Ungoogled Chromium

★★★☆☆

For Chrome, Google takes the Chromium project as a base and adds more connections to Google services. Ungoogled Chromium goes the other direction: it removes everything that connects to Google services (including the “Ad Topics” that would track you in the browser). This is great for privacy! But it also removes things like Safe Browsing and syncing. (I have gotten bookmark sync working with Floccus.)

You also have to jump through hoops to install extensions, since it doesn’t trust the Chrome Web Store! You have to either install and update extensions manually, or manually install another extension that will connect to the web store. The bookmarklet on that page is a convenient way to download an extension from its store page, and I’m copying it here for easy reference:

javascript:location.href='https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&acceptformat=crx2,crx3&prodversion='+(navigator.appVersion.match(/Chrome\/(\S+)/)[1])+'&x=id%'+'3D'+(document.querySelector('a[href^="./detail"][href$="/report"]').pathname.match(/([^\/]+)\/report$/)[1])+'%'+'26installsource%'+'3Dondemand%'+'26uc';

A few quirks: It’s crashed a couple of times even in the short time I’ve been using it, and it’s run out of memory on lower-spec virtual machines. And (this is weirdly specific) it doesn’t show lines while adding a new way to OpenStreetMap using the online editor.

Otherwise everything in my Chromium review applies here too.

Availability

Packages are available for various Linux distributions, usually in the user-maintained repositories like AUR for Arch or COPR for Fedora, plus a Flatpak, Guix and NixOS. Some, including the Flatpak, are available for both x86_64 and aarch64, while others are Intel/AMD only and lack ARM support (though you could compile it yourself if you really want to). Homebrew provides a package for macOS, and Windows installers are on GitHub. The GitHub page also lists an Android port, but it doesn’t seem to be maintained – the latest release is three years old.

In addition to the extra steps for installing and updating extensions in the first place, the Flatpak has the usual issues connecting to KeePassXC.

Bottom Line

Ungoogled Chromium is a good option to have. But it’s in a weird middle zone. It leaks less data than Chromium or Chrome, but so does, say, Vivaldi. It’s lighter weight too, but not as lightweight as Falkon. For me, the gains aren’t quite enough to make up for the rough edges and missing features. YMMV, of course.