[conspire] (forw) Re: [sf-lug] Google to restrict access to Chromium features.

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2021 12:44:04 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Google to restrict access to Chromium features.
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

> You may want to switch browsers if you using one of
> the Chromium based browsers.
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-distributors-frustrated-by-googles-new-chromium-web-browser-restrictions/

Or not.

In a functional sense, Google's peevish behaviour matters only if you
care about Google cloud services, which are the _only_ thing to be
denied to everything except the proprietary Google Chrome browser
prospectively.  If you don't, then this doesn't affect you.

For comparison, the ungoogled-chromium persistent fork, which I rather
like, has all of that Google cloud services code stripped out of it in
the first place.  https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ 

Personally, I don't have any wish to outsource any of my computing to
the second-most-nosy corporation in the world, so '...and we're going to
prevent Chromium from accessing Google cloud services!' makes me think
'Um, OK.  So my browser won't keep trying to phone home to Auntie Goog,
then, and will stop nagging me about logging into a Google Account that
I don't want to have or use, to get access to Google server-side
features I have no interest in?  Whatevs.'  To me, that's a little like
'We're going to restrict your access to overcooked brussels sprouts!'

LWN.net's editorial on this subject points out an area of comparison
with Firefox that I hadn't thought of:

  Meanwhile, smug Firefox users are able to use Firefox Sync with no
  impending interruption in service. It is worth noting that this
  service, too, could be withdrawn at any time, but Firefox at least
  allows the use of alternative servers, so concerned users need not be
  dependent on the continued existence and good will of Mozilla. The
  server-side code is available for anybody wanting to take that approach.

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/843607/471a75a081b30db8/

So, _if_ I wanted to sync my browser's bookmarks, passwords, and
open-tab identification to an Internet server, I could use Mozilla's 
server-side code and Firefox's completely open client-side support on my
own computing infrastructure to do that (although it's said to be
obtusely documented and challenging to set up).  But I don't use such
syncing, so I still don't care.

And recent Firefox versions refuse to load extensions that aren't signed
by Mozilla, Inc., which IMO is intolerable.

FYI, open-standard, commodity bookmark sync without proprietary secret sauce:
https://floccus.org/ 

----- End forwarded message -----