Chromium is an open-source search browser project that underpins the Chrome web browser. But to learn what is Chromium Browser, we need to learn a lot.
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What is Chromium Browser?
When Google first released Chrome in 2008, they also introduced the Chromium source code – which Chrome is entirely based on as an open-source project. This open-source code is maintained by a project called Chromium, while Google itself maintains Chrome itself.
The biggest difference between these two browsers is that, while Chrome is based on Chromium, Google has also added a few Chrome-exclusive features such as updating and supporting some more automatically certain video formats. In addition, Google has also made a similar customer outreach move with Chromium OS. This open-source project makes its new browser platform – A new operating system that supports Chromebooks.
What features are available in Chrome but not in Chromium?
Google Chrome is built on Chromium, this is indisputable. But Google has also improved and added to Chrome many new features that Chromium did not have before. Additional features added on Google Chrome are as follows:
- Support for AAC, H.264 and MP3 formats: Chrome browser is licensed to use multimedia formats, supporting the use of many different file formats, diversifying your entertainment content. Especially sites that only use HTML5 video to play H.264 video. The basic file formats that both Chrome and Chromium browsers have are Opus, Theora, Vorbis, VP8, VP9 and WAV format.
- Adobe Flash (PPAPI): This feature has been integrated into Google Chrome for quite some time. This feature is the only way to update to the latest version of Flash on Linux operating systems. And even on Windows and Mac OS, you can also use Adobe Flash to replace the old versions currently available on the Adobe homepage. You can also install this Adobe Flash Plugin on Google Chrome and then install them into Chromium to use (if you’re interested).
- Google Update: Windows and Mac users are always supported with many applications and are constantly updated from Google Chrome. Only users on the Linux operating system will use their standard software management tools.
- Extension restrictions: With Chrome, Google has also removed many extensions that are not hosted on their web store.
- Sending notification of problems and errors: Chrome users can send statistics about problems or errors arising during use to Google to analyze and improve Chrome browser daily a better one.
- Sandbox protection: Google also notes that it is possible to disable the Security Sandbox feature on Chromium in some versions of the Linux operating system. Therefore, you will also want to redirect this Sandbox protection back to the Chromium browser so it can work as it should. This is one of the best features of Chromium (and Chrome) too.
Although Google does not use brand chromium, you should also note that it is still developing, according to Google. For example, Chromium also has the same data synchronization features that you can find on Chrome. You can completely log in with your Google account and sync your data on the Chromium browser.
Download Chromium browser
You can download Chromium on many different platforms by going to Google Chrome’s download page and then clicking the download Chromium button if you want.
Particularly on Linux operating systems, you can also install Chromium directly in the Linux-specific software application store. On Ubuntu Linux, for example, you can still install Chromium by opening the Ubuntu app center, then searching for “Chromium” and then clicking the install button as usual. Chromium will also be updated via security updates through the Linux software application.
On Windows and Mac, using Chromium will be a bit of a problem. You can still get official versions of Chromium but unfortunately they can only be manually updated without the Auto Update mechanism. This update is part of the closed source code from Google Chrome. You can also use software built from a third party or someone else’s, but it will not have automatic updates and must be sure that you have a little “trust” from the software surname. You can also create your version of Chromium, but are you sure that you will always change it every time there is another official update? Maybe “No”, right?
Is Chromium spyware?
Google Chrome includes features that support crash notifications that you can’t find on Chromium. If you choose to enable error reporting in Google Chrome, information about the problem will be automatically transmitted to Google. If you are using Chromium, these error messages will not appear and you will still receive an error message panel on an older interface. The Linux operating system can also customize the Chromium source code before it is sent to you. And if you are trying to limit bugs from Chrome, you should use the Chrome browser instead of Chromium.
Chromium also lacks the nice tracking and analytics features that can be found with Chrome. This is an optional feature that sends information about how you use your browser to Google, giving them a lot of information to make decisions based on the behaviour of website users. This is a type of analytical data that Microsoft used to use for a while before officially removing it from the Start Menu. Because according to Microsoft, no one uses this feature.
In the past, users were very worried because each Chrome browser would be identified by a unique client ID, but not with Chromium. And luckily, Google decided to stop doing this in 2010.
However, Chromium also includes many dependent features on Google Server, and those features are often installed by default. You can see these features right on Chromium’s settings page. These include an error-correcting web service that corrects incorrect web addresses, a prediction service, Google’s anti-phishing feature, and more.
Chrome vs Chromium – Which Browser Should You Use
Chromium is great because it allows the Linux operating system to request an open-source software to encapsulate a Chrome-like web browser and send it to its users. These Linux versions may even use Chromium as their default web browser in place of Firefox. If you are a person who likes to use open source software, Chromium will be a good choice for you.
However, many Linux users are not interested in open source, so they will want to install Chrome rather than Chromium. Installing Chrome gives you a better Flash application player when you need Flash and better support for large amounts of online multimedia content.
The most obvious example: When using Google Chrome on Linux operating system, you can live stream videos on Netflix. Because Chrome supports H.264 for HTML5 Video, which is not available on Chromium browser.
So will you use Google Chrome or Chromium? If you are using Windows or Mac OS, the choice is probably too obvious. Chromium is too inconvenient to use on Windows and Mac – Because you absolutely cannot receive official updates automatically. If you are using Linux operating system, Chromium is a great choice.
