13 ms·

uBlock-Origin – 1.52.0

237 points by archo 3y ago

archo 3y ago
uBlock Origin – Wiki : https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki
freedomben 3y ago
gorhill is a hero and legend to me. One of the most important players in making the modern web. I'm still holding out hope that either he or someone else picks uMatrix back up. It's such an incredible tool, and I'm worried about the day when it no longer works.
- frogelos 3y ago
  Personally i use AdNauseam but if i click on uBlock button and then select "more" twice i get similar interface to uMatrix. Are there any features lacking in there compared to uMatrix?
  - squarefoot 3y ago
    > Are there any features lacking in there compared to uMatrix? uMatrix had a much better UI which allowed finer granularity and immediate feedback when blocking this or that for a given site.
  - somat 3y ago
    Can you actually do anything with that display? As a fellow refuge from umatrix. I would love some of umatrix functionality there. So to test if I was remembering correctly I just played with the ublock expanded list a bit. You can click on some things(but not everything) and the color changes(sometimes). but I still could not figure if it is just a status display or if it can be used a a tool. As far as I can tell most of ublocks power is hidden inside scripts with no real ui.
    - Yujf 3y ago
      With that display you can totally block or allow (sub-)domains on the current website (or all websites) so it does have some power, but it is not as powerful as the the scripts which allow much more granularity
      - freedomben 3y ago
        Yes, but it's all "network requests" for each subdomain. You can't for example allow CSS and HTML and scripts, but disallow XHR, which is a common configuration that I use :-(
- amaranth 3y ago
  Wasn't uMatrix dropped because at this point it's just a more powerful UI to do the same things uBlock Origin lets you do?
  - contact9879 3y ago
    That was my understanding.
  - Zuiii 3y ago
    Yes, and that's exactly why other people including myself still use it.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    It is objectively not a more powerful UI if you want to allow/disallow different categories of "network request." For example, allow CSS and HTML, but block scripts and XHR. If you want to to do that, you have to write the rules manually. Basically, there's no UI, not a more powerful one.
- contact9879 3y ago
  What does uMatrix have that uBlock Origin doesn't provide?
  - wtallis 3y ago
    A better UI for fine-grained control over what kind of requests get blocked.
    - freedomben 3y ago
      Exactly. Say I want to block cookies, media, and XHR requests on the current site as well as on a linked 3rd party site (like cloudfront), but allow css, scripts, and frames? In uMatrix such a configuration is trivial. In uBO AFAICT you're probably gonna have to write the rules manually. The grid UI in uBO doesn't get that granular, just "network request" level.
  - pmontra 3y ago
    The UI is many orders of magnitude better. uMatrix vs uBlock Origin is a textbook case. UbO's matrix is the masochist's teapot in the cover page of The Design of Everyday Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things uMatrix is a teapot with the handle where it should be. If uMatrix will stop working I'll install NoScript. I'll keep using UbO for ads and cosmetic filtering.
    - sebzim4500 3y ago
      How so? I think uBO has a pretty nice UX for what I want to do. Especially like the element picker UI, where you can independantly control what element you want in the hierarchy and also how specific the selector should be.
      - Zuiii 3y ago
        > How so? I think uBO has a pretty nice UX for what I want to do. I'm happy for you but I think uBO has a horrible UX for what I want to do.
- Dwedit 3y ago
  As far as I've seen, the most recently committed fork of uMatrix is this one: https://github.com/nicolaasjan/nuTensor https://github.com/nicolaasjan/nuTensor Why not just use the final release of uMatrix? Because it has a bug where it can delete your logon cookies when you navigate to another site. It also has bugs where the wrong rule is applied for a particular request (it picks the action defined for a different site).
- 8bitsrule 3y ago
  >gorhill is a hero and legend to me. I wish a had an 8x10 I could gold-frame, to hang over my desk.
ireallywantthat 3y ago
What if we implemented ublock origin in native code from Browser's side instead of implementing it as extension? Will there be performance, efficiency and memory improvements?
- seanw444 3y ago
  The answer is almost certainly yes. But I wonder if the APIs it uses are already fast enough that doing so would yield negligible benefits?
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  Yes, see https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite But the history of minimalistic Chromium forks is kinda sad, as they seem to get little attention and maintaining them requires a ton of work. They tend to burn out, like the dev of Bromite did.
- pvg 3y ago
  That's more or less the goal of DeclarativeNetRequest in Chrome/manifest v3 and similar facilities in Safari.
  - dewey 3y ago
    I somehow doubt the goal of the people behind Chrome is to make ad-blocking performance better.
    - scq 3y ago
      That is their stated goal. > There’s been a lot of confusion and misconception around both the motivations and implications of this change, including speculation that these changes were designed to prevent or weaken ad blockers. This is absolutely not the goal. In fact, this change is meant to give developers a way to create safer and more performant ad blockers. -- https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarative-net-request.html https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarativ...
brucethemoose2 3y ago
> uBO works best on Firefox. Those looking for performant adblocking in Chrome should also check out Cromite: https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite Its a resumption of Bromite for Android/Windows, hence the adblocking and tracking protection is far less limited since its native, not an extension. Of course, YMMV with lone Chromium fork devs.
- jacooper 3y ago
  Just use brave
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    Theres a list of small things I don't like about Brave, including the ad-replacement business model and the rewards things. I prefer "simple" forks that stick closer to Chromium, and Cromite is basically that.
    - jacooper 3y ago
      They dont replace any ads. Brave ads are silent notifications, which are optional.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Brave used to edit links to insert their own referral codes. They only stopped when they were caught. That's like browser hijacking behavior, so I'm gonna stay far away.
- ploum 3y ago
  Those looking for adblocking should not use Chrome at all. If Chrome is really needed, it should be in its own container without any personal data. Adblocking in chrome is like smoking cigarettes with filters because "it’s better for my health". No, it’s not. For people knowledgeable enough to read HN, there’s no excuse to still use Chrome as a daily driver.
  - 3y ago
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
lucb1e 3y ago
Anything in particular the submitter (u/archo) is excited about?
- archo 3y ago
  I submitted the article as uBlock is in (normal) comprehensive code review as per [1]. This allow us, (as users) time to review the changes to the app. before a notification suddenly appears to update. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addons/firefox-recommended-extensions/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addo...
idonotknowwhy 3y ago
The internet without this, it's unusable. Same with YouTube and sponsorblock
- k12sosse 3y ago
  To be fair it depends on what you watch. Not everybody who puts things on YouTube is so hard done by they need to tell you about the latest VPN or razor every 20 minutes. As far as YT premium goes, and the fact there are ads in the free tier - the best way to demonstrate how there are costs associated with their business model is.. at least for this audience: You wouldn't pirate factorio, would you?
  - soultrees 3y ago
    I did when I was broke and depressed and trying out new games. Got so hooked on it, that I ended up buying myself and a few copies for friends. But the quality of the game is what converted from being a pirate, but it didn’t stop me from being a pirate in the first place. The difference is the value adding behaviour added by factorio vs the rent-seeking behaviour from every other game.
jononomo 3y ago
Is there an equivalent to uBlock-Origin for Safari?
- morjom 3y ago
  I think ublock lite got released on Safari recently.
  - eipi10_hn 3y ago
    Nope
- mega3000 3y ago
  AdGuard, Wipr, 1Blocker
  - mega3000 3y ago
    Paired with dns blocker (pihole, nextdns) or local firewall (littlesnitch)
- newscracker 3y ago
  There's nothing that offers all these features and is free. But if you'd like to try Orion browser by Kagi [1], you can install uBlock Origin and many other web extensions for it on Mac, iOS and iPadOS. A paid alternative that is similar (at least for blocking specific elements) is AdGuard [2]. [1]: https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ [2]: https://adguard.com/ https://adguard.com/
metaphor 3y ago
Thought it was curious that this was released 4 days ago, but a spot check of the Firefox Add-Ons downstream[1] still reflects 1.51.0 updated on the same day (2023-07-19) as its GitHub release[2]. Then I saw: > Firefox: Review pending Mozilla just seriously backlogged or is there a more nuanced story here? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin... [2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.51.0 https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.51.0
- DedlySnek 3y ago
  uBlock Origin is a recommended extension and according this page[1], Recommended extensions undergo full code review by staff security experts to provide a strong additional security check. [1] - https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addons/firefox-recommended-extensions/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addo...
sizzle 3y ago
I would pay for gorhill to maintain uMatrix. It adds that much value to my web browsing experience.
- 93po 3y ago
  consider contributing to filter lists with your free time :)

237 points by archo 3y ago

uBlock Origin – Wiki : https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki

gorhill is a hero and legend to me. One of the most important players in making the modern web. I'm still holding out hope that either he or someone else picks uMatrix back up. It's such an incredible tool, and I'm worried about the day when it no longer works.

frogelos 3y ago
Personally i use AdNauseam but if i click on uBlock button and then select "more" twice i get similar interface to uMatrix. Are there any features lacking in there compared to uMatrix?
- squarefoot 3y ago
  > Are there any features lacking in there compared to uMatrix? uMatrix had a much better UI which allowed finer granularity and immediate feedback when blocking this or that for a given site.
- somat 3y ago
  Can you actually do anything with that display? As a fellow refuge from umatrix. I would love some of umatrix functionality there. So to test if I was remembering correctly I just played with the ublock expanded list a bit. You can click on some things(but not everything) and the color changes(sometimes). but I still could not figure if it is just a status display or if it can be used a a tool. As far as I can tell most of ublocks power is hidden inside scripts with no real ui.
  - Yujf 3y ago
    With that display you can totally block or allow (sub-)domains on the current website (or all websites) so it does have some power, but it is not as powerful as the the scripts which allow much more granularity
    - freedomben 3y ago
      Yes, but it's all "network requests" for each subdomain. You can't for example allow CSS and HTML and scripts, but disallow XHR, which is a common configuration that I use :-(
amaranth 3y ago
Wasn't uMatrix dropped because at this point it's just a more powerful UI to do the same things uBlock Origin lets you do?
- contact9879 3y ago
  That was my understanding.
- Zuiii 3y ago
  Yes, and that's exactly why other people including myself still use it.
- freedomben 3y ago
  It is objectively not a more powerful UI if you want to allow/disallow different categories of "network request." For example, allow CSS and HTML, but block scripts and XHR. If you want to to do that, you have to write the rules manually. Basically, there's no UI, not a more powerful one.
contact9879 3y ago
What does uMatrix have that uBlock Origin doesn't provide?
- wtallis 3y ago
  A better UI for fine-grained control over what kind of requests get blocked.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    Exactly. Say I want to block cookies, media, and XHR requests on the current site as well as on a linked 3rd party site (like cloudfront), but allow css, scripts, and frames? In uMatrix such a configuration is trivial. In uBO AFAICT you're probably gonna have to write the rules manually. The grid UI in uBO doesn't get that granular, just "network request" level.
- pmontra 3y ago
  The UI is many orders of magnitude better. uMatrix vs uBlock Origin is a textbook case. UbO's matrix is the masochist's teapot in the cover page of The Design of Everyday Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things uMatrix is a teapot with the handle where it should be. If uMatrix will stop working I'll install NoScript. I'll keep using UbO for ads and cosmetic filtering.
  - sebzim4500 3y ago
    How so? I think uBO has a pretty nice UX for what I want to do. Especially like the element picker UI, where you can independantly control what element you want in the hierarchy and also how specific the selector should be.
    - Zuiii 3y ago
      > How so? I think uBO has a pretty nice UX for what I want to do. I'm happy for you but I think uBO has a horrible UX for what I want to do.
Dwedit 3y ago
As far as I've seen, the most recently committed fork of uMatrix is this one: https://github.com/nicolaasjan/nuTensor https://github.com/nicolaasjan/nuTensor Why not just use the final release of uMatrix? Because it has a bug where it can delete your logon cookies when you navigate to another site. It also has bugs where the wrong rule is applied for a particular request (it picks the action defined for a different site).
8bitsrule 3y ago
>gorhill is a hero and legend to me. I wish a had an 8x10 I could gold-frame, to hang over my desk.

ireallywantthat 3y ago

What if we implemented ublock origin in native code from Browser's side instead of implementing it as extension? Will there be performance, efficiency and memory improvements?

seanw444 3y ago
The answer is almost certainly yes. But I wonder if the APIs it uses are already fast enough that doing so would yield negligible benefits?
brucethemoose2 3y ago
Yes, see https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite But the history of minimalistic Chromium forks is kinda sad, as they seem to get little attention and maintaining them requires a ton of work. They tend to burn out, like the dev of Bromite did.
pvg 3y ago
That's more or less the goal of DeclarativeNetRequest in Chrome/manifest v3 and similar facilities in Safari.
- dewey 3y ago
  I somehow doubt the goal of the people behind Chrome is to make ad-blocking performance better.
  - scq 3y ago
    That is their stated goal. > There’s been a lot of confusion and misconception around both the motivations and implications of this change, including speculation that these changes were designed to prevent or weaken ad blockers. This is absolutely not the goal. In fact, this change is meant to give developers a way to create safer and more performant ad blockers. -- https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarative-net-request.html https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarativ...

brucethemoose2 3y ago

> uBO works best on Firefox. Those looking for performant adblocking in Chrome should also check out Cromite: https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite Its a resumption of Bromite for Android/Windows, hence the adblocking and tracking protection is far less limited since its native, not an extension. Of course, YMMV with lone Chromium fork devs.

jacooper 3y ago
Just use brave
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  Theres a list of small things I don't like about Brave, including the ad-replacement business model and the rewards things. I prefer "simple" forks that stick closer to Chromium, and Cromite is basically that.
  - jacooper 3y ago
    They dont replace any ads. Brave ads are silent notifications, which are optional.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Brave used to edit links to insert their own referral codes. They only stopped when they were caught. That's like browser hijacking behavior, so I'm gonna stay far away.
ploum 3y ago
Those looking for adblocking should not use Chrome at all. If Chrome is really needed, it should be in its own container without any personal data. Adblocking in chrome is like smoking cigarettes with filters because "it’s better for my health". No, it’s not. For people knowledgeable enough to read HN, there’s no excuse to still use Chrome as a daily driver.
- 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

lucb1e 3y ago

Anything in particular the submitter (u/archo) is excited about?

archo 3y ago
I submitted the article as uBlock is in (normal) comprehensive code review as per [1]. This allow us, (as users) time to review the changes to the app. before a notification suddenly appears to update. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addons/firefox-recommended-extensions/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addo...

idonotknowwhy 3y ago

The internet without this, it's unusable. Same with YouTube and sponsorblock

k12sosse 3y ago
To be fair it depends on what you watch. Not everybody who puts things on YouTube is so hard done by they need to tell you about the latest VPN or razor every 20 minutes. As far as YT premium goes, and the fact there are ads in the free tier - the best way to demonstrate how there are costs associated with their business model is.. at least for this audience: You wouldn't pirate factorio, would you?
- soultrees 3y ago
  I did when I was broke and depressed and trying out new games. Got so hooked on it, that I ended up buying myself and a few copies for friends. But the quality of the game is what converted from being a pirate, but it didn’t stop me from being a pirate in the first place. The difference is the value adding behaviour added by factorio vs the rent-seeking behaviour from every other game.

jononomo 3y ago

Is there an equivalent to uBlock-Origin for Safari?

morjom 3y ago
I think ublock lite got released on Safari recently.
- eipi10_hn 3y ago
  Nope
mega3000 3y ago
AdGuard, Wipr, 1Blocker
- mega3000 3y ago
  Paired with dns blocker (pihole, nextdns) or local firewall (littlesnitch)
newscracker 3y ago
There's nothing that offers all these features and is free. But if you'd like to try Orion browser by Kagi [1], you can install uBlock Origin and many other web extensions for it on Mac, iOS and iPadOS. A paid alternative that is similar (at least for blocking specific elements) is AdGuard [2]. [1]: https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ [2]: https://adguard.com/ https://adguard.com/

metaphor 3y ago

Thought it was curious that this was released 4 days ago, but a spot check of the Firefox Add-Ons downstream[1] still reflects 1.51.0 updated on the same day (2023-07-19) as its GitHub release[2]. Then I saw: > Firefox: Review pending Mozilla just seriously backlogged or is there a more nuanced story here? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin... [2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.51.0 https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.51.0

DedlySnek 3y ago
uBlock Origin is a recommended extension and according this page[1], Recommended extensions undergo full code review by staff security experts to provide a strong additional security check. [1] - https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addons/firefox-recommended-extensions/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addo...

sizzle 3y ago

I would pay for gorhill to maintain uMatrix. It adds that much value to my web browsing experience.

93po 3y ago
consider contributing to filter lists with your free time :)