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Glossary
Chromium
Chromium is the open source browser project that Chrome and most other desktop browsers are built from.
One codebase under many names
Chromium is the source the browser family grows from. Chrome is one product built from it, with its own branding, its own licensed codecs and its own services attached.
Anyone can compile it. A build without those additions is still Chromium, and the differences between such a build and Chrome are small and countable.
What the project gives
The rendering engine, the JavaScript engine, the network stack and the layout of a profile directory.
What a vendor adds
Branding, an update channel, the sign in that carries sync, and codecs that ship under licence.
Why it matters here
A site never asks which browser you run. It measures behaviour, and behaviour comes from the build.
Your browser right now
These are read in the browser you are reading this in. Inside a profile the same names answer from its seed instead of from your own machine.
جهازك في هذه اللحظة
- User agent
- يجري القياس على جهازك
- Platform
- يجري القياس على جهازك
- WebGL vendor
- يجري القياس على جهازك
- WebGL renderer
- يجري القياس على جهازك
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Milestones move every few weeks
A new milestone lands on a schedule, so the number a browser claims ages quickly. A browser a few milestones behind stands in a small group by that alone.
The claim also has to match what the build can do. A string naming one milestone on an engine that behaves like another is a mismatch found in a single line of script.
The two engines here
A profile starts on one of two builds, and the Engine screen names which one will really start.
The first is a Chromium build we compile with our own patches, and it is what a profile normally runs. The second is the Chromium inside Electron, kept as a fallback for when the first cannot start.
| Fallback engine | Our own build | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the device is set | in the page, by script | in C++, before the first script |
| A worker answers like the main thread | – | نعم |
| A blocking extension really blocks | – | نعم |
| Available on every platform | نعم | نعم |
Where a plain build differs from Chrome
An unbranded build switches on a few things Chrome leaves off and leaves off a few Chrome switches on. Each of those is a line a page can read.
So the launch lines the build up with Chrome by switch, and whatever still differs is measured against a real Chrome rather than assumed.
The language list
A plain build collapses it to one entry where Chrome answers with the whole list.
Storage a page may ask for
Chrome exposes a family of names an unbranded build leaves out until it is told to add them.
Names on the window object
Experimental interfaces appear and disappear between milestones, and both directions are a difference.
The remainder is written down
Two shapes go into files and are compared, and an extra name with no explanation is a refusal.
Often confused with
Chrome
One product built from Chromium. Branding, codecs, updates and the sign in are the vendor's part.
Electron
An application framework that embeds Chromium and follows it at a distance.
Blink
The rendering engine inside Chromium. It answers most of what a fingerprint is made of.
What this does not do
- Chromium hides nothing on its own. Out of the box it answers about your real hardware, drivers and fonts, and it is meant to.
- Running the same milestone as everybody else is not protection. It only keeps you out of the small group a rare version puts you in.
- It does not separate accounts. One installation is one machine with one profile directory unless something else holds them apart.
- A patched build has no opinion about the address you arrive from or the history of the account you log into.
Check it
Each line above is a file you can open and a stand that keeps it honest.
- The app, the site and the build name one version
- packages/shared/src/index.js · apps/desktop/test/версия-называется-одинаково.js
- A profile claims the milestone that really renders it
- apps/desktop/src/lib/forkEngine.js · apps/desktop/test/fingerprint-version.js
- Our shape is compared against a real Chrome name by name
- engine/scripts/compare-shape.js
- The acceptance run of the build that ships today
- engine/приёмка-отчёт.json
Questions
- Is Chromium the same as Chrome?
- No. Chrome is built from it and adds branding, licensed codecs, its own update channel and the sign in that carries sync.
- Does Chromium protect my privacy?
- Not by itself. It is a browser, and what it reports about the machine is supposed to be true.
- Which milestone should a profile claim?
- The one that actually renders it. A claim ahead of the features present is a mismatch, and a claim far behind is a rarity.
- Can a site tell Chromium from Chrome?
- Sometimes. A handful of features sit in one and not the other, and each of them is one line of script to check.
- Is Electron the same as Chromium?
- It embeds Chromium and trails the current milestone, so a page sees an older browser than the one on your desktop.
Next to this
See what this browser reports
The checker reads your current browser in this tab and sends nothing anywhere.