Love the Chromium web browser, but can’t stand that it connects to Google services? Do you wish you could use it without dealing with Google’s invasive technology? It turns out you can, with Ungoogled Chromium! It’s a version of the Chromium browser completely stripped of all Google-related technology! Here’s how to set it up on your Linux PC.
Google Chromium sans integration with Google Ungoogled Chromium is a lightweight approach to removing Google web service dependency. It is essentially a drop-in replacement for Chromium, which retains the default Chromium experience as closely as ossible.
Ubuntu installation instructions
Iridium has a hasn't been updated in a long time (it's August 2020, but the last release is from April based on Chromium 81 - compared to Ungoogled-Chromium's 84). There's no AppImage or portable build, making installation a bigger problem. The development release for Chromium Portable installs the Ungoogled Chromium in either 32-bit, 64-bit or both. This package uses the Ungoogled Chromium Stable Release but the Portable edition is still under development and need to do further testing. 0 49 6.0 Go 🚀 Ungoogled Chromium portable for Windows. Sponsored scoutapm.com. Get performance insights in less than 4 minutes. Scout APM uses tracing logic that ties bottlenecks to source code so you know the exact line of code causing performance issues and can get back to building a great product faster. For whatever reason, the developers host Ungoogled Chromium on the OpenSUSE Build Service but do not make a SUSE release available. To get the portable version of Ungoogled Chromium, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T.
To install Ungoogled Chromium on Ubuntu Linux, you must use a third-party software repository. The app is not available in the Ubuntu main software repositories. To add the third-party software repository, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the echo command below to add the repo to your system.
After adding the Ungoogled Chromium software repository to your Linux PC, it is time to add the repo’s GPG key. To do that, enter the following commands.
Once both the key and the repo are added to Ubuntu, run the update command. This command will refresh Ubuntu’s software sources, allowing the Ungoogled Chromium software repository to function.
With Ubuntu’s software up to date, install Ungoogled Chromium on your Ubuntu PC with the apt install command below.
Debian installation instructions
Those looking to install Ungoogled Chromium on Debian Linux will need to enable a third-party software repository, as the Debian project does not officially support Ungoogled Chromium and does not make the app available in their software sources. To add the third-party repo to your system, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, execute the following echo command.
After adding the software repository to your system, it is time to download the GPG key to your Debian PC. Debian needs this key to access the Ungoogled Chromium repository, so this step is critical!
Once the Ungoogled Chromium software repository is added to your Linux PC, you must run the update command to enable the repository on your system.
After your Debian PC’s software is up to date, it is time to install Ungoogled Chromium. Using the apt install command, get the app working on your system.
Arch Linux installation instructions
Ungoogled Chromium is available to all Arch Linux users via the Arch Linux User Repository. To start the installation, open up a terminal window and install the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages. They’re required to interact with the AUR.
After installing the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages on your computer, use the git clone command to download the Trizen AUR helper. This app will make installing Ungoogled Chromium very easy, as it takes care of all required dependencies and sets them up for you, rather than having to do it by hand.
Move into the “trizen” folder with CD and install the app on your Arch Linux system with makepkg.
Once Trizen is set up on your Arch Linux PC, you’ll be able to install the Ungoogled Chromium browser with the trizen -S command below.
Alternatively, if you do not like to use the AUR, you can install a pre-compiled package with the commands below. However, keep in mind that these pre-compiled packages are not as up to date as the AUR ones.
Fedora installation instructions
Ungoogled Chromium is available to all Fedora Linux users via the RPM Fusion software repositories. To start the installation, follow this guide on how to set up RPM Fusion. Then, when RPM Fusion is working on your Linux PC, enter the dnf install command below to get Ungoogled Chromium.
OpenSUSE Linux installation instructions
It is possible to get Ungoogled Chromium working on OpenSUSE. However, the app is not packaged for the operating system, so you will need to install the portable release. For whatever reason, the developers host Ungoogled Chromium on the OpenSUSE Build Service but do not make a SUSE release available.
To get the portable version of Ungoogled Chromium, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Then, use the wget command to grab the latest release.
After downloading the latest TarXZ release of Ungoogled Chromium from the web, you must extract it. Using the following tar command, decompress Ungoogled Chromium.
Once the Ungoogled Chromium archive is extracted, use the CD command to move the terminal window into the ungoogled-chromium_80.0.3987.149-2.1_linux directory.
inside of the ungoogled-chromium_80.0.3987.149-2.1_linux folder, use the ./chrome command to launch the browser.
Ungoogled Chromium Windows Download
Ungoogled-chromium is a Chromium variant 'for removing Google integration and enhancing privacy, control, and transparency'.
You thought Chromium did that anyway? So did we, but the 'ungoogled-chromium' developer says:
'A number of features or background services communicate with Google servers despite the absence of an associated Google account or compiled-in Google API keys. Furthermore, the normal build process for Chromium involves running Google's own high-level commands that invoke many scripts and utilities, some of which download and use pre-built binaries provided by Google. Even the final build output includes some pre-built binaries.'
To fix this, ungoogled-chromium uses 'a set of configuration flags, patches, and custom scripts' to do the following:
- Disable or remove offending services and features that communicate with Google or weaken privacy
- Strip binaries from the source tree, and use those provided by the system or build them from source
- Add, modify, or disable features that inhibit control and transparency (these changes are minor and do not have significant impacts on the general user experience)
This has some very far-reaching consequences. For example, removing all the Google code means you don't have the Webstore plugin, so can't install extensions from the store. Instead you have to follow some awkward workarounds, such as downloading a CRX manually and dragging and dropping it onto the extensions tab.
You also don't get Google's own Flash player, so will have to install Adobe's version or do without it.
And Safe Browsing is disabled, too, as it communicates with Google's servers to download the blacklists.
If you can live with this, there's no doubt that ungoogled-chromium does much more to protect your privacy than similar projects. And it has other tweaks you might like, too, including disabling onbeforeunload events (no more annoying dialog boxes which appear when a page is being closed) and forcing all pop-ups into tabs.
Ungoogled Chromium Installer
Verdict:
It's not just a name- ungoogled-chromium really does strip every trace of Google from the browser. This has some major implications (no web store to install extensions so you have to do it manually, safe browsing disabled), but if you're determined to stay Google-free then it still might appeal, and there are a few other welcome tweaks and changes as well.