I tried using the internet without an ad blocker. You won't believe what happened!

[ian]

Sat down at my desktop for the first time in weeks today to catch up on the news of the world.
Chrome disabled ublock... And unlike the last time they tried it, I just can't be fucked trying to fix it this time. I made it 45 seconds into trying to use various sites (YouTube, Reddit, Facebook) and gave up and left the computer.

Less than 1 minute into trying to use the internet without an ad block and it was simply unusable.

My desktop is a glorified, overpriced, overpowered media player these days. And I don't see me missing those sites enough to fuck around anymore.

Fortunately my surface has Firefox which seems to be unaffected.
But the internet is so fucking shit without one.

All my internet use is now gonna go back to BG!

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Getting uBlock Origin to work on current Chrome.

1. Enter chrome://flags in chrome's URL input
2. Search for 'Allow legacy extension manifest versions'
3. Enable it and relaunch browser
4. Download the latest zip file of uBlock version from github: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases
5. Under Assets, download the chromium zip and extract it
6. Open the extension page in chrome, click the Load Unpacked button on top left side load (enable Developer Mode in the top right if it doesn't appear), then select the extracted folder.

[pixel]

Chrome is shit now, I switched to Firefox (again). Something like Librewolf is even better for privacy: https://librewolf.net/

[ian]

I must say, Firefox has been alright on the Surface. There's a few niggles with opera, and edge (and even safari for a small amount) that keep me from using and installing them.

I'll give librewolf a play the next time I build and setup a computer (which really doesn't happen often these days) I don't particularly give a shit about privacy, my details have been hoarded and leaked by every company and even the government so much now that it simply doesn't fucking matter anymore. Oh no!
If they actually care enough to invade my privacy, they know I'm a tight ass with no money who isn't going to buy shit they want to sell me anyway, and possibly will avoid brands for life if they interrupt me doing what I want to for even a single second.

But Firefox seems to be like chrome used to be, or indeed Firefox used to be wayyyyy back when, it just fucking works how I want it to with minimal fucking around.
The good news is, I can still visit BG on any browser, because the site isn't aids covered cancer sprinkled with plague of ads.


Google has sort of lost their relevance a bit for me recently. The browser got worse, the email is getting worse, the phone operating system is getting worse, even the search engine has gone to absolute shit in the past 2 years odd. The only things they can cling to in their favour is maps and the ease of use that everything is one place, one account.. Maps still functions amazingly. And when it is barely tolerable like the rest of Googles product stack, I'll be very irritated that I have to find a new provider for so many things.

[Roofus]

I have an old Raspberry Pi running Pihole. It blocks ads everywhere on the network

[pixel]

I'm in the same boat, Firefox is good enough for me. I've had a Gmail account for 20 years now, I fucked up my privacy long ago.

Android will be bareable until Google slams the platform shut from FOSS and alternative repos. Rooting is near impossible, and even if it was easy, it puts a permanent hex on your phone. Alternative OSes like Graphene aren't long for this world either.

[melancholy]

I use Adguard on my Proxmox server to do the same thing. It’s good, but it’s not perfect. Honestly, only Firefox with uBlock is about as perfect as you could get.

[Roofus]

I'm in the same boat, Firefox is good enough for me. I've had a Gmail account for 20 years now, I fucked up my privacy long ago.

Android will be bareable until Google slams the platform shut from FOSS and alternative repos. Rooting is near impossible, and even if it was easy, it puts a permanent hex on your phone. Alternative OSes like Graphene aren't long for this world either.

I got my Gmail around the same time. I bet one of us invited the other

I use Adguard on my Proxmox server to do the same thing. It’s good, but it’s not perfect. Honestly, only Firefox with uBlock is about as perfect as you could get.

I keep meaning to set up Proxmox but I'm in too deep with bare metal servers to change everything now

[pixel]

You're both miles ahead of me, I still haven't switched from Windows 10.

[ian]

So out of curiosity, I tried the lounge PC to see what effect the adblocker blocking had on opera. I use it even less than my main computer.

My lounge/media PC is a very barebones installation of windows 10.
It has VLC, and opera with nothing but ublock origin. That's all it needs.

Opera did a funny thing I haven't seen in ages:
Ublock actually allowed google to popup a warning on YouTube about adblockers not being allowed. I had to block the whole element and went about my business of listening to 5 songs before I'd moved on to other stuff.

I haven't had to block a popup about turning off my adblocker with an adblocker to use a site for ages.
When adblockers first started gaining traction it felt like half the sites on the web had to have their adblock popups blocked. But I haven't seen it happen in YEARS.

And speaking of Gmail, I'm pretty sure I got my invite from either you Roofus or Skynet. they were going around everywhere in those late DCE days...

Ah fuzzy memories.