But because bug fixes hit the more unstable channels of Chrome and Edge - like the flakiest build, “Canary” - before they do Stable, it follows that the source code maintained by the Chromium Project, and thus the Chromium browser, must be altered before being spun out into “Canary.” Chrome’s Stable channel is refreshed with patches about every two or three weeks - Edge usually follows suit two days later - so the Chromium browser must be updated at least that frequently. On the micro level, it’s unclear when during Chromium’s ongoing, unfolding development engineers add security fixes. Vulnerabilities found by Google’s and Microsoft’s own engineers, as well as those rooted out by independent security researchers, are regularly patched in Chromium, so it’s just as secure (or depending on one’s perspective, just as insecure) as Chrome or Edge.

Chromium can thus not play Netflix content, as that service relies on Widevine to stymie content copying. Support for the Widevine digital rights management (DRM) module. (See this explanation for more information.) On other OSes, such as macOS, collection is off by default, like Chrome, but can be turned on from the preferences pain. Most instances of Windows 10 will have diagnostic data enabled, so Edge reports to Microsoft. Windows 10 - by far the most-used platform for Edge - has its own settings that are also applied to Edge. (They can be enabled from the browser’s settings panel.) In Edge, such data harvesting may be on or off, depending on the operating system.

In Chrome, that collection and transmission is off by default. Even the least polished of the four “builds” that Google maintains for Chrome and Microsoft for Edge - both label that “Canary” - is substantially more stable than Chromium.Ī second difference, and one that many have relied on when they’ve chosen Chromium over Chrome or Edge, is that the former collects and transfers less information to Google than either of the latter.Ĭhrome and Edge can send crash reports and usage statistics to Google and Microsoft, while Chromium cannot.

Custom chromium browser