What’s arc
Browser: https://arc.net/
Yeah, not really seeing what this provides that I don’t already get from Firefox. If it can get some people off Chrome or Safari that’s good I guess, but at the end of the day is this just yet another Chromium based browser?
Yep, same. FF has been my go to browser for years
Genuinely don’t comprehend why anyone uses anything other than Firefox. FF + uBlock makes the internet so much better
Arc has uBlock installed by default. So that’s not a differentiator between the two.
It certainly is a differentiator: uBlock Origin already works best on Firefox. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox
And when Manifest v3 is fully enforced in Chromium (current date is slated to be July 2024), then the more restricted uBlock Origin Lite would need to be used instead.
(I’m not sure if Arc will fully adopt v3, but they might not have a choice at some point in time.)
The Lite version still works well considering all the restrictions, but has a lot of limitations: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338#issuecomment-1507539114
- Filter lists update only when the extension updates (no fetching up to date lists from servers)
- Many filters are dropped at conversion time due to MV3’s limited filter syntax
- No crafting your own filters (thus no element picker)
- No strict-blocked pages
- No per-site switches
- No dynamic filtering
- No importing external lists
TL;DR: The way uBlock Origin works on Firefox right now is already better, but if Arc has to go along with Manifest v3 in Chromium in a few months, then it’ll be even more of a differentiator.
It also looks like they’re even thinking about rolling out their own tracker blocker (instead of using uBlock Origin) as a result of the Manifest v3 changes:
https://twitter.com/joshm/status/1728926780600508716
We’re rolling our own native @arcinternet Ad & Tracker Blocker in 2024 (since Chrome is restricting them)…
Any creative ideas for how we can go above and beyond, and reimagine the category?
Remove GDPR/Cookie Consents? What else?
