Introduction
Are you using the Google Chrome browser right now? Well, chances are that you are. Google Chrome has so many users. It is really the browser of first choice for so many people. It is easy to use and has a very simple interface. Moreover, it gives you the best browsing experience. You might already know the greatness of this browser and enjoying it. But did you know that there exists another browser called Chromium? In this article which is based on Google Chrome vs Google Chromium browser, you’re going to know all the basic differences between them, so read on.
What is Google Chromium anyway?
So you must be surprised that you’ve been using the Chrome browser since so long and haven’t even heard of Chromium. Google Chromium is actually a browser which comes from the Chromium project by Google. It is actually an open source project. Google Chromium was released in 2008. Google Chrome is based on Google Chromium but with some changes. In this article we are going to discuss some of these important changes.
Google Chromium can be downloaded for Windows 7 and later versions, OS X 10.10 and later, Android 4.1 and later, Linux and BSD. It uses the V8 engine as well as the Blink engine which is used by many popular applications today. To research further about Chromium you can visit Chromium.org which is the website for Chromium.
Why is Chromium called Chromium?
Actually there’s a sweet story behind how Chromium got its name. Chrome plating is a technique which is done using the metal Chromium. As Chrome is a final product of Chromium, it makes some sense that Chromium be called Chromium.
Google Chrome vs Chromium browser
Here are some of the main differences between Chrome and Chromium which might be important to you. Actually there’s a lot more you can do with Google Chrome in terms of general usage. Find it out by reading further.
Media content – You can play a wider variety of media file in the Chrome browser as it has a lot of licensed additional codecs which are not in the Chromium browser.
Crash reports – Google chromium is free from crash reports unlike Google Chrome. Google chrome keeps track of your usage statistics as well.
Updates – Google Chrome has the ability to automatically update itself whereas Google Chromium does not do the same.
The Chrome Web Store – This is an aspect where Chromium allows more liberty than Chrome. Suppose you want to add an extension out of the Google Chrome Web Store. In Chrome you cannot do it. Whereas, in Chromium browser, in the developer mode, you can add an extension which is not there in the Google Chrome Web Store.
Adobe flash – Adobe flash has a version called Pepper API which is there in Google Chrome. What it does is update the Adobe flash along with Chrome. So, if you’re updating your browser, you’re also updating Adobe flash.
Should you use Chrome or Chromium?
So here’s the real question. Should you really use Chromium? Is it worth using? Well, our answer is, it depends. There’s something you must consider before downloading Chromium out of excitement and curiosity.
For general use, the Chrome browser is better in our opinion. As you’ve read above, the Chrome browser has a lot of additional features added to it. Therefore, you might not find it easy to work with Chromium.
On the other hand, the plus point of Chromium is that it is open source. Chromium being open source can be put into a lot of Linux Distributions as they require their software to be open source.
But really, we would recommend you to download Google Chrome if you’re a general user.
A word of caution!
It is a hard task to find and download the official Chromium. There are many evil people out there who modify Chromium and put viruses in it. Once you download this, your computer gets infected. There’s no limit to how much damage can be done with this modified version of Chromium.
Also, you can have Chromium browser which has some extensions in it than can cause harm to you and your computer. Hence, one must be very careful with this browser. You have been warned.