Chromium Browser: It's Got Wings!

So here I go again…another browser change.  You will recall I switched to Firefox shortly after that app appeared in the Washington Post, maybe around 2005.  I definitely liked what they did, but then the memory bloat began to get to me.  I went looking, trying Opera.  Opera is a nice browser as well, but missing some of the functionality I need.  For schools, I do install that when I cannot get our state’s student information system, NCWISE, to work on Internet Explorer.

So I went to Chrome.  I really like Chrome.  I like how it takes up the full screen, with the tabs right up to the top.  While I liked Firefox’s groundbreaking search box, it was time to have search integrated into the main box, which Chrome did.  All in all, I am completely satisfied with Chrome.  So why the switch?  Well, I run the K-12 Open Source Classroom.  Chromium is the open source version of Chrome.  Available at http://www.chromium.org/, it represents one part of two projects: an open source browser and an open source OS geared toward netbooks. I need projects, when possible, that express that desire.  While I cannot always find open source software, when there, I want to use it.  So how is it different from Chrome?  Let the developers explain:

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. This site contains design documents, architecture overviews, testing information, and more to help you learn to build and work with the Chromium source code.

Just more freedom to see the code, develop for it, and make changes that closed source, including Chrome, do not allow.  I will be interested to see what happens with Chromium though, as Chrome really takes market share from IE and Firefox.  Is there room for another browser out there?  I like the thoughts of it for schools, allowing for more fine-tuning of the browser, but we will see how things work out with the both of them.