It was "new" about 5 years ago.

Chrome is state of the art technology:

rapid release development model
multi-process structure (tabs don't affect each other)
sandboxed plugins (PepperAPI)
most advanced renderer
most advanced javascript engine

Most people don't care about privacy, using the latest technology is more important to them.

I use the abandoned Presto Opera, which was the technological leader years ago. But I can recognize what Google has achieved. Look how Mozilla is struggling with catching up (they're even introducing DRM now) and how Opera came up with a Chromium skin.

There is an upstream package to install the pepper API plugin for flash. That part is straightforward.

The absence of the built-in PDF viewer creates problems for Chromium. I mentioned we are using LMDE rather than Slackware. In Slackware I can install the built-in PDF viewer easy enough --- just use Eric's package. Doing so in LMDE has hurdles. This morning I tested in Chromium the Chrome libpdf.so file.

Aw Snap.

The Chrome version is 35.something and the Chromium version is 31.something. Do the libpdf.so versions have to match? I don't know.

I attempted installing Chromium 35.something to match Chrome 35.something, hoping I then could test using the Chrome libpdf.so in Chromium. I ran into dependency issues immediately. I could resolve them by manually installing the updated dependency packages, but at that point the process becomes labor intensive. Not to mention beyond the skills of the customers who would be using Chromium.

There is a PDF Viewer extension that works with Chromium, using HTML5 to display the PDF. I don't know how Chromium keeps extensions updated.

Chrome has a built-in update notifier. Chromium does not and thus depends upon upstream repositories or manual updates. The latter is beyond the skill set of the customers. The Debian folks are slow to keep Chromium updated and because we are using LMDE, the upstream repo is actually Linux Mint. There is a long-standing discussion at the Mint forums about the lag time with LMDE updates.

I seem to have three choices. Install Chrome and wash my proverbial hands. Or install Chromium manually, which requires me to install on my own outside the LMDE repos. The challenges then are there no automated method to keep Chromium updated and dependency issues. Or install Chromium from the LMDE repos, hope the PDF extension is updated automatically, and hope everything "just works."

Option 1 is the easiest.

Come into my parlor said Google to the flies.

Odd that the upstream repos have a pepper API plugin package for flash but no such package for the PDF viewer.

Odd that the pepper API plugin that is used in Chromium is pulled from Chrome stable and the version differences don't affect Chromium.

I am not going to change the world and getting into the savior business usually has painful side effects.

And of course, the problems of LMDE and Debian have nothing to do with Slackware.

I agree with the first clause. The second clause could be reworded to "being convenient is more important to them."

The customers with whom we are working don't know beans about computers or technology. They do know convenience.

The same thing applies to Netflix. The folks in this area are not building HTPCs or streaming videos on their computers. Excluding the kids, they don't know how to stream videos. Instead they buy network-ready TVs. They haven't a clue how the technology works or how their privacy is affected. They only know how to use that remote control.

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Many don't understand the success of Chrome, because they believe in this fallacy. The quite restricted user interface is actually not, what makes Chrome a successful browser. Mozilla didn't understand this, so they made Firefox a Chrome lookalike. People stop using Firefox, because it lags behind Chrome technologically. At the end of the day, the content is the most important thing.

I do wonder why Chrome feels it necessary to start listening on a port?
I tend to use Firefox as I am used to it but noticed many people I spoke to changed (mixed OS but generally Windows) to Chrome a few years ago -- I don't blame them as it was faster and gave them better access to the "Google Start Page"(or however it is called) which made it a lot more convenient. Any regular user of Google, such as me, knows they mine their logs.

I suspect we are saying much the same thing. Many users don't care how they get the content as long the process is convenient. Entertain me!

Thanks Tobi, I will take a good look at that.

I think as someone else said, Chrome is advertised, its name is out there, many people have heard of it and have no idea what this "foxfire thing" is. When my 6 and 7 year old come home from school and want chrome on their laptops its due to good marketing.
I myself find it limiting, I dug through the menu and can't find any way to make the home button do anything useful for example. I installed chromium though so I could learn its interface to help the kids and its handy for the couple forums which crash Firefox now. I don't care for the interface or the Firefox copy anyway. I remember when Firefox was the leader then they quit focusing on just building a browser and started playing in politics and advertising and the rearrange the buttons on the toolbar and call it a new version. I'm hoping the code will fork and someone who just wants to build browsers will take it forward again.

At the time Chrome was released I worked in an IT department -- a lot of people switched because, at the time at least, Chrome rendered better and faster.
I also knew a few people outside the department who were Firefox users and they changed due to "new browser syndrome" and it being, as I eluded to, quicker to load and, in some eyes, leaving more room for content.
Chrome really was better at producing content at the time it gained share.
I use both Chrome's "canary" and Firefox's "Nightly" and the difference seems to be that Flash has no more functional updates using Firefox and Chrome is a pain.

Firefox is a Client Eastwood movie about a high-tech fighter jet.

Foxfire is an Angelina Jolie movie about juvenile delinquents.

Don't mix them up!

I thought FoxFire was the Jet

I don't mix them up (browser names) myself, I put "foxfire thing" in quotes because that tends to be the response the average person whom I tell to use anything besides IE.


Another Choromium issue, how do you tell it to not keep bugging me to install flash? Firefox I can choose to not remind me again.

I thought firefox was a nickname for the red panda. Well, you learn summat new every day...a browser for the interwebnet thingy?