uBlock Origin can't? I use uBO and it seems powerful enough to block the vast majority of nonsense.

Drdrdrq 6y ago
Blocks the rest of the nonsense? :) I see it as a very configurable privacy tool for powerusers. It also clearly shows the parts of the page and where they were (not) loaded from. Incredible tool, sad to see it go.

doublesCs 6y ago

Can someone clarify for a layman what this means in practice? I still want to use uMatrix on Firefox. Does this mean that over time, uMatrix will eventually stop working? Separate question, is there somewhere can we can read from the author about this decision to archive uMatrix?

stjohnswarts 6y ago
It will until they change their extension API or some detrimental bug is found and they block it.

propogandist 6y ago

uMatrix is one of the first add-ons I've installed on my browsers for many years. It exposes so much crap on the web that browsing the www without uMatrix feels unsafe. The fine grain controls on uMatrix are so powerful and quite intuitive, especially once you get oriented. You can see (and block) websites trying to load in crap asynchronously, see the problematic iFrame that's loading in a scripts, see all the trackers and even the cloudflare endpoints that may be responsible for bringing in malicious content. Gorhill's uBo project is nice, but geared towards simplicity and it's too simple, even with the advanced interface, imo. Although Gorhill never accepted donations, someone forking uMatrix will hopefully use something like github.com/sponsors to ensure it's sustainable. I'd love to see uMatrix around for the long haul.

sebow 6y ago

A loss for freedom lovers on the internet

antonyh 6y ago

This is so critical to my internet use, I plan to maintain a fork. No new features, no distribution, just minimum changes to make it run on FF desktop. I don't have the time to do it justice, and I expect others will do a better job of running a project, but it's something I can't work without. Fingers crossed it's just version bumps when new FF versions come out.

hernan604 6y ago

Was grohill paid to archive it ?