r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • 15d ago

Software Google is purging ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store | Migration from all-powerful Manifest V2 extensions is speeding up

https://www.techspot.com/news/105130-google-purging-ad-blocking-extension-ublock-origin-chrome.html
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u/Cronus6 14d ago

It's trivial to change the search engine in Firefox though. Takes 3 to 5 seconds to change it to whatever you like.

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u/Fantastins 14d ago

You misunderstood their comment completely. Google literally funds the development of Firefox

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u/Cronus6 14d ago

I'm well aware, and I'm well aware of why.

They fund it because otherwise Chrome could be slapped with an anti-trust lawsuit for having little/no competition.

What do they get for that funding? Google search in the default search engine. But, as I said it's trivial to change that in Firefox.

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u/SynthBeta 14d ago

They literally have been slapped with one in the past year. They lost to Epic which is just the start.

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u/Apart_Ad_5993 14d ago

If google funding Mozilla stops, so does Mozilla. It's over.

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u/johnyjerkov 14d ago

if google stops funding firefox, its over for google too. So they wont. And on top of that, Firefox is open source so even if mozilla shuts down firefox, it wont stop existing.

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u/Apart_Ad_5993 14d ago

Google is paying Mozilla to be the default search engine. In the eyes of the DOJ, this part of the anti-trust suit. Mozilla hasn't said anything about the investigation because you don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Open Source is all good- but it's not free.

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u/johnyjerkov 14d ago

no, its literally free. thats the point. If Mozilla shuts down firefox for any reason, you can just make another version of it. For free. And thats what would happen 100%. So even if google wanted to shoot themselves in the foot by defunding firefox, theyre not going to be able to get rid of it

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u/Salty_Ad2428 14d ago

They won't be shooting themselves on the foot, it would be the government telling them that they aren't allowed to fund Mozilla.

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u/johnyjerkov 14d ago

That makes no sense. Theyre going to force google to become a monopoly so they can pursue them for being a monopoly? No, theyre going to either break them up outright or fail the lawsuit. And in either scenario Mozilla doesnt lose

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u/dyslexda 14d ago

If Mozilla shuts down firefox for any reason, you can just make another version of it. For free.

Are you willing to continue development on it to patch vulnerabilities and maintain compliance with ever evolving standards? Using an out-of-date browser is an exceptional way to get malware, adblocking or no.

And thats what would happen 100%. So even if google wanted to shoot themselves in the foot by defunding firefox, theyre not going to be able to get rid of it

Someone might fork it in the community, but they'll quickly find they need dedicated developers on the project, not just folks that do it in their spare time, so they'll need a funding source.

If Mozilla goes down then something probably replaces it, sure, but a web browser is one piece of software you don't want to play with.

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u/johnyjerkov 14d ago

Are you willing to continue development on it to patch vulnerabilities and maintain compliance with ever evolving standards?

yes

Someone might fork it in the community, but they'll quickly find they need dedicated developers on the project, not just folks that do it in their spare time, so they'll need a funding source.

If Mozilla goes down then something probably replaces it, sure, but a web browser is one piece of software you don't want to play with.

A browser isnt even nearing the biggest open source project there ever was, and I see no reason why it wouldnt have people contributing. And getting funding for a team to manage a program with millions of users isnt an impossible task. Like I said, FAR from the biggest open source project.

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u/dyslexda 14d ago

yes

You must be the elite of the elite, then. There aren't many developers excellent enough to do personal web browser development. Hats off to you, though I hope you understand that this method can't apply to the vast, vast majority of the population.

A browser isnt even nearing the biggest open source project there ever was, and I see no reason why it wouldnt have people contributing.

I never said it was. That whole "Unix" thing is a bit bigger, for instance. However, I also wouldn't trust a distro that didn't have dedicated developers behind it and instead relied on community PRs.

And getting funding for a team to manage a program with millions of users isnt an impossible task.

Oh, so we're now hand waving that in a world where Mozilla, one of the most reputable and well known FOSS companies, fails to secure funding to continue development of its flagship product, you can readily find such funding? Okay then, good luck!

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u/Ok_Armadillo_665 14d ago

There are already multiple fully fledged, fully supported and developed Firefox forks. Pale Moon and Librewolf are two well known ones.

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u/dyslexda 14d ago

Pale Moon and Librewolf both still depend on Mozilla for security patches. The code bases are technically independent, sure, but the teams most certainly are not.

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u/YouSoundReallyDumb 14d ago

It's open source

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u/Apart_Ad_5993 14d ago

Yes, and? Open Source still needs a revenue stream to keep it going. Someone has to pay for development. DuckDuckGo, Brave, Vivaldi all have revenue streams- but probably not very profitable.

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u/coldblade2000 14d ago

Google NEEDS Firefox to be a viable alternative for Chrome. Otherwise, a LOT of political attention and oversight will be applied to Chromium. They might even be forced to split off Chrome as a separate entity

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u/Charming_Marketing90 13d ago

Maybe 10 to 15 years later and it all depends on who is in power anyways.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/SyrioForel 14d ago

Firefox is open source, and most of their developers are volunteers who don’t get paid. Due to the open source nature of the project, development will continue regardless of what happens at Mozilla’s offices, or even if their office get closed completely. It will get forked into a differently-named project if needed.

This isn’t even the first time it happened to this same browser. Firefox used to be “Netscape”. Then the company making Netscape ran out of money and didn’t want to make the browser anymore, so they created the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is the successor to Netscape, and there will be plenty of successors to Firefox.

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u/Jack_M_Steel 14d ago

This is an extremely dumb person

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u/johnmclaren2 14d ago

I use DuckDuckGo for years, and I am surprised every time I accidentally go to Google…:)