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Comment by deanc | Hacker News Reader

I see people reporting that the extension has already been forcefully removed (or disabled in some cases) from their Chrome. This hasn't happened to me (v133 on MacOS).

I have primarily been using Chrome up until this point as I was under the impression that performance (and therefore battery life) is bad with FF on MacOS. Recent results seem to indicate that Chrome is in fact the worst offender [1].

Yesterday I uninstalled Arc as they have all but abandoned their browser to work on some AI crap browser (after saying they planned to support manifest v2 for the forseeable future).

Today I installed Orion Browser [2]. It's using webkit under the hood and seems to be far lighter on battery life than Chrome, Arc (Blink) and Firefox. They fully support FF and Chrome extensions and therefore UBO seems to be working (on the whole) very well.

[1] https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-ma...

[2] https://kagi.com/orion/

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It is a shame that Orion is Mac and iOS only. I found this statement[1] in response to a request for it on other platforms

> We are getting a lot of repeat questions about windows/linux/android version and sometimes it appears that users think that the team is choosing not to work on these platforms. The situation is quite different and simpler - we do not have the resources to hire a new team to do any of these platforms yet.

> And since Orion is funded by its users only, it is entirely up to the number of subscribers and Orion+ sales we have that will enable funding a new team to make Orion for any new platform. And building a browser is not cheap, especially one on top of WebKit.

> Ways you can help accelerate this is: > Contribute to Orion development with your time > Help spread the word about Orion to attract more users > Get Orion+ and financially support developmet

This is a tricky situation to be in. A lack of resources to support multiple platforms, but the solution being more subscribers. But the incentive structure is perplexing. Those supporting development going to be those already using Orion. And those not on Mac/iOS are unlikely to financially support a browser they can't use in the hopes it might one day come to a platform I use.

[1] https://orionfeedback.org/d/2321-orion-for-windows-android-l...

I happen to be in the target audience:

Orion user on Mac (but I think of it as a better Safari if anyone saw me writing I only use Safari and Firefox), but would like to have it available on my non Mac machines as well.

Same here for me, I will look into donating some of my time to this project

They announced they are planning linux release in 2025 in their end of 2024 event, and down in the thread you linked they hint apparently it is now in active development.

Also remember Apple users are much more lucrative, they tend to be way more willing to pay for software than Windows users.

But a lot of Apple users who use things such as Kagi and Orion (i.e., the hacker news crowd) also use other platforms. I have a MacBook but run Linux on my desktop and I know I’m not the only one. The ability to have the same browser on all platforms (with synced tabs, bookmarks etc) is really useful.

right you are gregory

That's a very Australian thing to say.

I think the smallest macropod is the Tammar Wallaby?

Maybe do a crowdfunding effort?

Orion is great. There are some websites that for some reason don’t work as well as with Safari/Firefox (like Github), but otherwise it is pretty good.

Orion looks pretty interesting, it's not like any of the other alternative browsers (opera, vivaldi, brave, arc etc) which just wrap Chromium in more junk. It uses WebKit which is optimised for Apple platforms, giving more battery life, while also integrating uBlock Origin.

Do they really remove it? Because I've had several extensions get disabled and was only able to re-enable them after enabling developer mode (toggle at top-right).

I believe that most say "remove" because they get removed from the plugin-bar when disabled.

I'll ditch Chrome without a second thought if they really remove it. They'll lose access to my browsing history, so I don't see what they have to gain with it. What about the ads which are blocked at network level via PiHole?

Have they even considered that PiHole might then catch on and start blocking ads on mobile devices in households which would otherwise not use it?

I can confirm that I got the "extension disabled" notification for uBlock Origin, clicked to re-enable it in developer mode, and then had to also toggle it to enabled after it had been added to the list - still works fine after that.

Anyone looking for a similar experience to Arc, I recommend Zen Browser, based on Firefox: https://zen-browser.app/

After 17 years of using Android, with building my own kernel and ROMs in the early days, I finally gave up on it and finished my de-Google journey and reluctantly switched to iPhone.

The fact that Orion on iOS existed was a major reason I was able to this. On Android I was a Firefox user since Firefox was the only browser with the ability to run proper uBo.

Orion is not without its bugs, but it does support a lot of Firefox and Chrome extensions. But you don’t even need to install uBo as an extension,it’s got built in ad blocker with the ability to add or remove filter lists. Even without installing uBo, in terms of ad blocking, it instantly matched Firefox on Android. That I can install things such as Tapermonkey or Bypass Paywall Clean as extensions is a huge bonus.

It’s amazing how Google is pushing its early adopters and cheerleaders away by one anti user move after another.

I still wish Apple would remove some of the restrictions on iOS, allow other browser engines etc. Installing unknown software from unsigned developers on macOS is really difficult these days but still doable if you know where to look. If only iOS was the same. The potential lost revenue from loss of control would be more than made up by new people who would be brought on to the platform.

What part of Arc feels abandoned? I still use as my primary browser.

The part where they say they are not developing it further. CEO discussing it further here: https://x.com/joshm/status/1850717644779110643

They have not shipped anything but browser updates and minor fixes for months.

> They have not shipped anything but browser updates and minor fixes for months.

I would LOVE my browser to do just that!

This isn't the problem though. The problem is they have completely pivoted in this other direction and are working on a new browser. It will only be a matter of time before they abandon Arc and then you won't get the security fixes, blink updates etc. It's also not currently OSS so it's not possible to fork it and continue elsewhere.

The fixes are really really minor. Larger functional bugs that aren’t catastrophic are hanging out.

That said, it’s been fine for me and I’m still using it. I don’t see any reason to abandon it yet. When the company fails maybe they’ll open source or sell it. I’d happily pay for this.

firefox ESR?

I'm happy with 1Blocker in Safari

I like Wipr. Simpler design IMHO.

Wipr 2 + NextDNS here.

1Blocker is really good

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