For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo has highlighted how the latest and upcoming versions of the most popular browser are expected to be its final releases with support for MV2 extensions.
What this essentially means is that the tricks and bypasses that were used to keep MV2 extensions like uBlock Origin and others alive will not work any more on Chrome, or at least not for very long. For example the Windows Registry mod that could extend MV2 availability will cease to function after Chromium version 151.
And people still use these trash dumpster of a browser?
You know, I seem to see this rhetoric a lot, and it seems to be getting upvoted more now, which isn’t a good sign for Lemmy, but are you really surprised by this? Is this really a question? Are you really that under a rock?
If it’s rhetorical, then what’s the point? Is this just a petulant way to try and dumpster something without going through the effort of actually picking out a real problem with it, of which there are countless?
Is this starting an interesting discussion? Is this voicing an interesting opinion? What is the point of this exact kind of comment?
Maybe I’m just too autistic and I’m going off the rails here, but these are starting to itch like a form of “internet forum hives”.
Maybe it is because people shame others into using “the most popular” browser, by asking stuff like “who uses X?” or “I use Y, lke a normal person” and so on and so forth. However, spend any time in the privacy-oriented community, and you will find that there is a significant disdain for Chrome, and Edge is never truly accepted as a viable option, and well; Opera, by Chinese scare is also shunned; but more often than not, Privacy-oriented browsers, (to my disappointment, a Chromium-based browser,) Brave is often recommended for most who don’t want to tinker, and that’s understandable.
But, when you look at things like the LinkedIn spyware, the aggressive anti-ad and also anti-privacy practices of these “popular” browsers, you really start to question, is it worth it? So tell me, IS IT worth it? My bare minimum is Containers, Chromium has to use an extension that kinda works, but for everyone else, why keep using something that constantly tries to invade your privacy? – The “Everything spies on you” or “I have nothing to hide” mentalities that try to normalize this are, in my eyes, outright defeatists.
The question once again, becomes; Why are we allowing this? If we don’t get a say; then the trusty old “Vote with your Money” comes into play; cause you always have a choice to switch browsers. We will always have that choice, and yet, I keep seeing the perpetuation of Chrome, and less Brave, and to my personal disdain, even less Firefox-based options, which are objectively better, and have built-in containers (kinda wish you didn’t need the extension to unlock it on the toolbar)
Nothing against you, you provided me with a peak at a concerning common perspective; “Why are you hating?” “If you dislike it so much why don’t you suggest something better?” and the far too common, “I dismiss everything you say, because you dislike/hate X” and truth be told, between that, and the in-person shaming and questioning, we ignore everything that is factually wrong, until something like the LinkedIn spyware or an AI Forcefully-yet-Repeatedly being downloaded without your consent, only then do they THINK, but not necessarily commit to switching to something else, the companies know this, and they just keep doing their… questionable practices.
So, I’m sorry, but yes. Chrome, is a trash browser, one that will continue to invade your privacy. De-googled Chromium would be better than Chrome. Brave is still far better, but it’s still Chromium based, that matters because if something affects a Chromium-based browser, there’s an exceedingly high chance it’ll work on all Chromium-based browsers (again, look at the LinkedIn spyware). I would personally suggest a Firefox-based alternative, simply because a lot of these exploits, which again, are a (Non-Google) Search away (just look at the efforts to remove malware from the chrome store), would simply not affect the browser. Easy suggestions are LibreWolf, WaterFox and the Mullvad Browser.
Tech isn’t meant to be complicated, it’s meant to facilitate things, but convenience should never have to come at the cost of bundled consent nor privacy.