Astro Hacker News - Transparency efforts behind the Helium Browser

feverzsj |next [-]

They messed up basic color scheme, making it almost unusable.

[0]: https://github.com/imputnet/helium/issues/1532

[1]: https://github.com/imputnet/helium/issues/1850

duskdozer |root |parent [-]

This is mostly an argument for full user customization. I'm willing to bet some people prefer the current scheme. Presumably the developer(s).

NetOpWibby |next |previous [-]

I just set Helium as my default browser yesterday after dual-wielding it with Arc. Never thought I'd move on from Arc but here we are.

willtemperley |next |previous [-]

In the same sense that a blockchain can be forked by using software that only accepts certain types of block, is it possible to fork the WWW in a similar manner? e.g. with changes that neuter the ad-mongers.

For example coming up with a way to get rid of these god awful cookies. Maybe ad-monger sites could be allowed in the same way an insecure connection is allowed behind a series of warnings?

vitally3643 |root |parent [-]

The internet is literally just a pipe. There's no limitation binding us to HTTP. You can use any protocol you want over the internet, anything at all.

bastawhiz |root |parent |next [-]

Not sure I'd call it just a pipe, but maybe a series of tubes.

willtemperley |root |parent |previous [-]

Well quite. So why are we living in this surveillance hellscape?

pogue |next |previous [-]

How are they going to be adding uBlock Origin to Chromium going forward if manifest v2 gets completely deprecated/removed entirely?

gruez |root |parent |next [-]

AFAIK some of the other chromium forks (brave and/or edge?) were committed to backporting manifest v2 (or more specifically the webRequestBlocking API) for future chromium versions.

bjord |root |parent [-]

this is not correct. neither brave nor edge has committed to that.

as of yet, there's no (publicly stated) contingency plan if the upstream mv2 code is excised, but I could be mistaken.

feverzsj |root |parent |previous [-]

Nothing. It will be a huge burden for them to maintain all the removed code. Their only choice is to integrate brave's adblocker.

pogue |root |parent [-]

This seems to be the only way forward from what I can figure. Helium's main selling point is that it's essentially degoogled chromium + a few miscellaneous patches & full uBlock. But once Google completely strips all that out of Chromium project, that won't be a tenable option.

I'm not sure what Opera/Vivaldi/et al. use for their native adblocking, but Brave's rust adblocker makes the most sense to me. Really it's uBlock's filtering lists that keep the whole thing working anyway.

mrbluecoat |previous [-]

> cause havoc, and put people first

An odd pairing

tancop |root |parent |next [-]

if you follow wukko on twitter you know it makes sense. its the same guy who made cobalt the video downloader.

willtemperley |root |parent |previous [-]

Not really. Every activist that made a real difference for the good caused some kind of havoc.