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Discussion on: New Machine; New Browser

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Ryan Smith

I think it could happen, but I don't think it will just yet. I think the fears may be based on historical reasons. I do not see any indication that Chromium is adding proprietary, non-standard features in its rendering engines or adding shady things to it (I haven't looked at the source, but I trust that I would see the uproar if that did happen). If Chromium departs from standards, everyone will see it happening because the source code is available. If Google neglects the upkeep of Chromium, there is a community to help. I'm not sure of the licensing for it, but I believe companies can also fork their own version of it and distribute it.

It is definitely good to think about though. From a historical standpoint, Internet Explorer was dominant and from a lot of people's perspectives, that ended up hurting the web. I do not believe it is fair to throw shade on Microsoft for that, they built a browser that shipped with the most popular operating system. There wasn't a great alternative until Firefox and Chrome came around.

Android is another open-source project by Google. Phone manufacturers have their own versions of it. Open-source communities have their own versions. I think Chromium can be similar in that way.