Is uMatrix still intended to be used in conjunction with uBlock?

[ghost]

If this is a duplicate issue (or can be easily explained by another issue that I overlooked) please feel free to close without explanation to avoid clutter.

I see that the ad/host blocking has been simplified but the 'Hosts' tab still appears to replicate some of the same functionality. Is this by design, or is this something that will change in the future? In this issue there seemed to be an intention to split the functionality entirely.

I suppose that the limited functionality of ad/hosts blocking in uMatrix is meant to appease those who don't care about element hiding (but also don't want to install another extension), but I cannot help but be curious if the attitude toward separating them has been steadfast or waned recently. Any perspective on the topic would be appreciated!

[gorhill]

uBlock is pattern-based/cosmetic-based filtering (EasyList etc.), while uMatrix is matrix-based filtering. Any one of them can be used standalone, hence why some of the preset lists are the same (uBlock supports hosts files). They are not specifically made to run together, but if they are, unchecking malware-related hosts files in uBlock is suggested to avoid unneeded overlap.

[ghost]

Ah I see, thank you for clarification! Is there anything inherently negative about importing a pattern-based filtering list into uMatrix myself? I haven't noticed any odd behavior yet, but I've only just installed uMatrix.

Edit: I should have thought more before asking, my apologies. It all comes down to preference I suppose, and I don't think you could have been much more fair in this decision as the uMatrix / uBlock / uMatrix+uBlock argument became a personal choice.

Edit 2: Read through the wiki and discovered:

All hostnames in selected hosts files are interpreted as blacklisted hostnames 
in the global scope, so they propagate to narrower scopes just like in HTTPSB.

So fundamentally there is little to no difference, other than some of the extra features offered by uBlock such as element hiding, a larger list of available filters, more terse scoped rules, etc.

Unless I've mistaken something, feel free to close this ticket unless you think this question might be asked again, and should serve as a resource to curb similar queries.

[gorhill]

There are significant differences aside the ones you mention.

Matrix-based filtering and its inheritance model (cell/rows/columns/scopes) can't be obtain with uBlock. uBlock follows ABP-filtering semantic, which is very simple:

• Allow everything
  • Unless there is a matching block filter
    • Unless there is a matching allow filter

Then it stops there. You can't override beyond this.

There is no such restriction with matrix-filtering, it is fully hierarchical with no limit, and since it's written from the ground up this way, it far more efficient than pattern-based filtering. However, a higher granularity can be obtained with pattern-based filtering. So they complement each other in a way.

But a majority of users just want an install and forget blocker, and this is uBlock. Power users however like to be fully informed about what web pages do, and be able to act on that information with a tool that makes it all easy, this is uMatrix.

Just like RequestPolicy can't fully replace Adblock Plus and vice versa, and using one doesn't prevent using the other.

[ahpatel]

Any chance of the element hiding capability of uBlock/HTTPSwitchboard making its way into uMatrix?

The main benefit for me would be a lower memory/cpu footprint (1 extension instead of 2) and simplified editing/troubleshooting when rules need to be modified.

[gorhill]

Any chance of the element hiding capability of uBlock/HTTPSwitchboard making its way into uMatrix?

There is a chance of adding a hiding capability, but that won't be the one linked to cosmetic filtering (also know as ABP-element hiding filters.)

I could however add the hiding of blocked net requests, something which is completely independent of ABP filtering. That code is also in uBlock, and I think it would be pretty straightforward to import and adapt it to uMatrix.

But it is no fancy "element hiding" as a result of cosmetic filtering: the hiding would apply after the page has loaded, thus there is a chance of flickering on the web page.

[ahpatel]

That code is also in uBlock, and I think it would be pretty straightforward to import and adapt it to uMatrix.

The uBlock method would be more than satisfactory for my use cases. I haven't noticed any significant 'flickering' when testing with uBlock (at least on my home FIOS and travel 4G mifi)

On pages like yahoo.com and a lot of news sites, there are a lot of large ads and that leads to a lot of empty spaces and just makes for bad page flow.

[gorhill]

Can you open a separate issue for this? Actually copy/paste the thumbnails too, it shows well why hiding is needed. Thanks.

[gorhill]

Both tools can be used alone or combined. It is assumed that whoever use these tools will figure by themselves how to use them best together -- this is especially true for users of uMatrix since it is made for advanced users, so they can figure how to set up things themselves.

[mailinglists35]

unchecking malware-related hosts files in uBlock is suggested to avoid unneeded overlap.

hi,

what exactly must be unchecked (what should be unchecked in umatrix and what should be unchecked on ublock origin), please?

using umatrix and ublock origin from chrome store.

thank you

[0xBRM]

@mailinglists35 Select all lists on uMatrix. Uncheck all lists that you checked on uMatrix, on uBlock.

[berrythesoftwarecodeprogrammar]

inspect the lists you are using and if any of them are hosts files then uncheck them and use them in umatrix instead. and use ublock only for non-hostsfile lists. imo

[mailinglists35]

on umatrix:
Peter Lowe’s Ad server list‎ (yoyo.org): 992 used out of 2,422purge cache

on ublock:
Peter Lowe’s Ad server list‎ (pgl.yoyo.org): 2,422 used out of 2,422purge cache

which one should be disabled?