I might switch from the current Firefox for Android (Fennec) when it supports uBlock Origin. I'm not giving up adblocking anymore. It would also help to have it available on F-Droid.

Firefox Preview actually ships with a built-in adblocker. I'll still install uBlock Origin once it becomes available (e.g. I like zapping annoying elements), but browsing with Firefox Preview is already quite pleasant.

I am using Firefox 70 and uBlock origin. I'm a bit off the discussion, is it working or is it not?

First of all, Firefox Preview (code name Fenix) is Mozilla's effort to create a new mobile browser, so this is unrelated to which version of Firefox you run on your desktop.

Second, it's called Preview for a reason. Support for add-ons is currently being implemented, so if you install Firefox Preview on an Android device right now, you won't be able to use uBlock Origin yet.

Third, the built-in tracking protection blocks most ads (at least on websites I frequent EDIT: which do not include Google or Facebook etc.), so you can already try it out if you just want to see fewer ads and don't absolutely need uBlock Origin.

Oh I didn't read the "preview" part, that's why I was surprised with all the uBlock issues. Thanks for the explanation.

You're probably using the regular Firefox browser (e.g. for Android [1] ) which supports most extensions and has done for a long time.

But this was deprecated a few months ago in favor of a new browser, still early in development, that has no extension support. Previous HN outrage: [2]

At the time I don't think they had any timeline for adding extension support, but now it sounds like major extensions could be supported within the next 9 months.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20295694

Was it really deprecated ? I have heard something about it being Firefox 68 based for the time being while their are working on something new (presumably Firefox Preview ?).

It would be really sad if they really did deprecated it without providing a proper replacement first - eq. comparable addon support & other things the current Firefox on Android can do.

> But this was deprecated a few months ago

Uh, no? Firefox Preview will eventually become the new version of Firefox for Mobile. That doesn't mean the current Firefox stopped getting updates.

Are you talking about the tracking protection?

They call it "tracking protection." As a side effect, it blocks ads. I guess they wouldn't block ads that don't track you, but those seem to be rare.

Edit: Is my experience unusual? News websites that are normally encrusted with ads (e.g. using Firefox for Android without any add-ons) turn refreshingly ad-free in Firefox Preview.

You might get some accidental adblocking on some news sites through tracking protection, but with reader mode I probably wouldn't really notice.

I mostly use ublock origin to block ads in search, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Reddit. AFAIK none of those are blocked by the current Firefox tracking protection.

Ads on Google Search and YouTube aren't blocked. I didn't find any ads to test on Instagram or Facebook without logging in, and didn't feel like creating an account just to check out their ads. Ads on Reddit did get blocked. They're probably using third-party adtech, unlike the others.

I guess my browsing habits are unusual, since the only website among these I've visited since switching to Firefox Preview is Reddit.

why would you visit Reddit from a mobile browser? can I tell you about these things called "apps"?

Reddit tries to tell me about these things every time I visit, but I just don't see the point. Does the app improve anything in comparison to the website?

'cause it's a website?

It may block some ads but it's still lightyears behind Firefox for Android with uBlock Origin in my experience.

For me, it's uMatrix which I use more often as a general javascript blocker.

It's really ridiculous how much faster websites are with those two add-ons installed. Actually, faster isn't the right way to describe it, "how much dead weight the internet has these days" feels much more apt.

Oddly enough, I always ran into performance issues when running uMatrix. I'd turn off JavaScript by default though and only selectively enable it. That seems like it should speed things up, but I'd often experience the opposite, both on Vivaldi and Firefox.

By default, uMatrix blocks Google Analytics, whereas uBlock Origin stubs it. If both are installed (in my case), uMatrix often wins out. If Google Analytics is blocked, many sites will spend 2 seconds on a white screen waiting for Google Analytics to load.

uMatrix is very low overhead so my first suspicion would be artificial delays introduced when some JavaScript resources are blocked; [1] is an example of this. The artificial delay does not occur in uBlock Origin because it uses a replacement script for the blocked one causing the issue.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/

Did you also install the add-on to skip AMP sites?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html

> dead weight

That's a generous way to describe it. I'd describe it as "invaders inside the Trojan horse".

I use NoScript, but yeah, same idea. I absolutely cannot use a browser that doesn't have a good JS blocker. It's crazy how much more usable the web is with a JS blocker. Those fucking "give us your email address!" and "this site uses cookies!" pop-ups? Gone. Ad blocking isn't enough these days.

Please don't kill my JS blocker, Firefox.

uBlock can work that way with medium mode too. Though it's still a bit less specific in it's permission than uMatrix, because you can't choose the type of content.

I'd love to go into Firefox, but my deal breakers are ad blocking, having a bottom navigation bar, and intuitive and easy to use text reflow. It's getting there, but not quite yet, so I'm stuck with Opera for now which I don't fully trust but is 100% more convenient.

Funnny the seemingly small things we trip over. While still using Chrome on desktop, I switched to Firefox on mobile because of their add-on and specifically ublock origin support.

My biggest issue with it ? When at the top of the page, dragging from top to bottom doesn't trigger a refresh of the page like in other browsers and many apps. I know it's a very petty complaint, but somehow it's major for me.

Still staying with it though, adblocking is even more mandatory on mobile than on desktop ...

The navigation (address bar) is at the bottom now.