this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025

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1073

Microsoft begins turning off uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2-based extensions in Edge (www.neowin.net)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

260 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The latest Edge Canary version started disabling Manifest V2-based extensions with the following message: "This extension is no longer supported. Microsoft Edge recommends that you remove it." Although the browser turns off old extensions without asking, you can still make them work by clicking "Manage extension" and toggling it back (you will have to acknowledge another prompt).

At this point, it is not entirely clear what is going on. Google started phasing out Manifest V2 extensions in June 2024, and it has a clear roadmap for the process. Microsoft's documentation, however, still says "TBD," so the exact dates are not known yet. This leads to some speculating about the situation being one of "unexpected changes" coming from Chromium. Either way, sooner or later, Microsoft will ditch MV2-based extensions, so get ready as we wait for Microsoft to shine some light on its plans.

Another thing worth noting is that the change does not appear to be affecting Edge's stable release or Beta/Dev Channels. For now, only Canary versions disable uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions, leaving users a way to toggle them back on. Also, the uBlock Origin is still available in the Edge Add-ons store

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (11 children)

Fancy firefox-based browser along the lines of Arc?

https://zen-browser.app/

Worth a look if you're a web power-user / developer sort of person

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (6 children)

I had a feeling this would happen. I have to use Google services for a lot of things at work and Edge works fine with them. Firefox usually does okay, but not always. And now Firefox is requiring you to hand over your data to them.

Can any Chromium-based browser refuse to turn on V3 or is it too baked-in without forking the entire project?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Is not Adblock Plus baked into Edge?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago

No.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

It's nice to use a browser which doesn't depend of extensions to block ads.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

oh look at that. It's 'chromium based browsers are garbage o'clock.'

[–] [email protected] 238 points 2 months ago (5 children)

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's slowly turning, too. Start looking for something else.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 months ago (5 children)

We need a truly FOSS browser that developed and maintained by the community. Librewolf isn't it unless it fully forks away from Mozilla. We need a new engine and we just don't have one yet.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Ladybird Browser is coming, but could be a couple years still

https://ladybird.org/

From scratch, BSD licensed, non-profit managed

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (5 children)

BSD licensed

Ew. It ought to be AGPLv3.

(I almost just said "copyleft," but as Chromium proves, even LGPL is insufficient protection from corporate usurpation.)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I agree. I'd even be willing to regularly donate to a foundation that would have this aim as their goal and have their acts matching their promises.

Although, not necessarily a new engine. Going from scratch is a good way to remake a lot of mistakes, while reusing old code is a good way to keep old debt. That's not a decision I would like to have to take.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Did both Edge users complain?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Unfortunately Edge is the 2nd most popular browser, with double the market share of Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

Ok maybe off topic, why does a web browser have to be one of the most complicated software artifacts on earth? So expensive to write and maintain that only a few orgs with huge developer resources can do it?

What would it look like to start from scratch with a massively simplified standard for specifying UIs, based on all we've learned since html/css was invented? A standard that a few developers could implement in a few weeks using off the shelf libraries. Rather than reimplement every bizarre historical detail in html/css, have a new UI layout system that's simple and consistent, and perhaps more powerful.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Basically browsers are big because they are operating systems for web hosted applications with huge attack surfaces and lots of legacy compatibility requirements amassed over 3 decades.

A rewrite isn't the answer. Putting limits on browser functionality is. JavaScript was the turning point IMHO.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

What would it look like to start from scratch with a massively simplified standard for specifying UIs, based on all we've learned since html/css was invented?

Probably a lot better. The difficult, and expensive, part is getting everyone to migrate over to this new standard, not because it'd be unfeasible but because companies don't want to spend any time or money on things that they don't think will make them profit.

What we'd need is, for example, the EU realizing that Google's attempted monopoly on the internet is dangerous and requiring a certain standard for private consumer-facing websites to get the ball rolling.

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