Support for Extensions?

[dhananjaipai]

Preliminary checklist

• I have read the README
• I have read the FAQs.
• I have searched existing issues for my feature request. This is a new issue (NOT a duplicate) and is not related to another issue.
• This is a feature request for the Cromite browser; not the website nor F-Droid nor anything else.

Is your feature request related to privacy?

Yes

Is there a patch available for this feature somewhere?

Not sure

Describe the solution you would like

I see that Kiwi and Yandex browsers have support for adding custom chrome extensions.
I am a noob when it comes to Android apps, mods and patches, but just wanted to know if it would be possible to have support for chrome extensions ?

Describe alternatives you have considered

Using multiple browsers

[Kirshi912]

You need to request this feature to google or chromium team instead.

[uazo]

@dhananjaipai think, I'm in favour of removing extension support even on desktops!
but I'm still thinking about it a bit, including your request.

[dhananjaipai]

@dhananjaipai think, I'm in favour of removing extension support even on desktops! but I'm still thinking about it a bit, including your request.

Thank you. If extensions are not possible can you kindly evaluate a bookmarkbar support or something similar to invoke custom bookmarklets to inject some features? Currently it is a pain to type javascript:xyz since pasting on the address bar will clear the javascript bit for security I am assuming

[uazo]

bookmarklets

what are they?

[Universalizer]

1. Not all Browser's extensions respect privacy or security,

2. Probably (Sometimes) they mess-up Browser's fingerprint uniquely.

3. If in-case an extension has problems, they need to be bug report to extensions developers, but mistakely complain to Browser's Developer & that gets irritated & frustrated.

Do you want to de-motivate browser developers?

[dhananjaipai]

bookmarklets

what are they?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet

Basically custom javascript that you can run on the page saved as bookmarks. You can basically create a bookmark with the content as "javascript:document.querySelector('video').playbackRate=4" for example and when you are on a page playing media and with slow speed you can click the bookmark and it will run the script to play it faster

[dhananjaipai]

1. Not all Browser's extensions respect privacy or security,

   2. Probably (Sometimes) they mess-up Browser's fingerprint uniquely.

   3. If in-case an extension has problems, they need to be bug report to extensions developers, but mistakely complain to Browser's Developer & that gets irritated & frustrated.

Do you want to de-motivate browser developers?

I mean, make it as a superuser feature perhaps that can be enabled with a custom flag for example.
I think it is unwise to discount a feature just because some people may not understand how to use it. 😅

[uazo]

@Universalizer the possible benefit is to let others fix privacy issues for the sake of the browser. Because it is unlikely that I can do everything. But it is a personal thought, not a choice for now.

Not all Browser's extensions respect privacy or security,
Probably (Sometimes) they mess-up Browser's fingerprint uniquely.

same here, I give no warranty on any of my modifications.

If in-case an extension has problems, they need to be bug report to extensions developers,

this could be true

[Rusenche]

@uazo > @dhananjaipai think, I'm in favour of removing extension support even on desktops!

Sounds scandalous!

If this becomes a fact, google will be happy to have followers in the destruction of the user experience.

My personal thought - if the desktop option of not being able to install extensions goes away, Cromite will lose almost all users.

[Universalizer]

@Universalizer the possible benefit is to let others fix privacy issues for the sake of the browser. Because it is unlikely that I can do everything. But it is a personal thought, not a choice for now.

Real true fact, one single person has capacity limitations of doing all things alone, it requires team work of more than three or more software developers.

---

Draft FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Important notice to the Cromite end user's, especially for Browser's extensions

Browser's extensions though supported in Desktop environment but no guarantee or warranty on third-party's extension, that completely relies at end-users due-diligence and responsibility.

Cromite developer takes no liability, or shall not be blamed for these case matters & situations.

---

These is just draft for faq. Any further suggestions or corrections are welcome.

[NDSTHEBEST]

@dhananjaipai think, I'm in favor of removing extension support even on desktops!
but I'm still thinking about it a bit, including your request.

Please add support for extensions. It will be very helpful. I've been searching for how to do it, but since I'm not a developer and even if I were, I couldn't do it because I do not possess the source code. So, in short, please add this to future releases, at least as an option🙏

[Universalizer]

Check all open and closed issue's section of ice,raven and ki,wi Browsers, feels pity or compassion for their developers and maintenance.

Even, i myself personally speaking, would like to have extension's support, but thinking Carl was alone, Uazo collaborating him and consistently enhancing Bromite as much as possible by Uazo.

Worry that Uazo also does not gets irritated or frustrated or get tired in the end, Also currently Bromite status that is unknown, that should never ever happen again with Uazo and Cromite (After Bromite only hopeful and trustworthy Purest 100% FOSS Browser without any proprietary libraries or codes in software package).

That's it.

Bromite or Cromite User Community can promise following,

Uazo you please add extension support to Android's Cromite, we promise you that we will not harass you for any specific/particular extension related problems of any kind. WE SWEAR.

But, how the newbie or beginners may be aware of it :- Whether any specific problem is related to upstream Chromium, or Cromite, or by any extension, it might be slightly/heavily complicated. Atleast today we can guess whether it is either of two.

These are all concerns.

[Universalizer]

Remember my words,
Generally, Speaking is easy, but to implement it, sometimes becomes hard or tough.

Same way, Promise or Swear is easy, but to implement ❓️

[DI555]

@uazo , nevertheless, imo, the best way is to make extensions support be optional, switchable by a switch!
This way will take a restart of browser, to make an extension api be active or inactive from the restart.
So, really all will be happy!

[9cento]

+1

[uazo]

@9cento take a poll! it would be interesting to understand what users are interested in.

[AlbahrawyTiger]

@9cento take a poll! it would be interesting to understand what users are interested in.

+2

[foxjaw]

take a poll! it would be interesting to understand what users are interested in.

Polls are the most useless decision making tool. Democracy is a cancer ! If you try to serve people, they'll sit on your head...

I do not support extensions at all. They're very invasive, inefficient and insecure. Extensions are the reason Chrome became a billion dollar industry & it's the main reason for ChromeOS being an "OS".

If you wanna try to include a certain feature supported by a certain extension, check if a patch exists or not & then add the functionality directly into cromite. But never add extension support. Users will get a lot of issues using desktop extensions on mobile (especially with the advent of MV3) & then blame the browser for the issues they face.

Basic functionalities like adblock, dark mode, etc exist. If a user need a functionality, they should request the feature or open a PR / submit patches.

@uazo You just stick with your decisions as far as cromite development is concerned. Be ready, caz people will gaslight you even more in the future, with phrases like "<insert your browser> already has extension support", "the userbase will shrink", "google bad", etc. Don't fall for them.

[VPaulV]

Probably it can done in a similar way ungoogled-chrome does? Where extensions are not supported but if you want them you can install the NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store plugin?

[foxjaw]

@VPaulV That's desktop plugin which unlocks the extension management that was removed from vanilla chromium. Won't work on android caz chromium-android codebase don't have extension support in the first place.

[VPaulV]

@foxjaw yes, you are right. My comment was regarding the desktop part

[Secret-chest]

not necessarily, the use of extensions could increase the attack surface for fingerprinting scripts, making your browser different from others and therefore more easily tracked, not to mention that the extensions themselves can be the tracers.
it's a matter of figuring out what's best, but don't worry, the issue is here but I don't think I'll be able to get into it for a few years :(

Add a warning!

[Secret-chest]

There's a reason for privacy focused projects like these to consider removing elements that increase the attack surface. You are not understanding the ramifications of convenience vs security problem. Both are opposite to each other. And one has to give up the former in order to gain the latter.

ABP is not everything an extension can do for security or privacy.

[Secret-chest]

Avoiding extension support is the best way to reduce attack vector. I donno about technically apt users but, the majority ones surf extension store like a restaurant menu & install whatever works for their use case. This brings a whole lot of loopholes in the browser's security & will turn vulnerable.

Just make extension support optional, disable it by default, add a warning...

Another reason to reject the support, is the breakage of FOSS environment. Extensions allow user to use non FOSS extension projects as well as the servers that they connect to. If the browser itself is open, but the extensions aren't, then the overall environment of the usage won't be FOSS anymore.

You aren't forced to use nonfree extensions.

[Secret-chest]

Unfortunately, the extension store also ship a lot of proprietary extensions. If there a store such as f-droid, but for extensions, could've been secure & made possible. But right now it doesn't seem to be the case.

We can support extensions without supporting the store.

[DI555]

anyway, always would be possible to have two profiles for the browser - one with extensions, and second without it.. for banking or smth..

but, another fact is that even workable extensions system on android (kiwi) has huge author’s aggressive blobs that not giving full extensions work((, but we have a source code of that extensions realisation at least!!!

[uazo]

I think, if I have time, I will attempt to port the kiwi extension activation patch to cromite.

i would like to remove a doubt, namely whether it is easier to create internal browser extensions in javascript rather than develop them directly in c++ and java, also because i think it is easier to find collaborators in javascript rather than someone capable of understanding that gigantic amount of c++ code.

but that's just an idea... it depends on how much work there is behind it. In any case, I am thinking about it.

EDIT: ah, obviously, no ETA

[foxjaw]

The Geometry OU devs have some sort of Azure server automations for their paid contributors. This business model also allows them to be funded by Yahoo Inc. as default search engine.
Extensions are the very reason for their browser marketshare. If uazo digs into this by using their patches (ofc you gotta agree their license agreements), I think you should be ready because they're gonna come after cromite caz it hurts their business. Just make sure you also keep these things into consideration.

[uazo]

What is Geometry OU?

[foxjaw]

https://kiwibrowser.com/about/

[uazo]

ah, it's kiwi :) but no problem. their patches are BSD-3-Clause licensed

[Universalizer]

Alternative option or ideas from here also https://github.com/wchen342/ungoogled-chromium-android, GPL-3.0 license

[Universalizer]

These https://github.com/wchen342/chromium-android-extension/tree/master/patches/Extensions

[aicynide]

If you add extension support like Cromite windows in android app, i'll stop using Mull and will use Cromite as my daily driver

[foxjaw]

@aicynide If you're thinking of uBO, it still works better on firefox than chrome.
And no. Uazo don't give a d@mn about the userbase of cromite. There's nothing inside the browser that generates revenue for the dev.

[aicynide]

Browsers are unusable without extensions and userscripts

[9cento]

Browsers are unusable without extensions and userscripts

So much this!

[foxjaw]

Browsers are unusable without extensions and userscripts

It's fair to put your opinion. But you can't decide what's usable and what's unusable for everyone. The 95% of the users never used kiwi or yandex mobile browsers in their life. Google Chrome itself is used by 62%. You're from the rest of the 5% trying to claim the usability of extensions.

Cromite is FOSS. You are very eligible to fork the browser, patch the extension support yourself and create a pull request and he'll be glad to merge it if everything goes well. Unfortunately this is not his priority to work on.

[aicynide]

But you can't decide what's usable and what's unusable for everyone.

Ok

You are very eligible to fork the browser, patch the extension support yourself and create a pull request and he'll be glad to merge it if everything goes well.

Why do you think I or anyone asking for feature request is or have to be a Programmer? I'm a businessman. You are saying "But you can't decide what's usable and what's unusable for everyone" and now also forcing me to have technical knowledge?
You aren't a normal person that's why always reply rudely

Are you by any chance a Communist/Zionist?

[foxjaw]

Why do you think I or anyone asking for feature request is or have to be a Programmer? I'm a businessman.

The feature request has already been opened. You aren't helping in any way by adding "me too" in this discussion. It's not gonna increase the priority of this FR. This isn't politics. If you have any valuable tips to give other than "please implement it quickly", you are free to do.

now also forcing me to have technical knowledge?
You aren't a normal person that's why always reply rudely

This is a foss project. If you aren't willing to learn and contribute, there's no way the issues get resolved.

[Secret-chest]

If you aren't willing to learn and contribute, there's no way the issues get resolved.

If you aren't willing to change this mentality that FOSS is only for devs, FOSS will never see adoption, and users will make poor choices. Discussion is also a form of contribution.

[foxjaw]

If you aren't willing to change this mentality that FOSS is only for devs, FOSS will never see adoption, and users will make poor choices. Discussion is also a form of contribution.

That is what I've said. If you have any points to make regarding the feature request, please do. Adding a "me too" like a herd will not help anyone.

[sid44sid]

Dear @uazo
Could you please check work of custom adblock scripts.
Here is an example.
If I use default adblock+ lists in Cromite, the highest score in d3ward adblock test (https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock) is 65%.
Then I add some custom scripts (some of them are recommended in d3ward FAQ). After that I get 99% score, but ads are still coming (especially incremented by Yandex).
Please check attached screens.

Details

This is how web-pages are looking. :(

Details

But in Kiwi + Ublock + https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/cntblock.txt no ads at all on the same page/phone.

Details

[TheHCJ]

+1 I would love to see this

[buawf]

Dear @uazo Could you please check work of custom adblock scripts. Here is an example. If I use default adblock+ lists in Cromite, the highest score in d3ward adblock test (https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock) is 65%. Then I add some custom scripts (some of them are recommended in d3ward FAQ). After that I get 99% score, but ads are still coming (especially incremented by Yandex). Please check attached screens.

This is how web-pages are looking. :(

But in Kiwi + Ublock + https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/cntblock.txt no ads at all on the same page/phone.

Whats the blocking percentage of Kiwi Browser with default lists ?

[xd003]

Looking forward to getting this done