Multiple distros considering removal of Chromium

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/l1xzah/multiple_distros_considering_removal_of_chromium/

by Macha • 6 years ago

5 3 6 years ago

snoshy2• 6 years ago

To clarify the cause: Google is essentially saying that Chromium will no longer support bookmark/password/history sync across browser installs, even though this has worked perfectly fine for years. Their claim is that sync support was always an "internal API" and that it's basically been an overlooked policy violation this whole time, which is now being "fixed" by disallowing distros from implementing it in Chromium. (Chromium is the open-source-only bits of Google Chrome.)

Chromium installs must clearly be an insignificant amount of the overall Chrome user base, but it's hard to not view this as yet another move from Google to neuter the open source Chromium project to push their own properties.

Gmail and Chrome (to a much lesser extent) have been in no small part about Google wanting to own your web identity. It's a clear part of the value proposition for a browser to remember your bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, credit cards and more across all of the devices that you use. Removing this support directly pushes users to Chrome, where Google can monetize all sorts of tracking activity through their proprietary bits. All of this reeks, and is hostile to the user community as well as to the Linux community.

ohiovr• 6 years ago

What will they do when Firefox is defunct and has no more active development?

snoshy2• 6 years ago

I fear that that moment is not all that far off, given the direction that Mozilla has been taking with respect to Firefox development recently.

Chrome might be playing hardball, but Mozilla seems determined to just walk away due to incompetent management.

Multiple distros considering removal of Chromium

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