Which means they don’t fucking understand how browsers work.
Anyone can make a new fork of chromium, Vivaldi has created their own ad and tracker blocking that doesn’t rely on Google or the manifest v3 change that broke ad blocking on chromium for everyone else.
You don’t have to rely on Google for shit if you’re committed to making the fork your own.
If that’s your metaphore, then the browser engine is the kernel. Have you ever seen a Linux distro forking the kernel and taking it into a different direction? It’s always just (relatively) minor changes, if any, so that keeping up with the upstream kernel is possible. Mostly a matter of built-in drivers, and a security feature here and there.
Is that not what Chromium is? An open source browser that anyone can adapt to suit their needs.
People are worried that Google controls the project. Anyone using Chromium is basically making their own version of Chrome but with extra features.
Which means they don’t fucking understand how browsers work.
Anyone can make a new fork of chromium, Vivaldi has created their own ad and tracker blocking that doesn’t rely on Google or the manifest v3 change that broke ad blocking on chromium for everyone else.
You don’t have to rely on Google for shit if you’re committed to making the fork your own.
And what happens when your fork diverges too much? That will be maintenance nightmare, good luck with that.
How is it any different from developing a new Linux distro?
If that’s your metaphore, then the browser engine is the kernel. Have you ever seen a Linux distro forking the kernel and taking it into a different direction? It’s always just (relatively) minor changes, if any, so that keeping up with the upstream kernel is possible. Mostly a matter of built-in drivers, and a security feature here and there.
It’s exactly what chromium is.
Claiming there’s a chromium monopoly is like claiming cars have an internal combustion engine monopoly.