What is Chromium Without Chrome on Top?

What exactly is raw Chromium?

Chrome, as we know, is built upon the open-source Chromium project. The difference? Chrome incorporates Google's proprietary additions. And there are many! A few years back, The Verge published an article, "Microsoft reveals all the Google things it removed in its Chromium Edge browser," showcasing a Microsoft graphic detailing these components.

This graphic suggests that these elements are integral to Chromium itself, not simply added to Chrome later. Therefore, creating a Chromium-based browser independent of Google requires significant effort in removing these components.

Several major players have undertaken this task. Microsoft, for example, has done so with Edge. Vivaldi and Brave are other prominent Chromium-based browsers that have likely undergone similar "de-Googlification."

Dan Abramov recently highlighted this point in a discussion:

This exchange reveals that Chromium isn't simply a core browser with Chrome adding features. Instead, building on Chromium necessitates removing Google-specific elements.

This might seem unusual, but as it's open-source, forking is an option. And many have, most notably ungoogled-chromium. Their philosophy is straightforward:

1. Eliminate all background requests to Google web services during build and runtime.
2. Remove all code tied to Google web services.
3. Replace pre-built binaries with user-provided alternatives whenever possible.
4. Disable features hindering control and transparency, and enhance features promoting them (often requiring manual activation).

The browser landscape is undeniably converging on Chromium. While Apple might continue using WebKit, Mozilla's future seems uncertain. Their funding often originates from Google, making the long-term viability of their independent browser engine questionable. Feel free to call me wrong in January 2032 if Mozilla still maintains a competitive browser engine.

A cleaner, vendor-neutral Chromium (perhaps with a different name) would significantly benefit the browser ecosystem. While a Chromium foundation is acceptable, innovation thrives on a level playing field.

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