Firefox remains the only major browser with full uBlock Origin support

Mozilla has made its position unmistakably clear: in a Bluesky post dated August 10, Firefox declared that “support for uBlock Origin isn't going anywhere.” The statement was prompted by news that Microsoft Edge will soon cut off access for uBlock Origin and other ad blockers built on the Manifest V2 extension architecture.

Once Edge completes its move to Manifest V3, blockers will lose the features they need to correctly detect and strip out ads — both on web pages and in videos.

Microsoft's move is a logical one. Edge is built on Chromium — the open-source engine that today powers most browsers, including Opera, Brave, Vivaldi and Samsung Browser. It was Google that initiated the shift from Manifest V2 to V3 in Chrome and Chromium, and Microsoft is now simply following suit.

Why Firefox stands out

Firefox is one of the few remaining browsers not based on Chromium, and now the only major one where uBlock Origin is still supported in full. The two other notable browsers outside the Chromium ecosystem — Safari and the DuckDuckGo browser — don't support the extension.

For devoted uBlock Origin users, that effectively makes Firefox the only option. In any other browser you'll have to settle for either the pared-down uBlock Origin Lite — with a smaller feature set and noticeably less effective blocking — or whatever built-in blocker the browser itself offers.

Judging by the community's reaction, Mozilla has found its “killer feature”: in the comments under the Firefox post, users say outright that they won't go back to Chrome as long as uBlock Origin remains available. At a time when the browser market is almost entirely dominated by a single engine, the ability to block ads in full turns into a weighty argument in favor of an independent solution.

Source: Hacker News