From Newsgroup: alt.privacy
David LaRue wrote:
I have no experience with such tools. I've never needed them. YouTube is fully functional if you simply don't log in to anything before going there.
If you can watch this channel WITHOUT logging into YouTube, then you're a
lucky man because it won't let me without logging into a Google Account.
<
https://www.youtube.com/@DenysDavydov>
In other threads I described tricks (such as using specific VPN browser extensions) to get around that restriction, but I'd rather a client that
worked without asking me to prove I'm not a bot (which YouTube does).
At the worst you might want to grab any of the AdBlockers for your web client
as that will block all but the inline ads. Some things start and want to show an ad, but then immediately start over. After that there are no adds. I don't bother with FB or any other sites yhat want me to log in.
I don't think I've seen a YouTube ad in years but until just moments ago
I've never used Windows' YouTube replacement clients, as mostly I use
NewPipe on Android, which works so well you'll never use anything else.
<
https://newpipe.net>
Up until today, if I wanted to watch YouTube without ads and without
logging into Google (which always thinks we're a bot) I mirrored Android.
<
https://i.postimg.cc/5NrK7jtg/scrcpy16.jpg>
But today I wanted to just run a YouTube replacement app, native on the PC. After searching I listed the dozen YouTube replacements in the OP.
But after digging deeper, I decided I'd check these four in this order.
1. freetube
2. minitube
3. pstube
4. nativeyoutube
I chose FreeTube as the most likely best bet because of a few reasons, not
the least of which is no Google Account is required, and you can subscribe
to channels and manage playlists locally without signing in, without ads
since FreeTube has a built-in ad blocker which is said to block all types:
a. Pre-roll ads (before the video starts)
b. Mid-roll ads (interrupting the video)
c. Banner ads (overlaying the video)
d. Sidebar ads (on the YouTube page)
FreeTube also apparently has a SponsorBlock integration which is apparently
a community-powered tool that skips sponsored segments within videos. For example, when the video creator says something like "This video is brought
to you by..." or "Thanks to [Brand] for sponsoring..." or "Use my code for
10% off...", etc.
I also picked FreeTube because it's well maintained and it has full YouTube access and it's privacy-focused with no tracking, no cookies and optional anonymous streaming via proxy or Tor. It stores your subscriptions, history
and playlists locally, not in the cloud. And FreeTube is open source.
mkdir C:\software\editor\youtube_client\freetube
mkdir C:\app\editor\youtube_client\freetube
<
https://freetubeapp.io/>
<
https://freeotubeapp.io/#download>
Release 0.23.9 Beta
<
https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v0.23.9-beta/freetube-0.23.9-beta-win-x64-portable.zip
Name: freetube-0.23.9-beta-win-x64-portable.zip>
Size: 114222533 bytes (108 MiB)
SHA256: 03478A17C11069BCB613810AB10096DF4E119435E36C34F755793BF24B5311FC Create C:\menu\editor\youtube_client\freetube.lnk
Target: C:\app\editor\youtube_client\freetube\FreeTube.exe
At first I tried to get FreeTube working with a TOR proxy on top of a
Socks5 proxy (Psiphon) on top of system-wide VPN with a NekoBox middleman,
but it threw the following four errors so I turned everything off.
1. Local API error (click to copy); Error:
Error invoking remote method 'generate-po-tokens':
Error: Failed to fetch
2. Falling back to Invidious API
3. Error while communicating with Invidious companion:
Hostname lookup for invidious-companion failed:
No address found
4. Legacy formats are not available for this video
When I turned off the proxies and the VPNs, it worked fine, so it will take
me a while to hone the system so that I can later add IP obfuscation.
Out of curiousity, what do you get by logging in?
There are long threads on this topic. Many people can not view YouTube
videos without logging into YouTube because YouTube thinks they're a bot.
This is so well documented I'll just state the summary, which is the more private you are, the more YouTube thinks you're a bot, but if you're not private at all, then YouTube already has you in their database so it won't
ask you to log in just to watch a typical video such as this channel below.
<
https://www.youtube.com/@RFU>
If, when you go there and try to watch a video using the "normal" YouTUbe mechanism, and if it tells you that you're a bot, then you're private.
You're an enemy to Google if you have any privacy (like I have)...
If, on the other hand, it lets you watch the video, then you're already
deeply ensnared into Google's databases such that you're an old friend.
The usual answer is more ads and tracking of your activity!
Actually, with FreeTube, you are not the product. That's the whole point!
The point is that you use anonymous YouTube clients so as NOT to be tracked
(& so that you don't have to watch advertisements, nor to have to log in).
You are the product.
We have a long thread which pretty much discusses that anyone who says you
are the product for using freeware, doesn't;t have any clue about what the product is. It's typical of people to say that when they don't understand.
I can't blame them, actually.
People who say that have no clue that free products like Irfanview exist.
These people have no technical abilities who say that, so they say that so
that they can come to some kind of answer without thinking about it.
They're the same people who blame aliens for everything they can't
comprehend, where I don't blame them for trying desperately to understand things that they cannot understand, so they say "you are the product".
They understand that.
Just as much as they understand that the aliens made them say it. :)
Anyway, these are the ones that I'll test first, in this order, unless
someone knows more than I do (which shouldn't be hard) who suggests others.
1. freetube
2. minitube
3. pstube
4. nativeyoutube
--
The advantage of Usenet is you can ask people who know more than you do.
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