What does HackerNews think of invidious?

Why even let users set their own passwords? | Jul 2023

You made it sound like even for a simple site, JavaScript would be a necessity and we should expect websites to not work well without it. I was actually about to concede that it's OK if JS has eaten the world (see my closing thought)...

Then read this comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36849820

> you can still view it through https://nitter.net, which I guess makes the open source Javascript-less front-end to Twitter more accessible for SEO

WHAT? I had no idea. So there is Nitter [1] frontend for Twitter -which is a platform clearly more complicated than HN- and they manage to not only work without JavaScript, but have it as one of their core motivations.

Things get even better, from that project I find about Invidious [2], a frontend for nothing else than YouTube! And again, no JS is not only an option but a highlighted feature.

After these discoveries, my bar for how JS-free we should expect most websites to be has just gone up, not down. Especially those websites consisting on just presenting text and media (i.e. the immense majority)

I agree the war is lost, though. Luckily there will still exist people desiring and making noise for a leaner and faster experience. The problem is bloated frameworks and privacy invasion via JS. Those are essentially my main reasons to want to browse the Web without JS.

[1]: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter

[2]: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

Why yewtu.be was down: Data loss after being shut down by Oracle Cloud | Jul 2023

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It's an invidious instance: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious (actually https://github.com/yewtudotbe/invidious-custom since it has some custom patches)

YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers | May 2023

Invidious is a third-party frontend (you can self-host) that solves this problem: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

As a bonus, it is super fast because it doesn't have to justify the salaries of dozens (hundreds?) of frontend developers and can get away with server-side-rendered HTML and minimal amounts of Javascript.

Starship Flight Test (Launch in 1 hour) | Apr 2023

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It's an alternate front end to YT content without YT tracking or advertising. Works for some depending on reason.

More in-depth description here: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75% | Apr 2023

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Or stop using the crap YT frontent entirely - https://yewtu.be

Run your own alternate frontend - https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

Could audiobooks be the next frontier for advertising? | Apr 2023

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Use an alternative front end like Invidious [1] and you won't see any ads - yet.

I assume they will eventually start live-patching ads into the actual video streams and refuse to serve the rest of the stream unless the player has confirmed the ad has been shown. I can think of plenty ways how to achieve that so I guess the bottom feeders at those ad companies can do the same. If/when that happens it'll be bye-bye Youtube and any other venue which implements such measures.

[1] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

How to Live Without Google: Alternatives That Protect Your Privacy | Mar 2023

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Invidious is a solution: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

YouTube Doesn't “Get It” | Jan 2023

Just use a YT frontend like Invidious [1] and you're free from whatever shenanigans they pull. You can subscribe to whatever you want without their algorithms or cadre of trained gerbils or whatever they use getting a whiff of it. You don't need a YT account for this as it keeps its own subscription lists on your own server or that of whichever instance you use.

[1] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

YouTube Doesn't “Get It” | Jan 2023

https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

FreeTube – The Private YouTube Client | Nov 2022

I'm using a private [1] Invidious [2] instance on all platforms to gain access to Youtube content without feeding the beast more than needed. The advantage of something like Invidious is that it allows you to access subscriptions anywhere you can access the 'net instead of just on those platforms where you installed something like Freetube or Newpipe or any of the other alternative clients.

[1] private for now since my instance ended up being very popular in Japan for some reason, this being rather odd given that I live in Sweden. I'll keep it private for a few months and open it up again to see whether traffic remains within reasonable bounds.

[2] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

The free YouTube tier is about to become unbearable with even more ads | Sep 2022

Another option for those who don't/can't run ad blockers: Invidious (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious)

It's a proxy server for YouTube. You install this on a server from your choice and it serves a minimal YouTube-like UI without any ads or other obnoxiousness. You can test-drive it by using public instances but those are often overloaded so I recommend running your own.