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.
Firefox and its derivatives (and Safari - sorry Apple users) are the only browsers not using Google's Blink web engine these days - at least until Ladybird is released.
Despite the Mozilla Foundation's many stupid decisions, Firefox (and Safari) is starting to look like the only thing stopping Google from completely controlling the internet.
God I hope Ladybird will work. I'm so done with Google. And the fact that Firefox is dependant on their money leaves a bad aftertaste, everytime I open a browser. Even though I use Zen.
Fingers crossed for Ladybird and a stable Alpha release in 2026 🤞
Not true — Safari is still based on WebKit. And Safari is still the default browser on over two and a half billion mobile devices currently in use. And say what you might about Apple, but at least they aren’t in the business of selling ads, and thus don’t have any business interest in allowing you to block them effectively, unlike Google.
They don’t sell as many ads, but they do sell ads. It was only a few months ago they announced that ads would be coming to their maps app. There’s ads in news, the App Store, music, and settings on iOS. Maybe more than aren’t coming to mind immediately
Sure but that alternative doesn't work for anyone who already doesn't own an Apple device. Also those two and a half billion devices you mentioned can't run alt browsers due to Apple policy so you're basically just picking another company to hand complete control to.
but apple pioneered the walled garden, there isnt any alternatives on apple.
First off, I’m simply correcting the OPs statement that there are only two rendering engines out there, Google Blink and Firefox Gecko. You’re “yeah but <reason why you personally don’t like Apple>” doesn’t really have any material impact on these facts, and doesn’t really bring anything constructive to the conversation.
That said, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera are all available on macOS. All of these are also available on iOS and iPadOS (the EU mandated last year that Apple permit third party rendering engines on iOS; whether or not the versions available to you use WebKit or their own rendering engines likely depends on where you are in the world).
You’re welcome to hate on Apple all you want — but at least have your facts straight when you do.
Yeah.
Say what you will about Apple, but they are the major hedge against Google controlling much of the world, at the moment.
That sounds hyperbolic and conspiratorial. But, sadly, it really isn’t. Without them, there would effectively be one web browser, one mobile operating system, one search engine, with basically no way out of whatever Google dictates for 97% of the population.
Oops. My bad. I swear I read somewhere that Safari was switching to Blink, but that isn't the case.