While companies like Google and Microsoft have dropped support for classic MV2 extensions already or are about to end support, some developers announced plans to continue supporting some or even all classic extensions.
Of all the major browsers, it is only Firefox that continues to support MV2 extensions. Mozilla has just reiterated that this is the case stating “Firefox support for uBlock Origin is not going anywhere.” on X.
As far as Chromium-based browsers are concerned, Brave plans to continue support for some extensions only, including uBlock Origin. Opera Software also claims to continue supporting MV2 extensions.
There are a few lesser known browsers, Thorium and Supermium, which pledged to continue their support for all MV2 extensions.
The background story
Google announced plans to switch Chromium, the open source part of Google Chrome and most browsers, to a new rules system. Called Manifest V3, or MV3, it was designed to replace the classic extensions system.
Google would not be Google if it would not have tried to pull a stunt on the browsing community by removing capabilities and replacing them half-heartedly. The outcry was big enough for Google to make some concessions, but the result was still a new system that lacked some of the capabilities of the old.
One of the types of extensions hit hardest by the changes were content blockers; exactly the extensions that threatened Google’s main source of revenue.