The inherent problem with creating a new browser/platform is getting people to create addons/extensions for it.
If you don’t think Google could do this, think again. Google has an iron grip on the Chromium project.
From the beginning of its time with Google, Android was touted as THE open-source phone operating system. The Android Open Source Project was used by several projects to create their own version of Android.
Then at a certain point, Google introduced an app called Google Play Services. This app is not open source and contains all of the stuff you need to access Google’s services.
Google isn’t the best company around, but chromium was supposed to be chrome without the Google bits.
Derivatives were also unaffected, since most of them had their own sync solutions. I don’t see how this is a move to harm competitors.
The extension section was interesting, but restricting access to the store would probably mean another lawsuit, which Google has plenty of right now
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