Chrome For Android Is Now Almost Entirely Open Source

jones_supa writes: After lots of work by Chrome for Android team and a huge change, Chrome for Android is now almost entirely open source, a Google engineer announced in Reddit. Over 100,000 lines of code, including Chrome's entire user interface layer, has been made public, allowing anyone with the inclination to do so to look at, modify, and build the browser from source. Licensing restrictions prevent certain media codecs, plugins and Google service features form being included, hence the "almost." This is on par with the open source Chromium browser that is available on the desktop.

Comments

Extensions

[Ultra64]

Does this mean someone will enable extension support?

Re:Extensions

[PvtVoid]

Check your "Tools" menu. It's the item called "Extensions".

Oh, right, Android. Please downmod me to oblivion.

Re:Almost?

[blueshift_1]

Agreed. There is naturally still a place for proprietary software in today's business. However, it's good to see companies making their black boxes a bit smaller.

F-droid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we expect the Chromium browser in F-droid now?
That would be fantastic!

Re:F-droid?

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

Fennec FDroid seems to work fine for me, I'm not sure what I would get from Chromium Android that I don't already get from this. (Not saying chromium shouldn't be included too, if it's feasible, just not sure it'd be any better than what's already available).

Re:Almost?

[Kjella]

It means it's closed source!

Missing codecs: AAC, H.264, MP3
Missing plug-in: flash

So either patents or not their code, if you got a good solution for that I'm sure Google would like to hear it.

Re:Why should I be excited?

[phoenix_rizzen]

Because Chromium isn't in the Google Play Store, so you can't "just get" it?

There's an unofficial, test, "use at your own risk", "untested" APK that one can download from the Chromium website and side-load onto their Android device. But that's a lot more difficult than just installing it via Play Store.

Re:"allowing anyone with the inclination to do so"

[allquixotic]

Then don't.

3rd party cookies

[bunglebungle]

Can someone finally put the setting to disallow third-party cookies back?

Fork with extensions support

[allquixotic]

I think the mainline Chrome for Android will never support extensions because they want to avoid opening up the "Pandora's Box" that will eventually lead to one of the popular adblockers showing up for Chrome on Android. And since they have such a huge installed base of phones running Chrome, there is a huge financial incentive for them to disallow adblocking extensions for Chrome.

Now that it's open source, I would be greatly appreciative if someone could work on a version of Chrom(ium/e) for Android that has either extensions support, or built-in support for AdBlock-style blocking (i.e., don't even make the HTTP request if the URL or DOM element matches a pattern).

I want the (admittedly superior) performance of the optimized Blink layout engine and V8 JS engine, which no other browsers (that also offer extensions or ad-blocking built-in) offer; I also want the Google-specific blobs (Chromecast in particular); and I want/need AdBlock. Lacking this, I just end up using Firefox for Android, which has decent performance but not great, and has several site compatibility issues that Chrome doesn't for some reason.

It'd be awesome to see an adblocking fork of Chrome have a larger number of users than "mainline" Chrome.

Re:Fork with extensions support

[LoneBoco]

Are you using AdBlock Plus for Firefox or uBlock? ABP might be a little too intensive for a mobile CPU and you might be better served with uBlock on your phone. I personally use uBlock on Firefox for Android and I don't have any performance issues, but that's just me.

Re:Fork with extensions support

[allquixotic]

I switched over to uBlock about a month and a half ago, and it didn't noticeably improve performance. Chrome just renders the page faster. I have no idea how. It's magic. And when I say Chrome is faster, I mean it's faster *with ads* than Firefox *without ads*. You'd think the one that has less network and drawing work to do would be faster. A few string comparisons is nothing next to the amount of work that needs to be done to actually load those ads.

I'm using a Note 4, so there is ample CPU and RAM.

Re:Fork with extensions support

[thegarbz]

If you use hosts based blocking you end up nuking 99% of what you hit with using a typical browser. Best of all it also stops crappy little ads in apps, reduces your phone's data usage, and no need for extensions.

Re:Almost?

[sexconker]

It means it's closed source!

Missing codecs: AAC, H.264, MP3
Missing plug-in: flash

So either patents or not their code, if you got a good solution for that I'm sure Google would like to hear it.

Exclude that shit, and Google's other "service features" shit.
Allow users to install those as plugins if they wish.

TADA!!!!!!!

Re:"allowing anyone with the inclination to do so"

[kthreadd]

What if I don't want to?

It's a suboptimal choice of words. You're still allowed even if you don't want it.

Now Almost Entirely Open Source

[ArcadeMan]

Well, get back to us when it's entirely open source, otherwise this is non-news. That's like a news crew reporting that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is almost falling down.

Re:Almost?

[ArcadeMan]

Chrome for Android has never supported Flash.

As an Apple fanboy, does it mean I am allowed to ridicule Chrome for Android?

P.S.: I hated Flash way before Steve Jobs, so he was the one to copy me.

Re:Almost?

[afgam28]

They did "exclude that shit". That's what chromium is.

How long are you willing to wait?

[tepples]

A Chromium build that has full feature parity with Google Chrome might have to wait another decade until certain MPEG patents expire.

Re:Almost?

[ron_ivi]

Then market that as the primary product, and give a goofy name to the "chromium-plus-adobe-backdoors-plus-patents" product.

Re:Almost?

[Gavagai80]

The market decides what the primary product is. 99% of us want the adobe backdoors and patents and don't want to be forced to work for them.

Re:Almost?

[AmiMoJo]

So basically all the crappy bits you don't want on mobile anyway are missing. What a shame.

Re:Almost?

[thegarbz]

Yeah I too have always wanted a browser that makes me go and install endless additional shit every time I open up a new website.

Re:Almost?

[aglider]

chromium != chrome

Re:Almost?

[greenfruitsalad]

it's like saying "i was almost entirely faithful to you darling"