Chromium vs Chrome
 

I have Chromium as one of my browsers. I saw where Chrome has a stable update for its version for Linux. As I understand Chromium is the open source version for Google's Chrome? Now my question is a two parts; first can I have both Chrome and Chromium on my PC or will there be a conflict, secondly forgetting for the moment about open source would I be better off with Chrome as one of my browsers or should I stay with Chromium?

Someone is bound to ask why would I want both Chrome and Chromium seeing how they are basically the same? My answer is, why not. Also it might allow me to see which version is better for me?

herakles_14

You can run them along side each other. I've done it. As far as features or speed there's not much difference between Chromium and Chrome to be honest. I think it's more of a matter of preference really. They're both compatible with Google Play.

One possible difference; Chromium is likely to be updated (only) via your package manager while an install of Chrome, right from Google's website, is capable of updating itself... That might be desireable for someone, or,... not (trusting Google?!)...

So, if you want frequent updates to the latest/greatest Chrome version, go with Chrome. If you only trust Open Source, use Chromium. If you collect apps on ypur machine,... choose both.

I want to thank both sag47 and JaseP for their feedback on my question visa vie Chrome or Chromium. I may install Chrome and take it for a spin, check under the hood and see how it performs on the slalom course? Again thanks to you both.

herakles_14

There is one other thing to be mentioned here, Chrome is built by Google and supports all apps from the chrome store, and is exactly the same on every distribution, Chromium on the other hand is built for the distribution you are installing it on and depending on the maintainer it is slightly different across distros. I have encountered the situation before (don't remember if it was opensuse or another distro) that Chromium could not run some of the apps from the chrome store.

So if you are highly dependent on google apps, Chrome is probably the safer choice.

Oh,... one more thing... If you are looking at Chrome for html5 support, you might be disappointed. In my experience, Firefox has better html5 support at the moment. I haven't gotten html5 support on my systems out of Chrome, desipte attempting to get it by finding and following tutorials online. ... Of course, that may differ from distro to distro ...

JaseP

Firefox is my default browser, so there is no problem with the html5. I jut wanted to check Chrome out to see if it is quicker then Firefox or Opera, my other browser.

cheese1343,

I am not dependent on Google Apps or Chromium Apps either. I don't have all that many anyway.