To start off, I know that chrome is based on chromium. I know that chromium is open-sourced. My question is why, in your opinions, do most distros go with chromium over chrome? Is it because there isn't the things that Google adds to chromium like the tracking? Or is it simply because it is open-sourced? I know that chrome was in Ubuntu's repos, but when I tried the most recent version it was chromium instead. I know that Google has .deb and .rpm packages on it's website. I am just curious on why chromium seems to be the preferred choice. BTW, I am using Chakra linux and have the choice between chromium and chrome in my Bundle manager which is sort of what prompted my curiousity I also just realized that Google does only have .deb and .rpm may be a reason

Because it's open source. Packaging and distributing an open source package is a lot easier and more reliable than trying to bundle up a binary program that was built against different libraries.

From what I read Chromium is kind of a developing base for Chrome, so it's a bit like Fedora -> RedHat relationship, where Fedora is kind of a community-testbed for RedHat. Fedora being akin to Chromium.

Because Chrome can not be redistributed by third party, it's that simple. Distributors could ask permission, make a licensing agreement or hack around the limitation by downloading it from google at install time, but it's a lot of trouble. And for what it add to the experience, it does not worth it.