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I'm getting tired of this manifest v3 drama on HN. Why don't people who oppose it band together and fork Chromium and maintain that fork. The software is open s

by gerash 4y ago

I'm getting tired of this manifest v3 drama on HN. Why don't people who oppose it band together and fork Chromium and maintain that fork. The software is open source at the end of the day.

dmortin 4y ago
Because it's not an easy job and people would have to devote significant free time to it.
- gerash 4y ago
  Exactly. So get behind the wheel and do something (eg. fork Chromium without MV3 or something like that). But if you're not willing to spend your own time and energy then what's the point of constantly complaining about conspiracies surrounding MV3 on HN. It's tiring to read.
gingerlime 4y ago
I’m no expert, but I think the main moat that Chrome has here is its web store where users find extensions and developers submit their extensions. There’s a review process which whilst far from perfect is labor intensive and still helps catch rogue extensions. Hard to open-source this part of Chrome.
- cglong 4y ago
  There's an OSS fork of Chromium for Android called Kiwi that enables installing extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
  - ToruiDev 4y ago
    Which still relies on the Chrome Web store. Which will stop accepting MV2 Extensions after the move to MV3 Therefore leaving you without a store again
- marwis 4y ago
  You also can't use Google services with unofficial build. That includes Sync, Translate and bunch of other stuff.
  - zarzavat 4y ago
    That’s a feature for me. I don’t want to have to sign into my browser or have it phoning home constantly. It’s a privacy risk.
foepys 4y ago
Because it's not really about MV3 but about the largest ad and tracking network on the planet changing the most popular web browser to cripple ad blocking under the disguise of security.
- Guthur 4y ago
  I wonder if this is the prelude to unblockable government propaganda. Already get it on all the social media after all. Calling it now, let's see in a couple of years how deep the state really is.
  - TeMPOraL 4y ago
    Maybe, but let's not allow the government boogeyman to blind us to the direct and immediate threat, which is adtech and surveillance economy.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  But that’s not what’s happening here, how is anything Firefox does with their switch crippling adblocking?
  - TeMPOraL 4y ago
    What's happening is step 1 - Firefox buying into MV3, even if with its own tweaks, and mentioning that DNR is a thing that will happen eventually. Step 2 - once people get used to it and drama dies down - the implementation will likely become very close to Chrome, under the guise of not fragmenting the dev experience and similar nonsense excuses. These moves keep happening in tech all the time. Slippery slope fallacy doesn't work here - if you see something that looks like slippery slope in a tech business, it almost definitely is one.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      But they never mention removing WebRequest, only having DNR in addition where it makes sense for performance reasons (and for compatibility with chrome), not having it would be stupid. I’m all for slippery slope arguments, if they are well-founded, not if it sounds like wild conspiracy theories.
Drakim 4y ago
Chrome is not fully open source, so any fork would be somewhat reduced.
- ranguna 4y ago
  I don't know if the original post was edited, but it says chromium, not chrome.
  - Drakim 4y ago
    It always said chromium, but I find that people actually mean "chrome but open source" when they say "chromium", when that's not really the case at all.
josefx 4y ago
> The software is open source at the end of the day. Then you can point to the source of widevine? Something that chrome developers called a core component when they where caught side loading it on dedicated open source distros a few years ago and initially refused to supply an option to disable it?

by gerash 4y ago

I'm getting tired of this manifest v3 drama on HN. Why don't people who oppose it band together and fork Chromium and maintain that fork. The software is open source at the end of the day.

dmortin 4y ago

Because it's not an easy job and people would have to devote significant free time to it.

gerash 4y ago
Exactly. So get behind the wheel and do something (eg. fork Chromium without MV3 or something like that). But if you're not willing to spend your own time and energy then what's the point of constantly complaining about conspiracies surrounding MV3 on HN. It's tiring to read.

gingerlime 4y ago

I’m no expert, but I think the main moat that Chrome has here is its web store where users find extensions and developers submit their extensions. There’s a review process which whilst far from perfect is labor intensive and still helps catch rogue extensions. Hard to open-source this part of Chrome.

cglong 4y ago
There's an OSS fork of Chromium for Android called Kiwi that enables installing extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
- ToruiDev 4y ago
  Which still relies on the Chrome Web store. Which will stop accepting MV2 Extensions after the move to MV3 Therefore leaving you without a store again
marwis 4y ago
You also can't use Google services with unofficial build. That includes Sync, Translate and bunch of other stuff.
- zarzavat 4y ago
  That’s a feature for me. I don’t want to have to sign into my browser or have it phoning home constantly. It’s a privacy risk.

foepys 4y ago

Because it's not really about MV3 but about the largest ad and tracking network on the planet changing the most popular web browser to cripple ad blocking under the disguise of security.

Guthur 4y ago
I wonder if this is the prelude to unblockable government propaganda. Already get it on all the social media after all. Calling it now, let's see in a couple of years how deep the state really is.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  Maybe, but let's not allow the government boogeyman to blind us to the direct and immediate threat, which is adtech and surveillance economy.
Semaphor 4y ago
But that’s not what’s happening here, how is anything Firefox does with their switch crippling adblocking?
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  What's happening is step 1 - Firefox buying into MV3, even if with its own tweaks, and mentioning that DNR is a thing that will happen eventually. Step 2 - once people get used to it and drama dies down - the implementation will likely become very close to Chrome, under the guise of not fragmenting the dev experience and similar nonsense excuses. These moves keep happening in tech all the time. Slippery slope fallacy doesn't work here - if you see something that looks like slippery slope in a tech business, it almost definitely is one.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    But they never mention removing WebRequest, only having DNR in addition where it makes sense for performance reasons (and for compatibility with chrome), not having it would be stupid. I’m all for slippery slope arguments, if they are well-founded, not if it sounds like wild conspiracy theories.

Drakim 4y ago

Chrome is not fully open source, so any fork would be somewhat reduced.

ranguna 4y ago
I don't know if the original post was edited, but it says chromium, not chrome.
- Drakim 4y ago
  It always said chromium, but I find that people actually mean "chrome but open source" when they say "chromium", when that's not really the case at all.

josefx 4y ago

> The software is open source at the end of the day. Then you can point to the source of widevine? Something that chrome developers called a core component when they where caught side loading it on dedicated open source distros a few years ago and initially refused to supply an option to disable it?