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Comment by AnthonyMouse | Hacker News Reader

The most popular web browsers are open source. Android is open source and the extent that it isn't is the extent that they're running into anti-trust claims. A sizable chunk of the population uses ad blockers.

"People don't care" is at best defeatism and at worst explicit propaganda designed to discourage people from making the attempt. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It works more often when you try than when you don't.

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The most popular web browsers use open source, but none of Chrome, Edge, or Safari are open source web browsers. They are proprietary freeware.

The difference between Chrome and Chromium is that Chrome is marginally worse but largely identical. People mostly install Chrome instead of Chromium by accident because Google markets Chrome and they don't know that Chromium exists and the differences are things they don't strongly care about.

But if Chrome ever started doing something they don't like and actually care about, anyone could instantly switch to Chromium and the only difference they'd notice is that it's not doing the thing they don't like anymore.

Sure, but that statement, while true, does not make Chromium one of 'the most popular web browsers.'

Doesn't it? It's the same codebase as Chrome, and not in the sense that they used to be. They still are. Changes to one go into the other. And that code is open source, so anybody who doesn't like what Google is doing with it can create a fork, just like with any other open source project.

Arguing that it isn't because the most popular distribution has some proprietary bits in it is like arguing that it isn't because the most popular operating system it runs on is Windows. It doesn't change the fact that if the browser defects against you, you can fork it.

As you wrote, it is not the same code base. It "has some proprietary bits."

People have forked it. Is ungoogled Chromium the same codebase as Chrome? What about the Vanadium? Brave? Edge? Opera?

Darwin is (or "was" as it no longer really exists) not macOS either, even though changes in macOS went into Darwin.

The relevant distinction is, is it different enough to have to care? If Chrome suddenly adopts some offensive behavior, how much trouble is it to use Chromium instead? And it's easy.

Whereas if you want to use Darwin instead of macOS, it will be missing some things you're immediately going to notice, like the macOS GUI.

No, it is not.

For those who want to avoid Google altogether, switching to Chromium does not solve those issues. From https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/09/open_source_unbranded...

"there are 50 or so Google services that have been integrated in the Chromium code base."

"The services are free but have commercial value by providing data that can be used to inform advertising and marketing algorithms, or in some cases, such as Google Pay, have more obvious benefit to the provider."

> switching to Chromium does not solve those issues.

But it allows them to be solved. Then if you don't like Google services, you can remove them, as some have done:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungoogled-chromium

Which I have already pointed out.

But then I'm not sure what your objection is.

You wrote "The most popular web browsers are open source."

That is not true. I replied: "The most popular web browsers use open source, but none of Chrome, Edge, or Safari are open source web browsers."

Chromium is not one of the popular web browsers.

If it is, tell me how many people use it compared to Chrome.

I also asked "Is ungoogled Chromium the same codebase as Chrome? What about Vanadium? Brave? Edge? Opera?"

While android base is open source(and I appreciate google for that), no major phone vendor uses exclusively open source components. They always adds own proprietary apps and services also most of the time google's. IMO no better than an iphone.

That's the anti-trust thing.

If Google still wanted to "don't be evil" they'd switch to a license that requires OEMs to allow the user to install custom Android forks on the device.

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