What is the difference between Chrome and Chromium ?

Chrome and Chromium

Have you ever wondered about Chrome or Chromium browser and what is the difference between them ?Chromium is an open source browser developed and maintained by the Chromium project.

The private web browser was first launched in 2008, and its various parts were released under various free software licenses that include the BSD license

(for the part written by Google) and the MIT license, And LGPL and others for the other parts, while Google Chrome browser is a web browser developed and maintained by the technology giant Google .

Chrome is an open source web browser that uses Chromium source code and adds a bunch of features developed by Google and some non-free components.

What is the difference between Google Chrome and Chromium browser?

Google Chrome Google Chrome, also released in 2008, The reason Chrome and Chromium are related to each other is that the Google Chrome browser borrows the Chromium source code, and you can distinguish Chrome and Chromium by looking at their logo, Chrome is colored and Chromium is blue, however This is not the only difference between chromium and chromium.

The difference between Chrome and Chromium

1- Automatic Updates

Google Chrome browser uses Google Update on Windows, to automatically update to the latest version, and this is not available for Chromium browser, only in some Linux distributions, and updates are provided through so-called package repositories, and Google Update is also used for other applications such as Google Earth .

2- Usage tracking and crash reports

Unlike Chromium, Google has added crash reports and sends usage statistics options on Google Chrome browser, Chrome sends data to Google servers, and it includes general data such as information about your device, operating system, Chrome settings, websites visited that contain malware, search queries, etc. This allows Google to provide you with relevant suggestions, results, and ads, and can disable crash reporting and usage tracking and crash reporting from Chrome settings .

3- Chrome Web Store

On Google Chrome, the functionality to add extensions is disabled outside the Chrome Web Store on all Windows and Mac channels, however extensions can be added via developer mode .

4- Media Codec support

The audio/video codec support for HTML5 in Chromium is limited to what is available as unregistered codecs like Theora, Vorbis, WebM, VP9, etc., and in the case of Chrome it adds support for some non-free stuff like AAC, MP3, and H.264 (free now) .

5- Non-optional tracking

The Google Chrome installer includes a token randomly, the token is sent to Google after the installation is completed to measure the success rate, Google uses the RLZ ID to track a user while searching in Google and using the address bar, The RLZ ID stores information - in the form of encrypted strings, and does not include any Personal information is used to measure the effectiveness of the promotional campaign .

Which Is Better, Chrome or Chromium?

It's hard to decide which choice you want between open source Chromium and Google Chrome's rich features. For Windows, it's best to use Google Chrome since Chromium doesn't come as a stable version and this applies to Mac as well. In the case of Linux, which is known for its love of free and open source software. Chromium might be a better option, but you'll have to live with the fact that it doesn't update automatically, and lacks Adobe Flash Plugin and other media codecs .

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