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Google Chrome Spinoff 'Iron' For Privacy Fanatics
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:28 AM
from the why-open-source-is-awesome dept.
from the why-open-source-is-awesome dept.
Sonnet_XVIII writes "According to DownloadSquad,
A German company SRWare has developed a Google Chrome Spin off called Iron aimed at people who are concerned or have questions about Google's policies for collecting usage data."
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Since when (Score:5, Interesting)
we started to call forks a "spin off"?
Re:Since when (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Since when (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I'm rather certain the spoon came first, right? So calling a fork a spin off isn't too far from the truth...
Not Forked Up (Score:3, Insightful)
Not at all. If you RTFCB [google.com] you'll know that a major goal of Chrome is to get its technologies and ideas incorporated into other Open Source projects. Actually, that seems to be pretty much the idea, at least at this stage in the product's lifecycle. The product itself is too limited and glitchy for any other purpose. It's not like a lot of people are going to adopt it as their day-to-day browser, not with its minimal feature set and rendering issues.
I suspect the Chrome team is actually quite pleased to see t
Re: (Score:2)
I'm curious, what are these 'glitches' and 'rendering issues' you talk of? I've used Chrome for a while and not noticed it misrendering anything (while I am affected by a rendering bug in Firefox). Nor any glitches or crashes.
Translation (Score:5, Informative)
I only speak a little German. So here is a bery bad translation via babelfish:
Removing Unique User ID (Score:5, Insightful)
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Judging by the comparative table on the SRWare page, it does indeed.
Better name (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Better name (Score:5, Funny)
If you consider clearing cookies and basic privacy to be tinfoil type material, then may I have your email address? My ideas will intrigue you and I think you would like to subscribe to my newsletter.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Alert me when it runs on Mac and/or Linux. (Score:4, Insightful)
I promise not to make "dupe" comments.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Most browser vulnerabilities aren't as simple as vulnerabilities in common network server or client code. I think it would be pretty damn hard to declare a browser secure by examining its code.
Language (Score:4, Informative)
What's Next? (Score:2, Funny)
Titanium?
--
Oh Well, Bad Karma and all . . .
Que? (Score:2)
So, um, thanks for giving no actual information about this new revision, with the only real reference a German website with a download link. I guess this could be an incentive to learn Deutsch, but for the average /. reader, this is just an advertisement.
Anyway, here's a Babelfish translated link:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.srware.net%2Fsoftware_srware_iron.php&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate [yahoo.com]
Translated FAQ (Score:3, Informative)
What is Iron?
Iron is an Internet Browser, like Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera. It is based off of the free online source code of "Chromium".
I read that there are tools which attempt to make Chrome anonymous. Why shouldn't I simply use these?
There are worthwhile Freeware tools which offer similar functionality. However, these do not work from source and offer only limited control. Functions like the URL tracker cannot be switched off. This only offers variable security.
Iron is free -- how do you financ
Cherman (Score:2)
You don't trust Google... (Score:5, Funny)
But you are expected to trust some obscure German software company. Right.
The sad thing is, some of you will (but then, you already use Windows...)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But you are expected to trust some obscure German software company. Right.)
You don't have to. You the source code is available for download. (And you could obviously monitor your traffic see if the browser phones home)
Re: (Score:2)
But you are expected to trust some obscure German software company. Right.
The sad thing is, some of you will (but then, you already use Windows...)
Hey, you! That's not nice. Some of us don't have a choice in our workplace OS.
You insensitive clod.
Their promises are as good as their source (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Their promises are as good as their source (Score:5, Informative)
The source code is available.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Um, isn't the source code also downloadable from their site?
http://www.srware.net/software_srware_iron_download.php [srware.net]
Look at the bottom - the source is available in 4 parts, it seems.
The differences (Score:5, Informative)
* unlike the current Chrome beta it uses the newest Webkit version of the current Chromium build
* it does not generate a unique ID of every client for use by Google
* no installation timestamp ill be generated for google
* no "suggest feature" that phones home to google (for help) what you type into the address bar
* will not phone home to google in case you mistyped a URL
* no phoning home for error reporting
* does not send RLZ tracking info to google, e.g. about when and where Chrome was downloaded
* NO frickin updater that installs itself as a startup app to run in the background
* does not load google homepage in background when the browser is loaded
Of course they provide the source code for your own tinkering as well, just don't hammer the poor fellas (more than they already get hammered right now ;)) as according to their page their current revenue only comes from the ads on the page and hopefully some donations by people showing their appreciation of their work.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
IRC log from Iron (Score:5, Interesting)
It's unfortunate that this guy decided to fork rather than submit bug fixes (or even file bugs). Several of the issues he identified are bugs, not intentional behavior in Chromium. It's supposed to be the case that anything that talks to a third-party server is controllable via preferences and options. He ran into a few that slipped through and decided to do a fork for self-publicity and $$ rather than trying to help the project. I see no problem with having forks in general, but this one seems unnecessary at this point.
Here's an excerpt from an IRC log on chromium-dev from a week ago when people asked him why he wasn't filing bugs or patches:
Iron: because a fork will bring a lot of publicity to my person and my homepage ;) ;) ;) ;)
Iron: that means: a lot of money too
Iron: i dont take money for my fork
Iron: but i have adsense on my page
Iron: a lot of visitor -> a lot of clicka > a lot of money
Iron: we are here in germany
Iron: the press will love my fork
Iron: i talked to much journalists already
Iron: to remove all things in source talking to google
Iron: nobody here trusts google
Iron: the german people say: google is very evil
Re:IRC log from Iron (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:IRC log from Iron (Score:4, Insightful)
Chrome's been out for nearly a month now and I don't see any new release any time "soon".
With such a poor release, I expected new versions to come out the same day yet here we are, weeks later, and no sign that the problems are even on Google's radar.
If I pushed a product to millions of users by linking to it from the front page of the world's most popular website, saying it was "uncrashable", and then it turned out within minutes of real-world uses that no, it's just as easy to crash as any other browser (I've yet to see a "sad tab"), or any of the other major problems, etc- I'd work towards fixing them ASAP. Where is the new release? Where is the new alpha?
Google fucked up. Forking might wake them up. All good forks get merged in the end, anyway.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Not really, unless you call clearing cookies between browsing sessions fanatical.
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm increasingly starting to think that Slashdot editors are being underhandedly paid by Google to subtly ridicule anti-Google articles or sentiments. The wording of this summary makes it pretty blatantly obvious that the editor wants to make people who are suspicious of Google appear "fanatical", implying all the baggage that that word carries with it these days.
How is it fanatical to not want to send your data to a private corporation? Would it be fanatical if that corporation was Microsoft, Sony or Universal Studios?
I clear my cookies regularly. What Slashdot calls fanatical I call routine. So I guess that makes me a fanatic.
Parent
Re:Fanatical (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is determining what a reasonable person would call a fanatic. We all think we're reasonable, when honestly I find most of us (myself included) to be essentially unreasonable most of the time.
Calling someone fanatical these days is less about about extremism (for good or ill), and more about casting disrespect.
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Insightful)
A reasonable person, or the average person? I don't think that the average person is reasonable.
The average person cares about having the newest car, the newest TV, a house they can't afford, etc. They want to keep up with the Joneses. They measure their own worth as relative to other people's possessions. Their own happiness depends upon being "better" than other people. That's not reasonable. That's why the American economy is in the mess that it's in. We're a society where the goal is to attain money any way you can. If you don't, you're a failure.
Reasonable? My ass.
Parent
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Insightful)
I won't pick points, but I don't think it's fair to roll 50% of the population into one bucket and assume things about them, right or wrong.
I'm sure you've never, in your entire life, done anything unreasonable, like wanting something because it looked cool, or sounded cool, or because you wanted to be the first kid on the block to have it, or because all of your friends had one.
All general statements are false.
Parent
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Funny)
Only fanatics label other fanatics as being fanatical !
Parent
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
You clear your cookies???!?!?!? I could never do that. I like all my cookies very much, and I get very sad when I lose them. All 12 of them. That said, until chrome/iron/whatever gets CS Lite, NoScript and AdBlock+ extensions, they will continue to be useless when compared to Firefox.
You clear your cookies???!?!?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I see more anti-Google articles on Slashdot these days, that I seriously doubt on the whole the editors have a secret agenda to make Goolge look good. Individuals have individual opinions. I wouldn't be shocked to learn one editor is extremely pro-Google, and another anti-Google, but I haven't seen a consistent trend, though you might see a consistent trend if you were only looking for the good or bad.
Editors? (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fanatical (Score:5, Funny)
You're right. Here's an idea for safe browsing. Call it the "one time coffee shop" method.
1. Go to coffee shop & browse away
2. after surfing, torch the coffee house.
You can only do this once per coffee shop. Sadly, Starbucks doesn't supply computers since there's an abundance of said shops.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're right. Here's an idea for safe browsing. Call it the "one time coffee shop" method.
1. Go to coffee shop & browse away
2. after surfing, torch the coffee house.
You can only do this once per coffee shop. Sadly, Starbucks doesn't supply computers since there's an abundance of said shops.
I solved that problem by taking my laptop to each of the coffee shops.
Re:Fanatical? use Opera (Score:4, Insightful)
I configured Opera to clear all cookies at the end of every session. Occasionally, I also clear them during a session.
In Epiphany, I regularly clean out all cookies manually. I do this before and after visiting any e-commerce or financial site, even if I don't conduct any transactions.
It's no more fanatical than using a condom.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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