We’ve been anticipating it for years,1 and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the ...

We’ve been anticipating it for years, and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the extension will soon no longer be available because it “doesn’t follow the best practices for Chrome extensions”.

Now that it is finally happening, many seem to be oddly resigned to the idea that Google is taking away the best and most powerful ad content blocker available on any web browser today, with one article recommending people set up a DNS based content blocker on their network 😒 – instead of more obvious solutions.

I may not have blogged about this but I recently read an article from 1999 about why Gopher lost out to the Web, where Christopher Lee discusses the importance of the then-novel term “mind share” and how it played an important part in dictating why the web won out. In my last post, I touched on the importance of good information to democracies – the same applies to markets (including the browser market) – and it seems to me that we aren’t getting good information about this topic.

This post is me trying to give you that information, to help increase the mind share of an actual alternative. Enjoy!

    • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      461·
      2 months ago

      be sure to check out the extensions, there’s several that are game changers.

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
          50·
          2 months ago

          For me, it was multi-account containers. All Meta properties open in their own independent, sandboxed tabs now. Xwitter opens in a different independent, sandboxed tab. It makes their tracking cookies useless, plus it also lets you be logged into the same service with multiple accounts simultaneously.

        • karpintero@lemmy.worldEnglish
          111·
          2 months ago

          Vimium. Allows you to use your keyboard to navigate instead of needing to always reach for the mouse.

        • Anivia@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          “I don’t care about cookies” although it does occasionally break some websites

        • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          413·
          2 months ago

          probably different for everyone, for me i use Adblocker Ultimate Ublock Origin Enhancer for Youtube DeArrow Stylebot Buster Context play/pause

            • riot@lemmy.worldEnglish
              23·
              2 months ago

              Looking at the source of the comment, OP only hit enter once per extension name they entered, and that’s why they’re showing up as if they’re one long run-on sentence. @Num10ck@lemmy.world probably didn’t know that you have to double enter for things to show up on separate lines.

              I went ahead and found links for all of them, for anyone curious to check em out. I don’t personally know any of them, besides uBlock and Stylebot:

              • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                2 months ago

                thanks Riot, it looked fine in Voyager when i was creating it. hitting enter once for carriage return has been correct for a century, whats with the double enter system?

                • riot@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  6·
                  2 months ago

                  As far as I know, that’s just always how it’s been for markdown, which is what Lemmy uses. So in order to be sure that your comment looks the way you want it to, it’s a good idea to use the Preview function, which Voyager thankfully also has under the 3 dots menu in the lower right.

                  @Mr_Blott@feddit.uk also mentioned that you can put two spaces at the end of each word, and then it’ll count the one enter as a proper line break.
                  Like this. You can also do as I did, and just put a dash in front of everything, and then it’ll turn into an unordered list.

          • Mr_Blott@feddit.ukEnglish
            6·
            2 months ago

            Christ on a bike, you’d think they’d give it a more succinct name

            (Either leave a blank line between lines, or put two spaces at the end of each word)

    • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
      99·
      2 months ago

      No, HVEC / H.265 codec support so no modern 4K security camera or plex/jellyfin etc high quality video support.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        2 months ago

        According to caniuse.com, it works now in the Nightly builds and can be enabled in other builds via the media.wmf.hevc.enabled pref in about:config.

        I use Firefox Dev Edition and I think it’s enabled there. But either way, you can enable it on stable.

        • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
          46·
          2 months ago

          Night, windows only, and needs to be enabled with about: config… ie it almost has some support maybe. Also doesn’t work via webrtc so it doesn’t actually help me with the viewing the security cam feeds.

            • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
              34·
              2 months ago

              Core web app compatibility vs … “enhanced” ad blocking. MS teams and some other business tools also don’t support Firefox but work fine in Chrome and Safari.

              It is something the Firefox team needs to work on again. I used Firefox from when it was released until Chrome came out and mopped the floor with it. At the time Firefox became the bloated beast and went through a reset.

              Unfortunately trying to have a firm stance on not implementing HVEC when they no longer had the largest market share was a bad move and they seem to be slowly back tracking on that.

              • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                81·
                2 months ago

                MS Teams not working as well in Firefox is a “we want you using Edge or Chrome” Microsoft issue, not a Firefox issue.

                You wouldn’t believe the amount of enterprise-sector MS websites that have went from works fine on Firefox to completely broken on anything but Chrome and Edge very quickly after Edge became Chrome with a lick of paint.

                  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    6·
                    2 months ago

                    So it’s not something Firefox needs to work on, it’s something Microsoft should be punished for. The bulk of these sites for fine if you spoof your useragent to look like edge or chrome, proving it’s nothing to do with browser capability.

                    They’re using their market position to sabotage a competitor.

      • wax@feddit.nuEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        Probably no ads on your self-hosted frigate/jellyfin pages though, so you can just keep using chrome for that ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.clubEnglish
        9·
        2 months ago

        plex/jellyfin etc high quality video support

        H265 isn’t the only option there. AV1 is great and fully supported by Jellyfin (and I imagine Plex?)

        • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
          56·
          2 months ago

          H.265 is the defecto standard on Security cameras, and I am not going to migrate content to AV1 that is already in H.265.

            • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
              43·
              2 months ago

              Not when you are using an NVR with scrubbing and everything in the web UI. https://frigate.video/

              All in all it would be an inconvenient workaround for something that already works seamlessly across Safari, Edge, Chrome etc.

                • shinratdr@lemmy.caEnglish
                  63·
                  2 months ago

                  How is giving a sober and straightforward explanation of why he can’t use Firefox “bitching”? The simple fact is “switch to Firefox” isn’t a solution for everyone in every case. Burying your head in the sand about that benefits nobody.

                  • ddh@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
                    52·
                    2 months ago

                    They can enjoy some ads then, I guess. But it was the general attitude of unwillingness to entertain suggestions and just shutting down every one.

                  • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
                    33·
                    2 months ago

                    It is generally hard to have an opposing opinion or need discussion on the internet without people feeling attacked and start name calling.

          • bdonvr@thelemmy.clubEnglish
            6·
            2 months ago

            Jellyfin can handle the transcoding to AV1 where needed. Albeit that’s a bit less ideal than direct play as you need the hardware to transcode.

            • AlternateRoute@lemmy.caEnglish
              33·
              2 months ago

              Not spending hundreds to upgrade my server to support 4K to 4K transcoding. Even accelerated on a VERY recent CPU or GPU Encoding in AV1 is costly while at the same time decoding H.265.

              Again Essentially every major browser supports HVEC now, other than Firefox.

              • bdonvr@thelemmy.clubEnglish
                4·
                2 months ago

                If it’s a personal machine in which you have a choice on browser why not just use one of the native Jellyfin apps?

                major browser supports HVEC now, other than Firefox.

                Every other major browser is an overcommercialized pile of crap (or built atop the same) that can afford to pay for the licenses to use HEVC or has no qualms shipping proprietary code with their software that they don’t control.

                Also apparently on Windows you can enable experimental HEVC hardware decoding support. You’ll need to install “HEVC Video Extensions” (from Microsoft themselves) ($0.99) in the Windows App Store and toggle “media.wmf.hevc.enabled” in about:config.

      • vividspecter@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        2 months ago

        Jellyfin

        Use the desktop client or jellyfin-mpv-shim and you’ll get HEVC support and superior image quality.

      • cum@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        https://caniuse.com/hevc

        looks like the bigger issue is hvec itself. Also the support is extremely spotty with all the other browsers as well, with it still only having limited support in Chrome as well depending on your hardware.

        Or just use av1 instead. I’ve literally never run into this as an issue before lol.