| Fantastic extension. I self-host Invidious, Teddit, Nitter, and Bibliogram and configured LibRedirect to use only my private instances. Unfortunately, the community instances are often either overloaded or down entirely. It's hard to imagine going back to the "real" sites...they are all so user-hostile. Since Android doesn't support browser extensions, I accomplish the same thing using the Bromite browser along with a handful of UserScripts to redirect youtube/twitter/etc to my private instances. Edit: Yes, I know Firefox for Android supports extensions, but the work required [0] to actually install any extension other than the handful "blessed" by Mozilla borders on hilarity. Firefox for Android seemed pretty good a few years ago, but at some point since then Mozilla has done a full redesign of the GUI and the whole thing now feels janky to me. I tried using it for a couple days and just couldn't bear it. My impression is that Mozilla is letting it languish. For simplicity, I use the exact same setup for all my family's Android phones (GrapheneOS with a persistent wireguard connection back to the house) and Firefox was just too strange for the non-technical people to use. In addition, GrapheneOS makes some pretty compelling arguments [1] against FF-based browsers. Lest anyone accuse me of being a Firefox hater, I do use it on the desktop. [0] https://www.ghacks.net/2020/10/01/you-can-now-install-any-ad... [1] https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing |
Yeah, the number of extensions ("add-ons") available for Fennec is a joke. Someone on HN suggested that Firefox Nightly for Android has no such limitation.
Unlike uBlock, uMatrix, an add-on not available for Fennec, is purportedly for "advanced users" but I see in this thread people suggesting that to use extensions in Nightly, one needs to "log in". IMO, that conflicts with the purpose of using extensions to block unwanted egress traffic. IMO, if I was the type of user who "signs in", I would not be interested in "privacy" extensions.
IMO, all this hoop-jumping is due to unregulated online advertising. Without Google's online ad services profits propping it up, Mozilla would not be a feature-for-feature Chrome "competitor". Mozilla is on the same advertising treadmill with Google. Unless they assist online advertising, the organisation cannot survive. The less we rely on these ad-supported organisations, the better.
IMO, trying to control popular web browsers and "smartphones" is a waste of time. The amount of work to attempt to control them is insane and they are moving targets so the work never ends. I "block" advertising, telemetry and other unwanted traffic by proxying smartphone connection to the internet through a computer I can more easily control.
IIRC, someone on HN once compared smartphones to "kiosks". Even if one disagrees now, I think that is where these pocket-sized "personal computers" are headed. People may be forced to use them, but they will remain under the control of some other party.