Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did
Microsoft Edge is ending support for Manifest V2 extensions, cutting off uBlock Origin and other older ad blockers. Only 58 MV2 extensions with meaningful usage remain, and just three lack MV3 alternatives. Users will be gradually switched to MV3 by default, with notifications and recommendations for alternatives like uBlock Origin Lite. The transition completes for consumers by end of 2026, with enterprise deprecation in early 2027. Opera and Firefox continue to support MV2.
Over the next few months, MV2 extensions will be gradually turned off by default. Users will be notified in advance and directed to recommended MV3 versions where available.
- cosmic_cheese
This is ultimately the endpoint of all Chromium-based browsers. Even the most stalwart will throw in the towel on MV2 support sooner or later, because the effort required to maintain non-trivial patches against mainline becomes too great for the team to keep up with.
It's a great demonstration of how Chromium's open source nature is something of a technicality. Unless you have an army of software engineers on par with that of Google, you're eventually going to wind up living with Google's decisions whether you like it or not.
- bastard_op
Google is an ad company, ad blockers are bad. Why are you using a browser from an advertising company and expecting different results?
Microsoft repurposed Google's adware in Chrome into Edge telemetry/spyware to feed your browsing directly into windows telemetry to watch everything you do, they wanted that back when IE lost the war.
Google already went evil and set the precedent removing adblocking capabilities, now Microsoft can just blame them and feed everything you do into Bing for ad money as well as telemetry/spyware without you blocking it, that's effectively double-dipping all in on stupid windows users.
- VCFundedGenYer
This is why we all need to rally around Firefox (or Librewolf, or Waterfox, or whatever fork you prefer) and make sure that sacred goose is never tampered with.
- paxys
All the software freedom people here will do everything except use Firefox.
- MarkWayneNewton
If this thread is indicative of the sort of browser discourse in <current year> it's no wonder Google won.
Nerds used to know how to computer, is what i'm saying.
- unlimit
I never stopped using Firefox.
- anaisbetts
Welp, the biggest reason that I use Edge just got thrown out, time to switch to Firefox.
- mancerayder
Please don't bite me -- question for this group, where "Firefox" is going back and forth as a topic.
Isn't Brave okay?
There's something toxic about Brave I'm not getting; I can tell you it's incredibly effective as a tool to block ads, scripts, and tracking. What am I missing? It's tracking me? The project owners are mean? There's something nefarious in the codebase? I have firefox and Brave, and both are 'OK', and better than Chrome or Edge which I only use for work. In the past I was told after being downvoted for mentioning Brave that the founder is controversial. Is that it?