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I felt the same until I realized that all I really wanted was Chrome without all that Google-goo all over it. That's Opera in a nutshell.

Just out of curiosity what are you referring to when you say "Google-goo?" Does chromium not fit the need?

Not the OP, but when you're required to create a google account just to install an extension, I would say 'no'.

I just opened https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions on Chromium, signed out of my google account, and didn't have a problem installing an extension.

You're right! I just fired it up and was able to install Advanced REST Client (the only thing I regularly use Chromium for) without logging in.

When I first installed it - less than a year ago - that wasn't possible.

That's a step in the right direction, but you're still only allowed to install extensions from the Google-owned Chrome Web Store.