Popular browsers Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are dropping full support for uBlock Origin as Chromium moves to Manifest V3. To make matters odder, recent builds of these browsers on Windows 11 can occupy up to 20 GB of disk space when running built‑in local AI models (yes, 20 GB). Against that backdrop, a few alternative browsers are choosing the opposite road—keeping a full ad‑blocking experience alive.
Developers from Mozilla made an official remark about uBO in Firefox (FF). Their short version: support for uBlock Origin isn’t vanishing from FF, and Firefox will keep developing on its own Gecko engine. The crucial technical point is that Firefox is preserving the webRequestBlocking capability, which lets extensions intercept and modify network requests; Mozilla says it will retain that power even while moving toward Manifest V3, so uBO keeps the hooks it needs—hooks that Chromium’s current MV3 doesn’t offer.
Brave—despite being Chromium‑based—also refused to mirror Google's tighter MV3 limits. Company reps say that, unlike Edge, Brave will keep supporting uBO. The team moved Manifest V2 extensions to their own servers and lets users enable them via Settings > Extensions > Manifest v2 Extensions, circumventing the Chrome Web Store blocks (so, a workaround rather than a miracle).
For Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users there’s only a slimmed‑down option: uBlock Origin Lite, a version trimmed by the new rules. Opera still runs legacy plugins for now, but its developers have warned that a full shift to MV3 is coming.
The net result: people are hunting for alternatives. Interest in independent browsers and ad‑block solutions has spiked as the big players tighten extension rules.