Taking this into consideration, the new Firefox and Safari browsers become even more favorable over Chrome and others, as they now include defenses against tracking and ads by default. Chrome will...
Taking this into consideration, the new Firefox and Safari browsers become even more favorable over Chrome and others, as they now include defenses against tracking and ads by default. Chrome will never be able to compete with them on this, because Google's business depends on those very same trackers.
I am, he's written some really good articles about how broken the tech industry is. It's almost 4 years old now, but my favorite article by him is probably Ello, Goodbye where he talks about how...
@Deimos: I'm sure you're already familiar with Aral Balkan
I am, he's written some really good articles about how broken the tech industry is. It's almost 4 years old now, but my favorite article by him is probably Ello, Goodbye where he talks about how taking venture capital basically dooms your site before it's even started (which is obviously something I agree strongly with):
Let me put it bluntly: if a company has taken venture capital, you have already been sold. It’s not a matter of if, it’s simply a matter of when. (Unless the company goes under before it can exit, that is.)
A venture-capital funded startup is a temporary company that has to convince enough people into using their platform so that they can make good on the exit they promised their investors at the very beginning. It is the opposite of a long-term, sustainable business.
I'm almost sorry I read that too back then, because it has made being part of Reddit and Imgur practically unbearable. Aral made it clear that any hope for those two sites to find a business model...
I'm almost sorry I read that too back then, because it has made being part of Reddit and Imgur practically unbearable. Aral made it clear that any hope for those two sites to find a business model that did not require selling out the community they depend on was already lost. They had already sold their soul.
Personally, I think they are. I'm not a crazy user of extensions, but I have about 10 that I rely on on a daily basis, and they add so much power to the browser. Things like Owl, which redraws the...
Personally, I think they are. I'm not a crazy user of extensions, but I have about 10 that I rely on on a daily basis, and they add so much power to the browser. Things like Owl, which redraws the webpage in nighttime friendly colors, KDE's plasma integration extension which makes Firefox fit into the desktop better, RES which makes using Reddit much more pleasant, and Vimium, which allows me to use vi's efficient keybindings to navigate. In my personal opinion, this is functionality that significantly improves my quality of life, and is well worth the risk.
However, I think the author also misses the point where some extensions can actually improve security. For example, I use 3; Noscript to prevent myself from executing unnecessary Javascript (especially important since my Thinkpad's Core Duo is vulnerable to Meltdown), Adblock (which blocks advertisements that have been shown multiple times as an effective vector for malware), and Lastpass (which significantly increases the security of all my logins by making the passwords impossible to crack if leaked). These all significantly increase my security in areas I have little trust, like the maintainer of a forum or relying that some random site won't send me Javascript malware, and in exchange I'm placing my trust in the authors of these extensions, all 3 of whom I trust pretty well, since all are quite well known and have tens of thousands of users.
No particular reason; I selected most of my extensions 5 or 6 years ago, and I haven't had any problems with them in the mean time, so I haven't considered replacing them. What are ublock origin's...
No particular reason; I selected most of my extensions 5 or 6 years ago, and I haven't had any problems with them in the mean time, so I haven't considered replacing them. What are ublock origin's advantages over Adblock or noscript, if I may ask?
It's faster and not so specs demanding, your browser will speed up noticeably. It's opensource. AdBlock (plus?) lets companies pay them to whitelist ads. I had some issues with AB recognizing and...
It's faster and not so specs demanding, your browser will speed up noticeably. It's opensource. AdBlock (plus?) lets companies pay them to whitelist ads. I had some issues with AB recognizing and blocking ads, I never had a single problem with uBlock Origin.
If you want to have 100% control about what your browser downloads, consider using uMatrix, which speeds up websites loading a lot.
I believe Ublock Origin has more features, and Adblock has allowed 'approved ads' through. Although there isn't a huge difference so I'd just go with your preference.
I believe Ublock Origin has more features, and Adblock has allowed 'approved ads' through. Although there isn't a huge difference so I'd just go with your preference.
In general, no. However, as a web developer and frequent internaut, I don't trust other web developers and so I only use two. uBlock Origin (malicious script blocker) and Session Buddy (tab...
In general, no. However, as a web developer and frequent internaut, I don't trust other web developers and so I only use two. uBlock Origin (malicious script blocker) and Session Buddy (tab saver). Session Buddy I feel should be native functionality, and uBlock should be implemented natively in a way that doesn't require an extension. Instead I wish I could subscribe to a list of blocked domains that ublock/pihole/etc could cater.
Taking this into consideration, the new Firefox and Safari browsers become even more favorable over Chrome and others, as they now include defenses against tracking and ads by default. Chrome will never be able to compete with them on this, because Google's business depends on those very same trackers.
@Deimos: I'm sure you're already familiar with Aral Balkan, but just in case you're not, you might enjoy reading this: https://2018.ar.al/notes/what-is-the-ind.ie-manifesto/
I am, he's written some really good articles about how broken the tech industry is. It's almost 4 years old now, but my favorite article by him is probably Ello, Goodbye where he talks about how taking venture capital basically dooms your site before it's even started (which is obviously something I agree strongly with):
I'm almost sorry I read that too back then, because it has made being part of Reddit and Imgur practically unbearable. Aral made it clear that any hope for those two sites to find a business model that did not require selling out the community they depend on was already lost. They had already sold their soul.
I'm happy Tildes has one and intends to keep it.
Personally, I think they are. I'm not a crazy user of extensions, but I have about 10 that I rely on on a daily basis, and they add so much power to the browser. Things like Owl, which redraws the webpage in nighttime friendly colors, KDE's plasma integration extension which makes Firefox fit into the desktop better, RES which makes using Reddit much more pleasant, and Vimium, which allows me to use vi's efficient keybindings to navigate. In my personal opinion, this is functionality that significantly improves my quality of life, and is well worth the risk.
However, I think the author also misses the point where some extensions can actually improve security. For example, I use 3; Noscript to prevent myself from executing unnecessary Javascript (especially important since my Thinkpad's Core Duo is vulnerable to Meltdown), Adblock (which blocks advertisements that have been shown multiple times as an effective vector for malware), and Lastpass (which significantly increases the security of all my logins by making the passwords impossible to crack if leaked). These all significantly increase my security in areas I have little trust, like the maintainer of a forum or relying that some random site won't send me Javascript malware, and in exchange I'm placing my trust in the authors of these extensions, all 3 of whom I trust pretty well, since all are quite well known and have tens of thousands of users.
Why not ublock origin?
No particular reason; I selected most of my extensions 5 or 6 years ago, and I haven't had any problems with them in the mean time, so I haven't considered replacing them. What are ublock origin's advantages over Adblock or noscript, if I may ask?
It's FOSS, very performant, and has been a standout against selling out to advertisers (like uBlock and Adblock Plus).
It's faster and not so specs demanding, your browser will speed up noticeably. It's opensource. AdBlock (plus?) lets companies pay them to whitelist ads. I had some issues with AB recognizing and blocking ads, I never had a single problem with uBlock Origin.
If you want to have 100% control about what your browser downloads, consider using uMatrix, which speeds up websites loading a lot.
I believe Ublock Origin has more features, and Adblock has allowed 'approved ads' through. Although there isn't a huge difference so I'd just go with your preference.
In general, no. However, as a web developer and frequent internaut, I don't trust other web developers and so I only use two. uBlock Origin (malicious script blocker) and Session Buddy (tab saver). Session Buddy I feel should be native functionality, and uBlock should be implemented natively in a way that doesn't require an extension. Instead I wish I could subscribe to a list of blocked domains that ublock/pihole/etc could cater.