uBlock Origin is the only browser extension I use on Firefox, Even after loosing trust on browser extensions in general after witnessing a recommended Firefox add-on indulge in malicious activity[1] and reading numerous stories of how browser extension publishers with large number of users are routinely approached to integrate malware.

The reason why I cannot do away with uBlock Origin is because its not just an Ad-blocker as its philosophy states, I need it to make websites usable by blocking elements like auto pop-up news video player, Blocking side bars to resize the websites to preferred width (When playing videos), Disable tracking and often just to load the websites faster.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210924045611/https://github.co...

To those familiar with the HTML DOM I recommend uMatrix from the same author as uBlock origin. It makes a good companion to uBlock Origin and provides much finer control.

https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix

That repo is archived. Is the project dead?

Isn't it pretty much redundant? You just have to enable advanced mode in ublock origin extension settings. The interface is arguably slightly harder to figure out though, but the functionality is there once you've enabled it.

the ublock origin repo actually has a video linked how it works: https://youtu.be/2lisQQmWQkY?t=294

I'm so sick of reading this.

uBO covers most of uMatrix (and more).

Some of that uMatrix coverage is a hell of a lot harder/more awkward in uBO.

Basically every uMatrix user always also ran uBO too, for the more DOM/'content blocking' aspects (primarly 'cosmetic filtering' as it calls it iirc).

uMatrix lets me block all third-party, allow only first-party scripts/XHR/iframes by default, and then in two clicks (including opening the extension's popover menu) allow some specific host's scripts or whatever, while still blocking its cookies/frames/XHR/media/et al.

uMatrix is more advanced than uBO 'advanced mode', and just as easy to use; i.e. easier to use than 'dynamic filtering' or whatever people suggest that's buried in the full-page settings and not something I'm going to be doing 'on the fly' while visiting a site.

I still use uMatrix (and uBO!) and remain thankful for it - I just hope it lasts, not obsoleted by browser API changes or whatever. (nuTensor was forked to take on that burden, but itself now archived. Apparently - I read in another HN topic on this recently - because uMatrix actually did receive some maintenance update.)

Also uMatrix makes it a lot easier to figure out what you need to allow through - uBO just gives you the hostname, but with uMatrix you know in the popover menu whether it's a XHR, script not loaded, etc.

Yes, it's not actively developed anymore because of the large overlap in functionality with uBlock Origin as well as the maintainance burden.

However it's not equivalent, because in uMatrix you have even more fine-grained control which content a certain domain in a certain context can load (i.e. scripts, images, css and xhr requests).

Its functionality is equivalent, its ease of use isn't (at least in my opinion)

with uBlock origins UI you can block by content type and then whitelist the domains which are still allowed and that feels less granular then the uMatrix configuration dialog.

But if you check the generated dynamic rules in the settings you'll see that it supports the same granular controls as uMatrix

GP is correct afaik: the request categories for dynamic rules in ublock are image, 3p, inline-script, 1p-script, 3p-script, 3p-frame. The 3p vs 1p vs inline is kinda weird in itself since it's contextual and not relating to the content-type of the request, and we are missing css and xhr. Thing is, i realized i most of my dynamic rules are by domain anyway. Maybe if i find a real use case i'll try to look into the code and make this a bit more versatile.

I tried uMatrix for a bit and it seems the dynamic filtering capabilities of uBlock do 80%+ of what uMatrix does.

> I need it to make websites usable by blocking elements like auto pop-up news video player, Blocking side bars to resize the websites to preferred width (When playing videos),...

Exactly. I use uBlock to "detoxify" websites and rid them of such nonsense elements.

thank you gorhill for making the internet a useable space.

hear, hear.

How is it able to be free without seeking donations? Asking for a friend who's about to get into something.

Not everything is about money. Sometimes its principles, sometimes its about giving back to the world, sometimes its the fun of it, or just raw boredom.

I do not claim to know what motivates gorhill, but so far none of his motivations in building uBO seem to be against my own motivation to use it, so it is fine.

> Not everything is about money. Sometimes its principles, sometimes its about giving back to the world, sometimes its the fun of it, or just raw boredom.

No, he has to be able to support himself somehow. Food costs money. Plenty of people have great motives, few have the means to execute on them.

> Plenty of people have great motives, few have the means to execute on them.

Sure. Not plenty, but still a lot of people have the means, and few of them choose to execute. Larse Ingebrigsten was a CTO of startup that got acquired and now maintains GNU Emacs. Bram Moolenaar has had consistent job since forever (not sure what % of paid time is dedicated to Vim maintenance). Richard Stallman quit and made his first money selling Emacs tapes. Some open source devs rely on consulting work. Some (Like Drew DeVault) have actual sustainable business model that are not donations (and still give away their services when it makes sense). I do not know of gorhill, but my first guess would be that he has a stable job that pays well enough and doesn't encroach on his private life and hobbies, which I believe uBO is one of.

Oh, and to add to it, it becomes incredibly easier if you find likeminded people to join in. Linus Torvalds is able to take weeks off because GKH is more than capable to handle the work in his absence. Andreas Kling has Linus Groh as co-maintainer to review PRs even considering ginormous scope of SerenityOS. As with everything, more capable minds share the load.

On top of that, uBlock Origin is still just an engine. A large bulk of work (as admitted on uBO README.md) is done in the lists like fanboy's. They are also largely contributor driven (and sometimes donations).

I don't know why you're telling me any of this, half of which I already know. I asked how he supports it specifically. Not if and not how other people do. uBlock Origin does not solicit donations, it's in the README.md.

> Free. Open source. For users by users. No donations sought.