
UBlock Origin for Safari - bijection
https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari
======
kobayashi
Yes! Been waiting for a uBlock Origin for Safari for a while.

I looked into Ellis Tsung, the listed dev, but can't find much about him. The
LinkedIn profile most likely (IMO) to be his only has 35 contacts and I've
never heard of his other projects listed on his personal webpage. Throwing
this out here in case somebody as something to add.

The most important aspect one should look for in an app (/extension) before
installation is whether or not the dev is sufficiently trustworthy. Not yet
sure about this individual.

Also, if we're making wish lists, somebody please look into uMatrix for
Safari!

~~~
chris_wot
I dunno. If the source is available and has enough eyeballs, then trust in the
author is still important but less so than someone providing binaries based on
closed sources. As I feel Microsoft has taken a _long_ time to learn.

~~~
throwanem
No, not really. Once I install the extension, unless I do something unusual,
I've signed up to automatically download and run whatever code is signed with
the right key and put in the update channel. If the dev isn't trustworthy, I'm
almost certainly going to be hosed before I know I have a problem. Being able
to see exactly how I got hosed, after the fact, is somewhat cold comfort.

~~~
chinathrow
Indeed - and extensions get sold all the time for fast cash.

------
Archio
This is fantastic news, especially if this fork is well maintained and/or gets
merged upstream. Safari has the lightest battery usage and fastest speed by
far of any browser on my Macbook, but it sucks that the best extensions aren't
always available.

~~~
BipolarElsa
>or gets merged upstream

I don't understand what that means. Do you mean that it will be updated
automatically on your Safari once you download it initially?

~~~
devy
This repo is a fork of gorhill/uBlock. Merging it upstream means merging the
changes in this fork back to gorhill/uBlock so that majority of the UO
community can enjoy the Safari compatibility of UO and this fork's user base
can enjoy bugfixes from the gorhill/uBlock. And as users of ad blockers, we
don't end up with 2 similar but slightly different softwares.

Ideally, this fork should be merged back as a PR to the original repo instead
of advertising it as-is.

------
alfanick
I've been using uBlock on Safari for quite a while now (I've got 0.9.5.2
version installed atm). I cannot find any info what is the difference between
uBlock and the uBlock Origin, can anyone elaborate on this? Is the difference
like between Adblock and Adblock Plus?

~~~
madeofpalk
Long story short - uBlock Origin is a fork by the original developer who
worked on uBlock.

~~~
hrrsn
In addition, the uBlock Safari port has been dead for some time.

~~~
bangonkeyboard
Not that that's stopped the ex-maintainer from soliciting donations for it.

------
kfdhskafjs
But is it better than using extensions like Wipr that used the built-in ad-
blocking system?

~~~
arm
Well, this is what the developer of the JS Blocker extension for Safari has to
say about it¹:

“ _Safari has a new feature called "Content Blockers" that allows for
extremely efficient resource blocking on both the desktop and iOS version of
Safari. As much as I'd like to incorporate this into JS Blocker, it is not
feasible to do so. Using a content blocker will prevent JS Blocker from
showing you exactly what's going on on a website (i.e. you won't see what's
allowed or blocked.) It'll also break all of JS Blocker's "other" features,
such as showing alerts within the webpage and canvas fingerprinting
protection. Besides the loss of features, content blockers are limited to
50,000 rules. While this seems like a high number, it isn't enough for
efficient protection and a lot of rules would need to be cut out to even run a
content blocker. Until Apple eases the restrictions (or at least raises the
number of rules that can be in a content blocker), JS Blocker will not be
using this API._”

――――――

¹ — [http://jsblocker.toggleable.com/](http://jsblocker.toggleable.com/)

~~~
LeoPanthera
The whole point of the content blocking API is to protect the users privacy.
Without it, the plugin gets to see every single web page you visit, and its
contents, and could do anything with that information.

I've been using 1Blocker which, while not free, uses the API and seems to work
very well. (And can sync your block settings with the iOS.)

~~~
stephenr
Agreed. Content blockers are also not executing js code for every resource the
page tries to load: it's just the defined blocking rules that get processed.

I'm also using 1blocker. Lacking an existing site (or time to build one
myself) for sharing 1blocker packages, I've started storing them here:
[https://bitbucket.org/stephenreay/1blocker-
packages](https://bitbucket.org/stephenreay/1blocker-packages)

------
blue_box
It doesn't block youtube ads.

~~~
draw_down
Hmm, what does?

~~~
mitchty
Ironically enough, the original ublock does on safari.

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4ad
My understanding is that this doesn't use the newish Safari content block API,
am I right?

What's the best ad blocker that uses the Safari content block API? I use
Adguard, and it's ok, but I'd want something else.

Paying money is no problem.

~~~
ino
I use wipr and it's excellent.

I've been using it for a year and haven't seen any ads so far, not even video
ads from big or small websites.

The macOS version is free so you can test it. The iOS version is $1 and it's
very worth it.

~~~
4ad
Unfortunately wipr doesn't have any settings (whitelists, extra filters, etc)
on macOS.

------
esturk
Very nice. Just tried it on (www.bbcamerica.com) and it works as oppose to the
regular ublock that removes google analytics and don't know how to handle
getting stuck. Will definitely test it out more and report any bugs.

~~~
wtallis
> and it works as oppose to the regular ublock that removes google analytics
> and don't know how to handle getting stuck.

Is this a matter of something changed in the extension itself, or is it a
difference in what filters they subscribe to by default?

Far too much discussion of adblockers ignores that the third-party filters are
not the same as the browser extension. Filter subscriptions are mostly
interchangeable between the various AdBlock derivatives and replacements, and
it's also quite possible to use them with only filters you create yourself.

Also, it sounds like the Google Analytics problem you're referring to is what
NoScript's surrogate scripts feature is for.

~~~
gorhill
> Is this a matter of something changed in the extension itself

Probably related to the `redirect` filter option, introduced in uBO 1.4.0[1].

[1]
[https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.4.0](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.4.0)

------
dzhiurgis
Is there content blocker for iOS that supports custom filters?

~~~
navs
Quite a few. 1Blocker is one of them:

[https://1blocker.com](https://1blocker.com)

~~~
canuckintime
And you'll need custom lists for 1Blocker because it exempts some ad networks
by default.

~~~
pvg
It exempts them on purpose or just happens not to include them? Which
networks?

~~~
Sachse
The Deck isn't blocked by default, but the author provides a package you can
easily download to block them as well.

~~~
navs
They, being 1Blocker, have posted about this before. It's felt that The Deck
is non-intrusive and therefore not something that needs blocking.

------
theWatcher37
Great! Will this come to iOS soon?

~~~
JustSomeNobody
I'm going to HN[0] you and say just use AdBlock on iOS. Works great!

[0] When someone ask for one thing and someone tells you to use another
without addressing the actual question.

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jariz
Is this a unofficial fork? Why is it not included with the main uBlock
project?

~~~
kencausey
Short version: Author of uBlock Origin is original author of uBlock and
decided to hand it off. Drama ensued and original author decided to fork what
had previously been his own project and continue.

See
[https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/38](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/38)

------
raybb
If that was a response to the comment someone recently posted asking for it to
be ported to Safari than bravo for the quick response!

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isaac_is_goat
Microsoft Edge next please?

~~~
staticelf
I started looking for how to develop plugins for Edge to port it, but could
not find any resources from Microsoft which is pretty strange.

They simply state "Microsoft Edge supports a new HTML, JavaScript and CSS
based extension model. This new model is Chrome-compatible which means that
existing Chrome extension developers will be able to migrate their extensions
to Microsoft Edge with minimal changes." but not how to actually add the
extension or anything to get going.

~~~
vxNsr
Yeah, it looks like four now they're only doing joint official extensions.
Basically you gotta work with someone at Microsoft to have your extension
added to the store. Otherwise you can create a regular chrome extension and
side load it, and it works like 75% of the time.

