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What's the Deal with Chromium on Linux? Google at Odds with Package Maintainers

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 27 2021, @03:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the browser-non-grata dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Linux users are more likely than most to be familiar with Chromium, Google's the free and open source web project that serves as the basis for their wildly popular Chrome. Since the project's inception over a decade ago, users have been able to compile the BSD licensed code into a browser that's almost the same as the closed-source Chrome. As such, most distributions offer their own package for the browser and some even include it in the base install. Unfortunately, that may be changing soon.

[...] To the average Chromium user, this doesn't sound like much of a problem. In fact, you might even assume it doesn't apply to you. The language used in the post makes it sound like Google is referring to browsers which are spun off of the Chromium codebase, and at least in part, they are. But the search giant is also using this opportunity to codify their belief that the only official Chromium builds are the ones that they provide themselves. With that simple change, anyone using a distribution-specific build of Chromium just became persona non grata.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/01/26/whats-the-deal-with-chromium-on-linux-google-at-odds-with-package-maintainers/

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 27 2021, @03:30PM (9 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 27 2021, @03:30PM (#1105490) Homepage Journal

    I've not figured out why I even want to sync my stuff. Use Google's servers to store my data, so they can mine it more efficiently? Preposterous. I can do the same for myself with a USB drive for laptops and desktops. Portable devices? I can sit in front of my desktop, and sync the phone to it, without Google's help.

    I'd be just as happy if the code wasn't in the browser. That way, I'm sure it's not syncing on it's own, behind my back.

    Maybe Firefox will drop syncing capability as well, because it's a potential invasion of privacy?

    --
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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @03:40PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @03:40PM (#1105495)

    Yeah, this seems like a great move. Something seems fishy with the story, and I'm not sure I fully believe that packagers are all that outraged about sync not being available. I suspect some ulterior motives for this 'media' story that's been floating around.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Thursday January 28 2021, @02:28AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Thursday January 28 2021, @02:28AM (#1105820) Homepage

      Maybe to get us all outraged, so we'll "demand" sync everywhere, and Google can "give in", thus ensuring that their snooping functions won't be dropped by future spinoff browsers.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bart9h on Wednesday January 27 2021, @08:28PM (4 children)

    by bart9h (767) on Wednesday January 27 2021, @08:28PM (#1105662)

    I use Firefox sync, and find it very convenient.

    But of course, convenience is orthogonal to security.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @03:31AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @03:31AM (#1105854)

      Orthogonal means at right angle (90 deg) to something, or unrelated to something because it is not on the same axis.
      Surely what you meant was security and convenience are in opposition, i.e., different ends on the same axis.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @08:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @08:44AM (#1105968)

        Which is not completely true.

      • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:34PM

        by bart9h (767) on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:34PM (#1106056)

        yeah, yeah, something like that

      • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:49PM

        by Pino P (4721) on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:49PM (#1106064) Journal

        I see convenience and security as 135 degrees* opposed. Anything that increases one is likely to decrease the other unless it is particularly well aimed.

        * Guesstimate

  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:46PM (1 child)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday January 28 2021, @01:46PM (#1106063) Journal

    I can do the same for myself with a USB drive for laptops and desktops. Portable devices? I can sit in front of my desktop, and sync the phone to it, without Google's help.

    If doing it yourself involves manual use of file managers with USB storage between desktop or laptop computers or MTP on phones, I can think of two drawbacks to that.

    1. A cloud sync daemon is less likely to accidentally replace a newer version of a file with an older version than dragging and dropping folders in the operating system's stock file manager. It can also detect when a file has been modified separately on two separate machines and prompt the user to merge them.
    2. Web browsers and mobile applications tend to store site-specific data in a database file rather than in discrete files in the file system. This is because file systems tend to round each file's size up to a 4096-byte cluster, which is quite wasteful for (say) a 100-byte cookie identifying your most recent session on a site, a 100-byte URL in your bookmarks, or a 100-byte saved password. The operating system's stock file manager doesn't know the semantics of this database file in order to perform a line-item merge.

    What local sync method have you settled on? Can it work across devices running X11/Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android?