What does HackerNews think of easylist?

Do you mean like this? https://github.com/easylist/easylist

EasyList updates frequently, many times each day, as the commits to that repo demonstrate.

/etc/hosts will never block all ads[0]. uBlock Origin can use host files. They aren't on by default because they aren't needed but Dan Pollock's and MVPS lists are already there, you just have to click a check box in Options→"3rd-party filters". The lists are auto updated[1]. uBlock Origin is open source[2] and made by a great[3], hardworking[4], ideological[5] guy. He writes uBlock Origin, which loads in lists of url + css-selector pairs compiled by other people[6][7].

I prefer the term "content blocker" because they're more general than just ads. You can block anything you can write a css-selector for (and because of the arms races[0][8][9], other things like websocket connections too). For example, I hide sticky header bars (thanks web designers), youtube comments, everything that isn't the article on news sites and the menu that comes up when you right click on Medium. There are also pre-compiled lists of annoyances and a list to block social share buttons.

uBlock Origin is the only ad blocker that should exist, arguably every single one of the others is fake. There's plain "uBlock" which is the original project that was effectively abandoned in 2015[10]. There's "Adblock Plus" which is a rent-seeking operation[11] that employs 100 people[12]. There's "Ghostery" which is closed source[13] and up until February 2017 was owned by an advertising company[14]. uBlock Origin is the one you want.

[0] https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/846781439890853893 I'm reminded of anti-bacterial soap

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dashboard:-3rd-party-... periodically updating files is for cron jobs, not humans

[2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gorhill

[4] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/commits?author=gorhill

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gorhill seriously, thanks man

[6] https://github.com/easylist/easylist

[7] https://github.com/ryanbr/fanboy-adblock fanboy also deserves a lot of thanks

[8] https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/1727

[9] https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/08/a-new-way-to-control-th...

[10] https://github.com/chrisaljoudi/uBlock/commits/master

[11] https://adblockplus.org/acceptable-ads http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboo... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

[12] https://eyeo.com/en/team

[13] https://github.com/jonpierce/ghostery

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidon,_Inc.

the problem in my original comment has been known since June, and some of these extensions phone home https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/898574880773484545 these are probably for "market research"