I tried it for a while. I got caught up in the ‘privacy’ crowd on Reddit and went all out for a bit. Even de-googled my Android phone at the time. It is inconvenient as fuck. And you’re going to be spending more time tinkering and looking for workarounds and alternate software than actually ever getting anything done. All just to stop an advertising company from detecting what you clicked on, or for the website owner to never get any telemetry.
I got caught up in the ‘privacy’ crowd on Reddit and went all out for a bit.
Same.
Even de-googled my Android phone at the time.
I went from iOS and OSX to linux mobile and Qubes OS.
It is inconvenient as fuck.
It certainly can be, living my digital life on my own terms like this. And yet I persist.
And you’re going to be spending more time tinkering and looking for workarounds and alternate software than actually ever getting anything done.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t feel that I’m held back by FOSS. I feel strengthened by the wide array of free software available to me. I have no use for anything from google other than their free noto fonts.
All just to stop an advertising company from detecting what you clicked on, or for the website owner to never get any telemetry.
It’s far beyond that. From the moment I began my journey into understanding and attaining privacy, security, and freedom, I was challenged. It was as if the world itself denied me the right to walk that path. And so I persisted.
I will continue to make decisions for myself based on what I want and what I’m willing to sacrifice. Sites which require javascripts aren’t even a sacrifice. I do not like them. I do not value them. I lose nothing by avoiding them. I have rare exceptions, and those are handled in disposable qubes.
The world has hardened me into defiance in many ways, and I won’t be bullied into compliance by corporations.
Nah it’s really not convenient when it comes to things like banking apps that get fussy about how customised your phone is. It’s fine most of the time but you’re going to be running into issues at inconvenient times when you don’t really have the time to sit and play. Although I’m also talking a couple of years ago now, chances are things have improved.
disabling javascript
Yeah you’re basically breaking everything. I did this before it was chic when I had a Nokia phone running Opera Mini lmao.
Yeah I’ve been running graphene for years. I can understand how the technically illiterate might have problems on rare occasion. Multiple stores can get confusing. Launchers are a thing. Nevertheless its nothing over the frustration I had previously carrying something I couldn’t trust in my pocket.
Bottom left is a super-convenient built-in feature of Qubes OS, via qubes-whonix. I just click a button and a new disposable whonix qube is generated from the template, and it only takes seconds to boot. When I’m done with it, I close the window, and the disposable qube is automatically deleted.
Bottom right is my default, since I don’t like broken sites.
Okay I just did some cursory research and it doesn’t sound simple. Is it just installing qubes-whonix and creating a template (I’m guessing a yaml config or similar)?
As far as sites with JavaScript being “broken”, that one puzzles me. I have tried turning off JavaScript in the past and probably 70% of websites became fully non functional. That shouldn’t be the case, but it often is, and my impression has been that this has gotten worse, not better. I’m a web developer and no one talks about progressive enhancement anymore and frankly my coworkers have mostly thought it’s silly to even try to support users who turn off JavaScript.
Okay I just did some cursory research and it doesn’t sound simple. Is it just installing qubes-whonix and creating a template (I’m guessing a yaml config or similar)?
During the installation of Qubes OS, you can select a checkbox to have Whonix templates and qubes automatically installed. After installation, you can simply click a launcher to start an app like Tor browser in a new disposable whonix qube from the disposable whonix template. It really is that simple. Installing Qubes OS does take a while though.
As far as sites with JavaScript being “broken”, that one puzzles me. I have tried turning off JavaScript in the past and probably 70% of websites became fully non functional.
Yes, those sites which become non-functional without javascripts are very much broken.
That shouldn’t be the case, but it often is, and my impression has been that this has gotten worse, not better.
Yes, much of the web is broken. On a related note, much of the web is infested with malicious ads and trackers.
I’m a web developer and no one talks about progressive enhancement anymore and frankly my coworkers have mostly thought it’s silly to even try to support users who turn off JavaScript.
That’s a shame. And yeah, those are basically just dead sites. If they’re non-functional then there’s really no point for them to exist.
As the web continues to devolve, with a growing graveyard of dead sites (and an increasing prevalence of malicious scripts), I hope that more people wake up to the reality that this is bad. It’s similar to the dead-end that is google’s android. Eventually they’ll pull it away and leave a lot of people scrambling for their next option. I think the modern web will go through a similar transformation one day. I hope so.
I will give qubes-whonix a shot, you have convinced me!
There are certain functionalities that cannot be done without JavaScript. In my perfect world either no one would abuse JavaScript with ads and other shitty design choices, or at least I’d have an easier time with toggling it off/on. For now I’m leaving JavaScript on because it’s simply far too inconvenient otherwise. Browsers are pretty good about preventing actual harm if you have UBO installed though.
Out of curiosity, what harm are you concerned about JavaScript doing with an ad blocker and while loading sites within a container? That seems extreme to me.
I will give qubes-whonix a shot, you have convinced me!
You definitely shouldn’t rush into Qubes OS. If you’re seriously interested, I’d recommend checking out videos and reading about it so you can understand it a little deeper.
Out of curiosity, what harm are you concerned about JavaScript doing with an ad blocker and while loading sites within a container? That seems extreme to me.
Besides that fact that javascripts can be used to track and profile users, they also make the user experience of sites worse. I love static pages. Sites that require javascripts are the polar opposite of that. Useless blur effects and other “features” can cause pages to be significantly slower than static pages, and I absolutely hate it. I should be able to scroll smoothly and click buttons once the page has loaded, and I should be able to keep pages cached indefinitely. With javascripts, scrolling can often be laggy, buttons can appear and disappear in odd ways, and pages can be automatically reloaded without my consent, causing lots of frustrations. I cannot understand how anyone prefers browsing the web with javascripts. They are a fucking cancer, like 99% of the time.
RE: js, you’re talking about the web as if it should only ever be what it was first conceived of: documents. In reality now it’s used for full on software applications. It’s not just used for animations and polish (and the shitty things you mention specifically), it’s also used for dynamically updating the UI. A world you speak of would mean much worse order forms, paperwork for doctors, etc. I mean you do you, but you can’t just not acknowledge that dynamic updates of a UI are better than filling out a long form then getting back “invalid data, you selected this and entered that, start over”. It’s literally useful.
The tracking concerns are mostly mitigated by vpns, ad blockers, and private browser features. I understand there are many flaws and issues I’m glossing over, but for the most part, the average person can just use those things, then opt to close the tab of a horrible website like you’re describing.
tldr; you may prefer static documents, but modern society is built on forms and other types of vital apps, which would inevitably be worse without javascript.
I did web Dev when that was how sites worked, and they worked fine. No, it was never live updating, but the errors could be corrected and resubmitted just fine. I don’t use QubeOS but this post has me intrigued.
In reality now it’s used for full on software applications.
I think software applications are better made as actual applications instead of browser-based web-apps.
it’s also used for dynamically updating the UI.
It might seem useful on the surface but is prone to the same sorts of breakage and annoyances I was talking about.
A world you speak of would mean much worse order forms, paperwork for doctors, etc. I mean you do you, but you can’t just not acknowledge that dynamic updates of a UI are better than filling out a long form then getting back “invalid data, you selected this and entered that, start over”.
That’s an interesting example, because that’s happened to both of my parents within the past few months from two different healthcare-related sites. The javascript elements frustrated them more than me, since they didn’t understand why certain things weren’t working, and I had to figure it out for them. And there were a few times when we had to start over due to the sites being poorly made.
That’s really what I see in this reliance on javascripts, corner-cutting which causes problems. Properly-configured sites work better, and the ones reliant on javascript tend not to be.
I would prefer static order forms so that I can have the entire form and fill it out before submitting, while retaining a copy so that if there were issues I could more quickly and efficiently resubmit with the corrections.
Some people might prefer the dynamically updating UI stuff, but except for live chats I can’t see a good use for it that static pages can’t do better. And I think live chats are better in non-web apps which support end-to-end encryption anyway.
The tracking concerns are mostly mitigated by vpns, ad blockers, and private browser features.
The most useful and efficient private browsing feature is the ability to disable javascripts. Using vpns and ad-blockers protects against very specific vectors of surveillance, while javascripts allow a diverse set of surveillance capabilities, so blocking them protects against several forms of surveillance. And with more people disabling javascripts, we all blend together better.
you may prefer static documents, but modern society is built on forms and other types of vital apps, which would inevitably be worse without javascript.
Modern society is also built on ignorance, conformity, and exploitation, all of which make javascript-based sites more dangerous and prone to issues. It’s the easy answer thrown at every problem, like “a.i.” and is similarly dangerous.
So you’re saying all of this as though “on the surface” is all I’ve ever considered and have never tried to do what you claim to be the only acceptable way to do things. It is only your opinion that dynamic UI elements aren’t worth it. They particularly help with forms. Conditional data in forms aren’t something I just made up, it’s a legit use case. Again I’ve tried your way and I lasted less than a day. Very poor experience.
Wasm seems like a good step towards a better web, and still is something really niche AFAIK.
I hope that it becomes standard, because is way more secure, and of course more performant than JS.
I do even think that the HTML+CSS+JS triad (and its single components, too) are a historical bad design decision, a HUGE one, and should’ve superseded.
What makes WASM more secure than JavaScript? I’d think that the main issue with JS is that it’s a programming language that’s running on the client-side, not that it’s specifically JS.
The fact that WASM is NOT a programmimg language, and that WASM is intrinsically sandboxed and has really granular permissions (through WASI).
Also, how do you expect that, for example, a videoconference site (let’s say, Jitsi Meet) will work if you don’t execute any client-side code? And I’m not saying that all client-side code is permisible, justified or good, but rather that not all the client-side code is unpermisible, unjustified or bad, as you seem to imply.
And if you do use FLOSS, that’s really paranoid, even if FLOSS isn’t perfect.
Also, how do you expect that, for example, a videoconference site (let’s say, Jitsi Meet) will work if you don’t execute any client-side code?
I never said that you should never run client-side code. Even OP doesn’t say that (which is why they’re running some sites in Whonix, they just really don’t like it), and they’re way more extreme about not allowing JS than I am.
The fact that WASM is NOT a programmimg language, and that WASM is intrinsically sandboxed and has really granular permissions (through WASI).
Interesting. Are the actual implementations of it sufficiently secure so far?
I never said that you should never run client-side code. Even OP doesn’t say that (which is why they’re running some sites in Whonix, they just really don’t like it), and they’re way more extreme about not allowing JS than I am.
I have to admit that I may have exaggerated a bit, but I think the point is still clear.
Interesting. Are the actual implementations of it sufficiently secure so far?
Yeah, at this point it’s quite mature, and especially the implementations in languages like Rust, Zig, or Nim are particularly secure, although the classic ones in C or C++ are too, and there are great implementations for JS, TS, and other subsets of ECMAScript.
NoScript is one of the oldest browser addons for selectively blocking/allowing scripts and some other things, and it’s the only addon which comes preinstalled in Tor Browser. And yes, it has a dedicated toolbar button.
Those last two panels are so far past the inconvenience I’d ever be willing to put up with. I’m not sure how it could ever be worth it.
I tried it for a while. I got caught up in the ‘privacy’ crowd on Reddit and went all out for a bit. Even de-googled my Android phone at the time. It is inconvenient as fuck. And you’re going to be spending more time tinkering and looking for workarounds and alternate software than actually ever getting anything done. All just to stop an advertising company from detecting what you clicked on, or for the website owner to never get any telemetry.
Same.
I went from iOS and OSX to linux mobile and Qubes OS.
It certainly can be, living my digital life on my own terms like this. And yet I persist.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t feel that I’m held back by FOSS. I feel strengthened by the wide array of free software available to me. I have no use for anything from google other than their free noto fonts.
It’s far beyond that. From the moment I began my journey into understanding and attaining privacy, security, and freedom, I was challenged. It was as if the world itself denied me the right to walk that path. And so I persisted.
I will continue to make decisions for myself based on what I want and what I’m willing to sacrifice. Sites which require javascripts aren’t even a sacrifice. I do not like them. I do not value them. I lose nothing by avoiding them. I have rare exceptions, and those are handled in disposable qubes.
The world has hardened me into defiance in many ways, and I won’t be bullied into compliance by corporations.
de-googling your android can be pretty easy and convenient, nothing compared to disabling javascript IMO
Nah it’s really not convenient when it comes to things like banking apps that get fussy about how customised your phone is. It’s fine most of the time but you’re going to be running into issues at inconvenient times when you don’t really have the time to sit and play. Although I’m also talking a couple of years ago now, chances are things have improved.
Yeah you’re basically breaking everything. I did this before it was chic when I had a Nokia phone running Opera Mini lmao.
My impression was that the OP was about disabling javascript. I’ve also had issues with banking apps on CalyxOS and iodéOS, but overall could be worse
Yeah I’ve been running graphene for years. I can understand how the technically illiterate might have problems on rare occasion. Multiple stores can get confusing. Launchers are a thing. Nevertheless its nothing over the frustration I had previously carrying something I couldn’t trust in my pocket.
Bottom left is a super-convenient built-in feature of Qubes OS, via qubes-whonix. I just click a button and a new disposable whonix qube is generated from the template, and it only takes seconds to boot. When I’m done with it, I close the window, and the disposable qube is automatically deleted.
Bottom right is my default, since I don’t like broken sites.
Okay I just did some cursory research and it doesn’t sound simple. Is it just installing qubes-whonix and creating a template (I’m guessing a yaml config or similar)?
As far as sites with JavaScript being “broken”, that one puzzles me. I have tried turning off JavaScript in the past and probably 70% of websites became fully non functional. That shouldn’t be the case, but it often is, and my impression has been that this has gotten worse, not better. I’m a web developer and no one talks about progressive enhancement anymore and frankly my coworkers have mostly thought it’s silly to even try to support users who turn off JavaScript.
During the installation of Qubes OS, you can select a checkbox to have Whonix templates and qubes automatically installed. After installation, you can simply click a launcher to start an app like Tor browser in a new disposable whonix qube from the disposable whonix template. It really is that simple. Installing Qubes OS does take a while though.
Yes, those sites which become non-functional without javascripts are very much broken.
Yes, much of the web is broken. On a related note, much of the web is infested with malicious ads and trackers.
That’s a shame. And yeah, those are basically just dead sites. If they’re non-functional then there’s really no point for them to exist.
As the web continues to devolve, with a growing graveyard of dead sites (and an increasing prevalence of malicious scripts), I hope that more people wake up to the reality that this is bad. It’s similar to the dead-end that is google’s android. Eventually they’ll pull it away and leave a lot of people scrambling for their next option. I think the modern web will go through a similar transformation one day. I hope so.
I will give qubes-whonix a shot, you have convinced me!
There are certain functionalities that cannot be done without JavaScript. In my perfect world either no one would abuse JavaScript with ads and other shitty design choices, or at least I’d have an easier time with toggling it off/on. For now I’m leaving JavaScript on because it’s simply far too inconvenient otherwise. Browsers are pretty good about preventing actual harm if you have UBO installed though.
Out of curiosity, what harm are you concerned about JavaScript doing with an ad blocker and while loading sites within a container? That seems extreme to me.
You definitely shouldn’t rush into Qubes OS. If you’re seriously interested, I’d recommend checking out videos and reading about it so you can understand it a little deeper.
Besides that fact that javascripts can be used to track and profile users, they also make the user experience of sites worse. I love static pages. Sites that require javascripts are the polar opposite of that. Useless blur effects and other “features” can cause pages to be significantly slower than static pages, and I absolutely hate it. I should be able to scroll smoothly and click buttons once the page has loaded, and I should be able to keep pages cached indefinitely. With javascripts, scrolling can often be laggy, buttons can appear and disappear in odd ways, and pages can be automatically reloaded without my consent, causing lots of frustrations. I cannot understand how anyone prefers browsing the web with javascripts. They are a fucking cancer, like 99% of the time.
I hear you on qubes.
RE: js, you’re talking about the web as if it should only ever be what it was first conceived of: documents. In reality now it’s used for full on software applications. It’s not just used for animations and polish (and the shitty things you mention specifically), it’s also used for dynamically updating the UI. A world you speak of would mean much worse order forms, paperwork for doctors, etc. I mean you do you, but you can’t just not acknowledge that dynamic updates of a UI are better than filling out a long form then getting back “invalid data, you selected this and entered that, start over”. It’s literally useful.
The tracking concerns are mostly mitigated by vpns, ad blockers, and private browser features. I understand there are many flaws and issues I’m glossing over, but for the most part, the average person can just use those things, then opt to close the tab of a horrible website like you’re describing.
tldr; you may prefer static documents, but modern society is built on forms and other types of vital apps, which would inevitably be worse without javascript.
I did web Dev when that was how sites worked, and they worked fine. No, it was never live updating, but the errors could be corrected and resubmitted just fine. I don’t use QubeOS but this post has me intrigued.
I think software applications are better made as actual applications instead of browser-based web-apps.
It might seem useful on the surface but is prone to the same sorts of breakage and annoyances I was talking about.
That’s an interesting example, because that’s happened to both of my parents within the past few months from two different healthcare-related sites. The javascript elements frustrated them more than me, since they didn’t understand why certain things weren’t working, and I had to figure it out for them. And there were a few times when we had to start over due to the sites being poorly made.
That’s really what I see in this reliance on javascripts, corner-cutting which causes problems. Properly-configured sites work better, and the ones reliant on javascript tend not to be.
I would prefer static order forms so that I can have the entire form and fill it out before submitting, while retaining a copy so that if there were issues I could more quickly and efficiently resubmit with the corrections.
Some people might prefer the dynamically updating UI stuff, but except for live chats I can’t see a good use for it that static pages can’t do better. And I think live chats are better in non-web apps which support end-to-end encryption anyway.
The most useful and efficient private browsing feature is the ability to disable javascripts. Using vpns and ad-blockers protects against very specific vectors of surveillance, while javascripts allow a diverse set of surveillance capabilities, so blocking them protects against several forms of surveillance. And with more people disabling javascripts, we all blend together better.
Modern society is also built on ignorance, conformity, and exploitation, all of which make javascript-based sites more dangerous and prone to issues. It’s the easy answer thrown at every problem, like “a.i.” and is similarly dangerous.
So you’re saying all of this as though “on the surface” is all I’ve ever considered and have never tried to do what you claim to be the only acceptable way to do things. It is only your opinion that dynamic UI elements aren’t worth it. They particularly help with forms. Conditional data in forms aren’t something I just made up, it’s a legit use case. Again I’ve tried your way and I lasted less than a day. Very poor experience.
Wasm seems like a good step towards a better web, and still is something really niche AFAIK.
I hope that it becomes standard, because is way more secure, and of course more performant than JS.
I do even think that the HTML+CSS+JS triad (and its single components, too) are a historical bad design decision, a HUGE one, and should’ve superseded.
What makes WASM more secure than JavaScript? I’d think that the main issue with JS is that it’s a programming language that’s running on the client-side, not that it’s specifically JS.
The fact that WASM is NOT a programmimg language, and that WASM is intrinsically sandboxed and has really granular permissions (through WASI).
Also, how do you expect that, for example, a videoconference site (let’s say, Jitsi Meet) will work if you don’t execute any client-side code? And I’m not saying that all client-side code is permisible, justified or good, but rather that not all the client-side code is unpermisible, unjustified or bad, as you seem to imply.
And if you do use FLOSS, that’s really paranoid, even if FLOSS isn’t perfect.
I never said that you should never run client-side code. Even OP doesn’t say that (which is why they’re running some sites in Whonix, they just really don’t like it), and they’re way more extreme about not allowing JS than I am.
Interesting. Are the actual implementations of it sufficiently secure so far?
I have to admit that I may have exaggerated a bit, but I think the point is still clear.
Yeah, at this point it’s quite mature, and especially the implementations in languages like Rust, Zig, or Nim are particularly secure, although the classic ones in C or C++ are too, and there are great implementations for JS, TS, and other subsets of ECMAScript.
Gonna code up a plugin that adds a button to disable or enable JS on browsers.
NoScript?
If it’s a dedicated toolbar button I’m about to download it
NoScript is one of the oldest browser addons for selectively blocking/allowing scripts and some other things, and it’s the only addon which comes preinstalled in Tor Browser. And yes, it has a dedicated toolbar button.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh you are kinda late on this idea