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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 meustrus on Wednesday January 27 2021, @04:09PM (3 children)
Apparently, [subject].
All this hullaballoo over a feature that freedom-oriented hackers should have already been suspicious of. Why should anyone expect to use Google's cloud services for free? Why would you want to? Do you think multi-billion corporations just like giving away free stuff for no reason?
Access to Google's sync APIs should only have ever been a stopgap while other syncing solutions were developed. But as others have pointed out, there's no market for other syncing solutions when Google's is free.
Oh well. It's not the end of the world. I really hope chromium doesn't get pulled from repos because of this. It would send a really bad signal that the open source world isn't interested in Chromium being open anymore.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday January 27 2021, @06:42PM
Even if Google was the "do no evil" corporation they once claimed themselves to be, giving stuff away for "free" will always hinge on whether or not they still want to support the technology involved. If one was to base a large proportion of what they do on using such a service, they will never get a guarantee that said service wouldn't suddenly be dropped or changed one day to attract a growing market with different needs. If one's data is essential and important, one had better come up with a better way rather than bank on the whims of someone else. You won't find such free for long.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 27 2021, @07:30PM (1 child)
I have a vague memory of an addon for Firefox, that did syncing, years ago. The memory is vague, I believe it was even before Chrome existed. It was something I glanced at, played with for a day or six, then trashed it from my system. The ability to run a synching system certainly doesn't depend on Google's API. The problem is, the two rival giants in the browser market have taken the idea and run with it, and drowned out the early developer(s).
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 27 2021, @07:49PM
Then good news, they implemented it into the browser as a core feature! #hahaonlyserious
Because it's not like Firefox is supposed to be a stripped-down version of the Mozilla Suite or anything.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"