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It’s so bad I can basically only watch YouTube on my computer with Adblock. It would be helpful if YouTube premium weren’t $15 per month.

Personally, the alternatives to youtube simply don't have a big enough amount of creators I watch.

I've settled on NewPipe on Android and FreeTube on linux, since both are really nice FOSS clients providing a good Youtube experience without the ads.

Also have a Nebula subscription since the majority of creators I watch on YouTube have a profile there

There's Revanced if you use Android, SmartTube for AndroidTV, on pc the best solution is Firefox with UblockOrigin+Sponsorblock (I also use Enhancer for Youtube).
Also saw some mentions about Peertube, I think it's something like Youtube for the fediverse but I haven't really checked it.

Ok, So far FreeTube is working well - I can subscribe to all my favorites. I will probably be using Freetube, at least until Youtube finds a way to squash it.

I read yesterday (I forget where, I can try to find the article if you want) that a YouTube video only has to be 8-10 minutes long before they put an ad in the middle, and they reward creators for making videos that length. The vast majority of creators on YouTube make almost no money, but even a tiny financial incentive affects people's behavior.

Personally, I just pay for ad-free YouTube, since there are a lot of small channels I like, including some that serve as useful background noise for me, so I find it worth the investment. I use it enough that I think the company would get more money by serving me ads than they do from my subscription, and if it ever stops meeting my needs, I'll stop paying. It certainly wouldn't meet my needs if they served me an ad every 4-5 minutes.

PeerTube, though there aren't many users. Have you looked into piped for YouTube?

I use Firefox with UBlock and I don't see any ads on Youtube. You should try this.

As for a fediverse version of YouTube there's peertube, but realistically hosting video is more expensive and you would never see a collection as large as YouTube on the fediverse IMO.

My solution appears to be a bit unique, at least on the deskfop.

I have four extensions on my Librewolf browser. Ublock, NoScript, Alter, and Chameleon.

Additionally, I use newsboat rss reader which reads a list of youtube rss urls from a simple txt file. This keeps my youtube subscriptions without subbing on google's platform. Whenever I open one of these rss feeds via newsboat, Librewolf opens and uses the Alter extension to redirect to an Invidious instance. Ublock and Noscript block everything. Chameleon feeds a fake fingerprint to invidious as well. The invidious url remains in tact. I copy this url.

In a terminal on Linux, I invoke yt-dlp on this url. I include a sponsorblock flag that literally cuts out the mention of sponsors and the sponsored content. I watch it with mpv/devour, often including the captions as well.

On my GrapheneOS phone, its more simple, i just use Libretube which has sponsorblock turned on. To avoid ads otherwise I use mull browser with ublock, noscript, and a few other about:config settings. I also bypass paywalls for major news sites using ublock and a list I yoinked from somewhere on github.

Agreed, and Twitch is even worse. I avoid streamers that run ads all the time.

While there are Federated youtube alternatives (Peertube comes to mind) they will usualy have even less content then Odysee. A better way is to use an alternative frontend/app like Newpipe or Youtube Revanced.

Free tube is a porn site, don't listen to this person if you are at work