firefox-ios VS uBlock

Users are complaining that the latest Firefox for iOS update has removed the "Dark mode" option from the menu:[1]

> I suffer from Diabetic Retinopathy and hence photophobia. To me, this removal is an Accessability issue.

A forum moderator who's in touch with the developers said days ago that this is an experiment affecting half of the userbase:[2]

> The team is currently doing an experiment. Since March 15, 50% of users no longer see Night Mode switch from the hamburger menu. We're using this experiment to monitor and evaluate the impact of removing, so it'll be hugely valuable to hear your feedback around this feature. Thanks!

However, Mozilla's iOS team manager doesn't know about this huge experiment and think it is a bug:[3]

> Moving Focus into the Firefox repo so it can get more love and support. This happened last release and may be the culprit that broke dark mode. We're looking into this right now.

[1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/19365#issuecomment-2018447405

Yeah, Orion's support for Firefox extensions is a big red flag. These 2 issues on the Firefox-iOS tracker[0,1] around extensions and content blockers have long mentioned Orion, but there's no response from Mozilla.

[0]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374

[1]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155

If you keep being logged out, open this page and click on New issue.

Follow this bug report: Tabs reload when switching to another tab or app and screen remains blank in Firefox for iOS.

Please file an issue on Bugzilla (Android) or GitHub (iOS).

Please open this page and click on New issue to report bugs affecting Firefox for iOS.

If you have a GitHub account, subscribe to this issue: Extensions support on iOS.

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/commit/686d36402c6a956f460abafc8f1fe19a7887a2f3 landed in v38, so it looks like v37 was the last to support iOS 12.

When you use Reader View, Firefox parses the text of the webpage and loads it as a local page. It isn't supposed to show a red slash, though. Reader Mode shows a neutral icon (📄) on the desktop version. Please open this page and click on New Issue to report this to Mozilla, and then share the link with us.

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...