Developers of Chromium-based browsers have made some decisions that are not entirely pleasing to the end user. While there are different Chromium builds that work as portable applications and permanent installations, some of them have dependencies and other elements from Mountain View. The alternative is Ungoogled Chromium, a version of Chromium that removes Google's services and background requests, while giving the user more control.
If you feel that the quality of browsers is falling apart, believe me, you are not alone. Google Chrome is increasingly heavy, and it keeps collecting information. As expected from Redmond, Microsoft Edge is a nightmare of bloatware and telemetry. Many users recommend Brave, however, not everyone is comfortable with its advertising practices. And as for Firefox... we need it to succeed, but Mozilla's global strategy is, in a word, deficient (and its 3 percent market share confirms it).
How to install Ungoogled Chromium, a Chromium without Google
In this situation, one of our best options is to return to the source and explore Chromium-based builds. Among them appears Ungoogled Chromium, a project maintained by Eloston on GitHub, and with updated binaries by Marmaduke on the classic portal woolyss.com. What exactly does Ungoogled Chromium offer? In essence, a Chromium without Google in the background, and with several preconfigured privacy options.
This sounds good on the surface, but it requires some compromises from the user, and that means that Ungoogled Chromium is not for everyone. For example, the option "Delete cookies and site data when all windows are closed" is enabled by default, and it must be disabled if we want to save credentials in the browser for automatic logins.
But the most important thing is that the installation of extensions and updates in Ungoogled Chromium is completely manual, unless we make some adjustments. To configure access to the store we need the extension Chromium Web Store by NeverDecaf, while searching for updates is done by Chromium Update Notifications. All we have to do in that extension after installing it is select the platform (Win64), the tag (Ungoogled-Marmaduke), and as an extra, check the option Track Extension Updates.
Once again, Ungoogled Chromium is not for beginners, but if you are a user tired of tracking, telemetry, automatic updates without warning, and lack of control, you should take a look.
(Editor's note: To download Ungoogled Chromium you have to click on 'Installer' on the Marmaduke-Ungoogled version)
Official site and download: Click here.
