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Comment by Aaronstotle | Hacker News Reader

I have never heard of nano defender, but I wonder why anyone ventures away from uBlock origin

Nano defender is an anti-anti-adblocker. It works along with uBO ("defend" it if you like), or author's fork of uBO (Nano ADBlocker).

uBo is getting good doing this job itself now, but there are still some gaps for Nano Defender to be useful.

uBlock Origin has an unbreak filter list to address this now. Coupled with EasyList, it's been sufficient to remove anti-adblock warnings for me.

> I wonder why anyone ventures away from uBlock origin

Tangential, but that attitude prevents a lot of competition in the tech space. A lot of the reason tech companies can grow so large with so little competition is the problem of trust.

Yeah, trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. Doesn't matter the industry. But it's hard to ignore the Lindy Effect: if a system is serving me for so long and so well, why do I need to worry about lack of competition?

Before ublock, I had AdBlock and afterwards ABP on my machines. I started looking for alternatives when they introduced that "acceptable ads" crap.

And the trust really comes down to observability. If I buy a vacuum cleaner it's easy to tell if it sucks and if I should recommend it to my friends. With software I might be able to judge functionality, but privacy and security usually come down to having a good track record.

That said, it's by far not the only reason leading to tech monopolies. Network effects (paired with a lack of interoperability) brings users to Instagram and MS Office alike.

> If I buy a vacuum cleaner it's easy to tell if it sucks

I clearly knew what you meant, but it definitely reminds me of the decade(s)-old adage: "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner."

I'd argue it's even vaguely on-topic, c.f. Windows 10 updates...

I've encountered it before. I believe its made it to HN front page a few times.

I mean, I agree, but it's not like this couldn't happen there, too.

Given that Raymond Hill is one of the persons helping to expose this mess, at least we can get a good idea of the motivations behind the uBlock Origin maintainers.

Granted, it isn’t drama free. But frankly, these people have one of the best longest running track records of trust in all of browser extensions. It is going to be an immensely sad day when things go sour.

I use uBlock Origin, and I share your feelings about the team.

That said, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen was trusted too, and deliberately selling out isn't the only attack model. The extension ecosystem kinda terrifies me.

It could, but after what happened to the original uBlock it's unlikely that uBlock Origin would be sold to unnamed developers.

Virtually everyone has their price.

It might be short-lived, but the damage you could do with that install base and auto-updating extensions...

Unlikely, given the history of uBlock (Origin).

does it exist on android? i have adguard

Yes, it does. As long as you use a browser supporting extensions, like Firefoxu or Kiwi for example.

Yes with Firefox Nightly.

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