Is Google Locking Down Chrome to Resist the Rise of Chromium Based Browsers? - It's FOSS News
news.itsfoss.com
Google is limiting the capability of Chromium. Is it because Chromium-based browsers have started to eat into Google Chrome's marketshare?

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.

  • zeroaesthetic
    282·
    4 years ago

    Years ago, I would have recommended Firefox as a good alternative option. However, in the last couple of years, the Mozilla Foundation has been speaking more and more favorably of censorship.

    🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

    • AgreeableLandscape
      11·
      4 years ago

      This is a problem I see in privacy circles a lot. Yes, Mozilla definitely has a lot of problems, but people immediately start saying that it’s just as bad as Google and/or that you should use a Firefox version that’s entirely forked and not dependent on the upstream Mozilla repo or something.

      IMO, at most use Fennec F-droid and IceCat (which still rely on the upstream Mozilla code) if you can’t stand Mozilla, but to say that they’re just as bad as Google is just wrong.

        • JohnBlood
          6·
          4 years ago

          I mentioned Widevine in the article. They came out and said they don’t support open source.

          • datendefekt
            2·
            4 years ago

            I’m a bit on the fence regarding WideVine. It is important to keep everything open, but broad adoption is also important. Not implementing DRM would make Firefox unusable for many users.

    • Nevar
      23·
      4 years ago

      deleted by creator

      • zeroaesthetic
        31·
        4 years ago

        What are you talking about and what does that have to do with my comment?

        • Nevar
          13·
          4 years ago

          deleted by creator

          • zeroaesthetic
            21·
            4 years ago

            That still has nothing to do with the comment I left that you replied to. Find somewhere else to soapbox.

            • Nevar
              24·
              4 years ago

              deleted by creator

              • zeroaesthetic
                2·
                4 years ago

                Oh, okay. Then the response I’m looking for is,

                🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

                • Nevar
                  13·
                  4 years ago

                  deleted by creator

  • AgreeableLandscape
    11·
    4 years ago

    Is Google Locking Down Chrome to Resist the Rise of Chromium Based Browsers?

    Yes?

    • Adda
      71·
      4 years ago

      I am afraid that Gemini is not the answer in this case. Gemini is not supposed to replace the Web, it is supposed to coexist along the Web, meant for different use cases. One couldn’t host Lemmy on Gemini for example. If we want to find an alternative, we would need to look elsewhere, as far as I know.

            • Adda
              3·
              4 years ago

              Deedum works on Android too, but there are many other applications if necessary, e.g. Ariane.

        • Adda
          2·
          4 years ago

          I agree. This is exactly what was missing in my reply and I should have thought about that. Having an option to escape walled gardens is just as important, even if for example Gemini is not sufficient to replace the modern Web entirely.

          You could mirror lemmy on gemini

          Ye, but not communicate easily, allow multiple users to post etc. In general, if I am not mistaken, the problem with Gemini would be its passive, read-only nature from the point of view of a capsule’s visitor (not creator).

            • Adda
              2·
              4 years ago

              OK, that seems interesting. Maybe Gemini could be capable of even more than I anticipated then. Will have to look into that.

  • riccardo
    8·
    4 years ago

    What would happen to these Chromium-based browsers if Google blocked their access to the Google Chrome Store? Without access to their familiar tools, would they stay with Brave or Edge? I think many would switch back to Chrome because people tend to choose the path of least resistance.

    Is the author talking about a scenario which is not yet reality but that is being hinted by some recent moves from Google - or it’s just pure speculation? Has Google somehow manifested the will to block chromium forks from accessing its extensions store?

    • zeroaesthetic
      8·
      4 years ago

      It’s hypothetical, I think, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened a year or two down the line.

  • Elbullazul
    4·
    4 years ago

    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