CustomCSSforFx VS uBlock

As noted, there are quite a few of these, I use this project:

https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx.

It's actively maintained and lets me put the tab bar directly above the content but you can set it up to fully return you to the days of Firefox 4 if you want...

Just in case you do not know or you are interested, the Firefox's UI is mere CSS, one can customize it through "chrome/userChrome.css" in the profile folder of the user. I put my tabs under the bookmarks for example, just above the page content, with the template from the CustomCSSforFx[1] project, and modified some colors and icons.

Firefox have also the "Browser Toolbox"[2] -and is homologous to the web development tools- that you can use for to explore the CSS of the UI, select elements, the CSS code, and modify them for to see how would work the modifications before to put them within the userChrome.css

The tabs are under the id=TabsToolbar, so an #TabsToolbar{ display: none !important; } or similar should work, in addition to correct the space that it leaves modifying other params css.

[1] https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx

[2] https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/browse...

Years ago, a strange trend began in which browsers removed by default all the classic menu bars, bookmarks, etc., sacrificing usability for aesthetics.

But fortunately with Firefox it is possible to restore that usability through its options, and custom stylesheets allows us to change the interface under our needs. In my case I use as base [0]customcssforfx for to put the tabs under the url bar (by default is shown over the url bar), and from there I add a couple of lines with custom padding, sizes and icons. [0] https://github.com/aris-t2/customcssforfx

The matter is, when I open the browser I see the following rows:

1. Menu bar (file, edit, view, history, bookmarks, tools, help).

2. history buttons |[ URL BAR ]| reload | home | addons (... | Decentral eyes | CookieAutoDelete | uMatrix | uBlockOrigin | Multi-Acount containers ) | Addons icon | Menu bar icon |.

3. Toolbar bookmarks row | Button for unfolding the bookmarks that don't fit in such row.

4. Pinned tabs (they are only icons) | < | Tab_1, Tab_2, Tab_3, ... | > | + | unfold vertical list of the opened tabs |.

5. The page for the selected Tab.

This allows us to use two bookmarks visual groups, the ones that are unfolded through Menubar's bookmarks, and the ones from Toolbar's folder -what in reality is a subfolder from menubar's bookmarks- that it's shown as 3rd row in the interface. Also the easy access to CookieAutoDelete, uMatrix, uBlockOrigin current page options are essential.

In the Toolbar bookmarks, for being able to visually have more folders as "quick access" row line, I use acronyms as folder names (just for the first ones until fill that space). This between separators, and also mere url icons bookmarks (by removing the bookmark title name its just showed the page icon).

When one push one those folders are unfold all the related sub-folders and sub-bookmarks.

Also, equally important, the folders and bookmarks that don't fit in such row are easily accessible by pushing an icon at the right corner, what unfolds a vertical list with the rest the bookmarks. This is important because in such toolbar one usually have several hundreds of independent bookmarks and folders by topics, with infinite sub-folders and their respective bookmarks, etc.

This let us in Firefox with:

Pinned tabs (that I usually have linked to multi containers), the current session opened tabs, the usability of to have all those topics by clicking the folder or icon, a second different visual group of tabs through Menubar's bookmarks. If one want to add to those folders/topics the page is being read, it's just needed to drag and drop the url there. Also all those folders have the option "open it all in tabs".

I can not think in browsing comfortable without such interface and tools as a starting.

I guess you need to use whatever version of the Aris CSS is meant to be used with a specific version of Fx; it's detailed here.

I am using tyhe most recent https://github.com/aris-t2/customcssforfx code but I can't get my previous adds for Bookmark sizing and padding to work.

Yes Aris: https://github.com/aris-t2/customcssforfx

I am using the userchrome CSS here and I've tried adding height, margin, and padding variations to a lot of different ids and cannot find which of them controls the total tab height. (My current CSS state is that of the code I linked)

I'm trying to use the userchrome CSS here to put the tabs below the navigation bar, and it does indeed move the tabs below the navigation bar but then leaves the vertical space for the tabs on top of the navigation bar as inactive dead space. What do I need to do to fix this? I also tried the alt version of the CSS code and got the same thing.

Check out uBlock Origin's per site switches [1]

[1]: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-...

If ads, in particular on YouTube, are the problem, anything Chromium-based is probably only going to get worse and worse (see [1] and [2]). So that basically leaves you with Firefox and Safari.

I work for Mozilla (speaking for myself, of course), so I'll leave you to guess which I'd recommend :P

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

[2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-oppos...

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Or if on mobile, it is well worth it to look up adblock options for the browser you use.

What are the compelling advantages of Chrome nowadays?

Chrome is working to limit the capabilities of ad blockers:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/11/chrome-pushes...

Whereas a compelling advantage of Firefox is that uBlock Origin works best in Firefox:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

Advertising networks have often been vectors for malware. Using an ad blocker is an important security measure. Even the FBI recommends ad blockers:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/malvertising

https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or...

https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA221221?=8324278624

> It allows for 30,000 dynamic rules

That is not what we mean by dynamic filters. From https://developer.chrome.com/blog/improvements-to-content-fi...

> However, to support more frequent updates and user-defined rules, extensions can add rules dynamically too, without their developers having to upload a new version of the extension to the Chrome Web Store.

What Chrome is talking about is the ability to specify rules at runtime. What critics of Manifest V3 are talking about is not the ability to dynamically add rules (although that can be an issue), it is the ability to add dynamic rules -- ie rules that analyze and rewrite requests in the style of the blockingWebRequest permission.

It's a little deceptive to claim that the concerns here are outdated and to point to vague terminology that sounds like it's correcting the problem, but on actual inspection turns out to be entirely separate functionality from what the GP was talking about.

> Giving this ability to extensions can slow down the browser for the user. These ads can still be blocked through other means.

This is the debate; most of the adblocking community disagrees with this assertion. uBO maintains a list of some common features that are already not possible to support in Chrome ( https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b... ) and has written about features that are not able to be supported via Chrome's current V3 API ( https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-as... ). Of particular note are filtering for large media elements (I use this a lot on mobile Firefox, it's great for reducing page size), and top-level filtering of domains/fonts.

> "Its happened before"

> That's not an argument

It's a subheading to "2. Browser engine monopoly". The subsection's purpose is describing how bad things were during the IE monopoly to reinforce that it's something to be avoided.

> in fact you could counter-argue that IE left a lot of technical debt

That would be agreeing with the article, unless I understand what you mean.

> On top of that, the internet was very different back then.

In a way that now makes it harder for truly new competing engines to pop up due to increased complexity of the web.

> I'm still not convinced, why would I change my browser?

The points made in the article are:

* Increased privacy, opposed to willingly giving your data to an ad-tech company

* Helps avoid a browser engine monopoly which would effectively let Google dictate web standards

* It’s fast and has a nice user interface

Onto which I'd add:

* Content blockers work best on Firefox (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...), doubly so when Manifest V3 rolls out

* Allows more customization of interface and home page

* UX improvements, like the clutter-free reader mode, aren't vetoed to protect search revenue as with Chrome (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37675467)

Advertising networks are vectors for malware:

https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/blog/malvertising

https://www.malwarebytes.com/malvertising

https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or...

So if you're concerned about security then you want the browser with the best ad blocker.

uBlock Origin works best in Firefox:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...