Ungoogled-chromium explained

ungoogled-chromium
Logo Size:	64px
Developer:	Eloston and other hobbyists, collectivly called "Ungoogled Software"^[1] ^[2]

ungoogled-chromium is a free and open-source variant of the Chromium web browser that removes all Google-specific web services.^{[3] [4] [5]} It achieves this with a series of patches applied to the Chromium codebase during the compilation process. The result is functionally similar to regular Chromium.^[6]

Features

• Disabling functionality that requires Google domains, including Google Safe Browsing.^[7]
• Replacing Google web domains with non-existent domains, and blocking internal requests to those domains.^[7]
• Removing binary blobs from the Chromium code and replacing them with custom alternatives.^[7]
• Adding dozens of flags to change browser behavior that is otherwise unconfigurable.^[7]

Some features of regular Chromium do not work the same on ungoogled-chromium. For example, a special browser extension, called chromium-web-store, is required to install other extensions from the Chrome Web Store.^[8]

History

The ungoogled-chromium project was founded by a hobbyist with the user name Eloston in 2015. It was first developed for Linux, then for other operating systems.^{[9] [10]} Eloston used to release builds, but eventually he stopped doing so and allowed others to provide builds with his patches.

Starting in 2019, Eloston greatly reduced his involvement in the project, and other developers have continued to maintain the patches.^[1] In 2022, the GitHub repository was transferred from Eloston's personal account to a new "ungoogled-software" account.^[11]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Contributors to ungoogled-software/Ungoogled-chromium . GitHub . 21 April 2021.
2. Web site: Download Ungoogled Chromium Binaries . 4 August 2024.
3. Web site: Cimpanu. Catalin. UnGoogled Chromium Removes All the Googley Parts from Chromium. 2021-05-14. Softpedia. 16 October 2016 . english.
4. Web site: Tim. Anderson. When open source isn't enough: Fancy a de-Googled Chromium? How about some Microsoft-free VS Code?. 2021-01-24. www.theregister.com. en.
5. Web site: Duino. Justin. 2016-09-30. 'Ungoogled' is the Chrome browser you love minus the Google. 2021-01-24. 9to5Google. en-US.
6. Web site: Ungoogled Chromium. 2021-02-13. TechSpot. en-US.
7. Web site: GitHub Readme Feature Overview. GitHub. 2024-01-21.
8. Web site: chromium-web-store . GitHub. 2023-12-14.
9. Web site: 2016-08-11 . Release 51.0.2704.106-2 · ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium . 2022-10-04 . GitHub . en.
10. Web site: 2016-09-03 . Release 51.0.2704.106-3 · ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium . 2022-10-04 . GitHub . en.
11. Web site: GitHub discussion . . This repo is now part of ungoogled-software.