Zen browser is pretty minimal in terms of bloat carried from FF

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41303974

Just use LibreWolf on desktop and IronFox on Android.

They basically strip out all the anti-privacy, anti-user "features" from Firefox.

In current chromium source, it seems still possible to force manifest v2 extensions with `kAllowLegacyMV2Extensions` feature flag?

https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:chr...

This however is a good time to export any extension preferences, because once it's removed you won't be able to access them.

Yeah, I switched a while ago and it’s has 0 impact on my browsing.

Same. I didn't even enable complete blocking just default one. I'm not too concerned about invisible trackers, I use meta products daily. Just the visible ads.

It’s the principle. When they’ve shown they’ll jank one extension because it doesn’t align with their business model, they’ve shown they’ll jank any extension in the future as they see fit.

I’m voting with my feet.

adguard is a way to go. their app kills these ads perfectly

In the past Microsoft said they would. It would be a large engineering effort to preserve Manifestv2

Users clicks feed the creation of value

The plausible deniability reason is that Manifest V2 gave way too much power to extensions, which is true.

... except that we already execute remote JavaScript on our browsers constantly. And we do it, usually, unconsentually. Versus extensions, which are a deliberate thing you need to install.

I left Firefox a few months ago because there was a bug in their shader cache, so a lot of stuff was laggy. I was willing to put up with until I got a 360 camera and videos were playing at like 2 fps. This was about six months ago, it’s possible that it’s been fixed, I haven’t checked.

I am using Brave right now, which seems fine. I have no idea if it actually respects privacy but they at least claim it does.

This is the right answer, and more people (especially technical people like frequent HN) should be pointing this out.

"What ads? Oh you must be running Chrome" needs to be the common refrain.

Really hope this ends up being a surprising tide shift. Firefox has dipped really hard in marketshare, but there's no reason it can't start to gain again/grow steadily.

It's really too bad the Firefox tent wasn't big enough for all the alternative browsers that exist (though of course they're not scratching the surface of real usage either). I skipped the whole Arc wave and I'm glad I did -- it's a distraction from Firefox.

Apparently no one remembers when Firefox changed their terms of service literally this year to become adversarial toward their own users.

Librewolf is the way to go now.

It crashes every few days for me and has since the last several major releases... enough that I can't rely on it anymore. (UG) Chromium has never crashed on me once.

Highly recommend Zen Browser: https://github.com/zen-browser

Go with Pale Moon, if you want a privacy-respecting fork of Firefox.

But Firefox is so dependent on google (money, code) that it's absolutely impossible they won't also remove manifest v2. It will just take a little while, for appearances...

It's been a good 16 years, though.

Children who were born when Chrome came out can vote in the midterms next year. If your prediction takes as long to mature as a newborn baby, it's maybe _too_ prescient.

Ladybird doesn't support ublock origin either, nor does it even allow for ad blockers extentions like Chrome still does.

You will lose the password manager, but switch to 1Password -- it's way better anyway. Also, if you use Android, Firefox Mobile, with ad-blocking there, is the real killer advantage of Firefox.

Yes. Firefox has its own password manager and profile system. Once I copied the chrome settings to firefox, I closed chrome and rarely open it these days.

I did, a few months ago when they disabled uBlock on my Chrome.

The experience has been a delight. It runs smoothly, I can customize it more than Chrome (compact mode being one example [1]), and with the official iCloud Passwords extension I get to use the same password manager I use on my iPhone.

I don’t think I’ll ever go back. Best part being, if I need something that Chrome provides and Firefox doesn’t, I can potentially implement it myself, and contribute to a proper open source project while I’m at it.

1: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compact-mode-workaround...

Sure, years ago, and it's been great. I do keep Vivaldi around as a Chrome-variant for those sites that need it, and appreciate their general approach. However, Firefox has the things I need, e.g.:

- Various integrations, such as password managers. - uBlock Origin - Temporary containers - so even those sites that save cookies, are really saving them ephemerally until that container closes.

You can export your passwords from chrome as a CSV and then import them into Firefox's password manager. Although, best would be using an external password manager that always keeps your passwords encrypted, like bitwarden. Remember to delete the file (shred even) and reboot so your passwords aren't hanging around in disk/memory. Same goes for bookmarks, although those are less sensitive.

Yeah but it's always a fork of firefox or chrome. I have seen nothing to indicate they are not all in on surveillance advertising. They are looking into "anonymous group advertising" by interest, now can someday reverse engineer that and figure out that you like boutique spicy pickles? maybe? I have my doubts.