this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Am I the only one who doesn't get the hate on chromium? I mean it's fast, it works and nobody forces you to use Google's proprietary chrome. You can use anything you want
Manifest V3 and WEI
Well they don't directly force you to use it, but when basically all of the most popular browsers (including the default browser of Windows) are Chromium based, that means that developers optimize their sites for that first and foremost. And combined with Google's amp protocol, which adds control for them, it means that they can dictate many terms for these other companies. It's like sure, you can use Vimeo to upload your video, but who the hell is gonna see it when there's YouTube? Same thing here, why use some other standard (such as what Firefox is doing) when the support for Chromium is that much greater, even though it's more restrictive in others.
Laughs in Internet Explorer 6
Google, or let say the Chromium group, can easily implement "features" that are already present in proprietary Google Chrome, and easily control the Internet and its users' personalized settings.
Indeed, Chromium-built browsers have smooth user experience and simplicity, but at what cost?
Competition will be dead.
Can't third parties modify the source code?
Yes but no, there are 2 options you either submit a commit and chromium can accept that code or you fork the project and then you have to maintain it and add features yourself. So while they could it would require a ton more effort to keeping it up to datw
Then if this is such a pressing issue why has no one done so? I'd expect such a high number of people shitting on google to have the combined power to at least try to make a fork. But idk
It's just the scale of the project and perhaps something is already being discussed but it's an incredibly high workload plus it wouldn't actually solve the issue that basically everything uses chromium and even if you fork it people might not use the fork anyways
IMHO nobody sane hates a technology.
The big problem is Chromes and Googles dominance over the internet. Even at this moment, there are sites that don't work with Firefox/alternate browsers at all.
Stating that people can use alternative browsers is theoretically correct, but in reality one is forced to have a Chromium based browser installed for the websites/services one has to access. (My main browser is Firefox and I have a Chromium backup browser on every device, not by my choice.)
Combine this with the push of Google to prevent adblocking and centralize control of the internet at one place, and we are on our way to a real shit show.
You can happily search for the history of Internet Explorer in the 2000s, for a taste of what is yet to come.
In case Googles agenda has not affected you, yet, you should really ponder if
a.) Googles agenda will never affect you negatively in the future b.) Googles agenda will never affect people you care about in the future
In the end, I don't hate Chrome, Chromium or any other browser based on this technology. I really don't like the direction things are developing and I remember the monopolies of the past in IT, which were only of benefit for the monopolists.
So basically the problem is google itself, not chromium
Okay. But google controls chromium, and everything that goes in it. And they're using that control to change how the internet works. So just saying that "chromium is a problem" can be considered a useful shorthand so you don't have to explain that every time.
Photoshop isn't a bad product but adobe sucks
I'm not sure what you mean exactly but I think you might be missing the point. Google is using chromium's ubiquity to exert control over how the internet works. Chromium being so ubiquitous makes it so web servers can lock out other web browsers.
If you want the entire internet to work like an adobe product, where one company has absolute control over it, then yeah your analogy works. But the whole point is people don't want that.
What I mean is that chromium (essentially) has a monopoly on browser market share, similar with Photoshop. I don't mean it's a good thing when it's like that, but it doesn't make them bad products