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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.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Marand on Wednesday January 27 2021, @04:05PM (4 children)
But only if you want to use it on amd64 hardware running Linux, Windows, or macOS. So anybody using distro-provided Chromium builds on, say, BSD or a Raspberry Pi will be out of luck and need to find an alternative because apparently Google's a poor cash-strapped startup that lacks the necessary resources to compile for more than one architecture.
I have a Raspberry Pi 400 I've been goofing off with because I like the idea of having a small plug-in-anywhere backup system and if Chromium's dropped, which is looking likely, that basically leaves Firefox or closed-source Vivaldi as the viable options there. Though even if Google started providing builds I'd probably still prefer Vivaldi, even without source, over trusting Google's Chromium builds.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Wednesday January 27 2021, @05:19PM
Vivaldi at least has fully viewable source because their development language is JS. I doubt they add anything significant to C++ in chromium source. The main beef is that Vivaldi devs are unwilling to involve community with actual development by having hidden issue trackers/version control systems, assuming they use version control even. They don't seem to be too up-to-date on this stuff.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 27 2021, @05:24PM (2 children)
You can still use the original Netscape, to this day the best browser ever made. You know where to find it, right?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2021, @10:09PM (1 child)
Actually, you can't. Everything forces https now and nothing branded as "Netscape" has new enough crypto to talk to a modern webserver. Then you run into html5 everything and Netscape only talks html 4.0.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 27 2021, @11:18PM
You see the name. I see the machine [seamonkey-project.org]. It is Netscape on the inside, where it counts
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..