The new MV3 architecture reflects Google’s avowed desire to make browser extensions more performant, private, and secure. But the internet giant’s attempt to do so has been bitterly contested by makers of privacy-protecting and content-blocking extensions, who have argued that the Chocolate Factory’s new software architecture will lead to less effective privacy and content-filtering extensions.
For users of uBlock Origin, which runs on Manifest V2, “options” means using the less capable uBlock Origin Lite, which supports Manifest V3.
For those looking to move beyond Chrome, there are alternatives that come pre-installed with uBlock Origin and are considered better than Firefox:
This project is a custom and independent version of Firefox, with the primary goals of privacy, security and user freedom.
LibreWolf is designed to increase protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including a few security improvements. This is achieved through our privacy and security oriented settings and patches. LibreWolf also aims to remove all the telemetry, data collection and annoyances, as well as disabling anti-freedom features like DRM.
The Mullvad Browser is developed – in collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project – to minimize tracking and fingerprinting. It is designed to be used with a trustworthy VPN instead of the Tor Network. It does not require the use of Mullvad’s VPN.
Anyone that’s used Librewolf mind offering their opinion on it? That description sounds pretty sweet.
In my experience, the Flatpak variant of Firefox on Linux is the swiftest among Firefox-based browsers.
It’s great. It’s essentially Firefox, but without the unnecessary bullshit like Sponsored sites or Pocket integration, and it has some quite significant privacy and security improvements. Also comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed.
It’s a bit too restrictive by default imo, good for privacy but you will need to change quite a few setting if you want to browse normally.
Despite my opinion it’s the browser I use most on my laptop.
It’s the best. Deletes all cookies and browsing data on exit by default. I changed it to keep history and cookies for a handful of sites
I additionally use JShelter to get rid of most clientside fingerprinting
Deletes all cookies and browsing data on exit by default
This would make for an extremely annoying browsing experience.
True
That’s why I changed it to keep all history and cookies on pages I whitelisted
What’s jshtler is this like noscrypt?
Not really, NoScript prevents executing all JavaScript by default. JShelter instead strongly limits what JS can do and spoofs some values to throw of fingerprinters. It also has a network boundary shield (mostly blocking cross sites post/get requests. Same for lan to prevent your local network being scanned etc). And it comes with a fingerprint detector which allows you to see which websites want to track you the most (I avoid those whenever possible)
I quite enjoy using it. Stays out of the way, boots instantly, is very plain looking.
Looks up LibreWolf on AUR
Holy dependencies batman!
What do you mean by that?
(I’m a filthy casual)It just has a crap load of software packages it depends on to work properly (though a number of them seem like fonts). I have reasonably fast computer, and it’s been compiling for about 45 minutes at this point.
Use librewolf-bin or just use the flatpak
Just did with librewolf-bin, thanks. I always forget to look for the binary packages specifically on AUR.
Ah compile… guess I’ll stick with regular Firefox. There are some magiks I don’t tamper with.
I mean, if you’re intimidated by compiling you probably shouldn’t be using Arch to begin with.
(I’m hoping that you didn’t understand the “on AUR” part of the comment as well as the “dependencies” part, and actually use a more reasonable distro that isn’t subject to the issue @bobs_monkey is complaining about.)
You’re right. I don’t even know what Arch is to want to try and use it.
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Arch is a Linux distribution that intentionally requires a bunch of relatively-complicated manual steps to install, so “I use Arch BTW” has become a meme among people who want to brag about how ‘l33t’ they are.
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AUR is Arch’s package manager.
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A package manager is a software database that lets you easily install apps with a single command (e.g.
[tool-name] install [app-name]) along with all the software libraries they depend on (i.e. their ‘dependencies’), such that you only need one copy of each library no matter how many apps use it.
(Without a package manager, there are two other ways installing apps can work: either an app can come with its own copy of all its dependencies, which means it takes up a lot of disk space unnecessarily, or the user can be responsible for installing all the dependencies separately, which is a gigantic pain in the ass. Windows takes the former approach, while Linux, before package managers were invented, tended to do the latter because open-source software was distributed mostly as source code you had to compile and link yourself.)
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You don’t need to compile it. There’s a flatpak, and the AUR has a binary package
How is the flatpak system? I’ve never dug into it.
It’s really nice. It’s compatible with all Linux distros and it provides some configurable sandboxing via bubblewrap that you don’t get with other repos. The sandboxing is easilly configurable using a GUI like Flatseal.
Firefox? More like fire chrome amirite? 🥁
Safari all the way
Honestly this might be a good thing. It might push more users to Firefox causing more competition for Chrome/Chromium.
Now every public school that uses Chromebooks is going to have children get served ads on taxpayer dollars?
What could go wrong?
🍿
Google’s Admin Console has an option to continue enabling Manifest V2 extensions. Most schools would be wise to lock down which extensions they let users install anyway, and the zero trust approach is to just deploy what’s needed for access to curriculum.
It is a good point: other platforms [other than iOS] have an easy solution (Firefox), but on Chromebooks you’re relatively locked in because you have to jump through hoops installing the Linux environment in order to use it.
Gotta get em while they’re young, marketing execs drooling over the new wave of consumerist indoctrination!
As if they didn’t already?
It’s a sad state of affairs modern schools have when an instructor tries to pull up a video on YouTube or other sites to use in class, and an entire classroom of children have to sit through the unskippable ads.
I guess I’ll take that over the TV documentaries my teachers used to record on VHS that had commercials to fast forward through, but the modern internet truly sucks.
Yup and a significant portion of those ads are definatly not school appropriate… From the mobile game ads that show a mostly naked lady, alcohol, soft-porn (chatbot type stuff), jump scares and whatever other crap google exempts from their “guidelines” for a quick buck.
The only (official) way to have all kid firendly ads is to use YouTube Kids, which also blocks all the usefull educational videos for anyone older than 4.
Use non chromium based browsers ppl unless you absolutely need it
I still prefer Chrome over Firefox but I’ve been running Firefox for over a year now and won’t go back to Chrome because fuck Google. Also stopped using Google for searching and not being tracked is very very noticeable.
Tried using chromium based browser instead? You are not mainlined into Google that way. Vivaldi is absolutely great. It’s got way better baked in features than chrome which can reduce need for extensions and it has a strong commitment to pushing chromium as far as possible to be privacy conscious. Runs and syncs across Android and pc as well.
Those are all chromium based. They all are connected to google and will all have the manifest v3 change.
That is unless they will support v3 but keep some doors open for content blockers ( this is mozillas plan )Yes all chromium based browsers are chromium based. What do you mean by they are connected to Google? Yes Google provides the chromium code, but my Vivaldi browser isn’t connecting to Google servers or sending them anything
What i meant is that chromium is owned and managed by google. If chromium ( and therefor all chromium based browsers ) gets a change, they all do by default. Things like vivaldi or brave will get this change unless they specifically implement ways around it, which i dont think they will.
Though its way less than chrome, chromium still has links with google and has been found to ping google once in a while even though youre not using google.To be accurate, chrome in itself is a chromium based browser. Its chromium with google stuff slapped onto it.
Its because of this that i find the “but im using [chromium based browser here], so i wont be affected by change x” a false one, because they will.
“change unless they specifically implement ways around it, which i dont think they will.”
I’m sorry my friend, but I get the impression you are speaking from a perspective of ignorance.
https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/
I am corrected, thanks :) Im legit surprised they did anything towards the issue, so thanks for pointing it out.
That said, ad blocking is only a part of the problem and there are a lot of extensions that work on content loading in browsers that are going to be invalidated with the chromium update that an integrated ad blocking feature ( that i hope you can customise to your hearts content ) will not fix…
Guess, I will need to stop using Chrome unless I have no other option (I mostly use Firefox, but I occasionally use Chrome).
i use vivaldi for my school stuff. wonder if the v2 version of ublock will keep working. and the built in blocker in brave?
Good thing I’ve always used Firefox.
Chrome always seemed more of a curiosity than something I needed to use. I never saw the need to switch from Firefox when Firefox did everything I wanted.
Expect a bump in Firefox users.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
"Users will be directed to the Chrome Web Store, where they will be recommended Manifest V3 alternatives for their disabled extension.
The most salient of these is the blocking version of the webRequest API, which is used to intercept and alter network traffic prior to display.
Under Manifest V2, it’s what extension developers use to stop adverts, trackers, and other content appearing on pages, and prevent certain scripts from running.
The new MV3 architecture reflects Google’s avowed desire to make browser extensions more performant, private, and secure.
Li acknowledged the issue by noting the ways in which Google has been responsive, by adding support for user scripts, for offscreen documents that have access to the DOM API, and by increasing the number of rulesets in the declarativeNetRequest API (the replacement for webRequest) to 330,000 static rules and 30,000 dynamics ones.
And by the beginning of 2025, when the API changes have been available for some time in the Chrome Stable channel, Manifest V2 extensions will stop working.
The original article contains 589 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Going to plug Cromite (a continuation of Bromite) for a great Chromium fork with built in adblocking, and no nonsense like Brave or whatever: https://github.com/uazo/cromite
Also great on Android (which it was originally developed for).
Forks maintained by a hero dev are less than ideal (and not sustainable TBH), but this is where we are…
Does Cromite have support for auto-filling from 3rd party password managers? When I last used Bromite, it couldn’t so I never ended up using it as my main browser
Yes, I use it with Bitwarden
