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Comment by verdverm | Hacker News Reader

One analogy I think of every time this comes up on HN is the kernel and linux. Why do we not speak of a similar lack of diversity?

To me, chromium is the kernel and the browsers are the distro. We do like that there is a shared kernel in linux, yes?

I acknowledge that this is reductionist, as there exists another lack of diversity for consumer operating systems, in there really only being Windows and Mac / iOS and Android.

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The Linux kernel isn't a good comparison because kernel development is not led by a corporation with its own distinct commercial interests. Sure Linux a monoculture, but it's a uniquely healthy one.

And the Linux kernel isn't a good analogy because the web is a standard, not an implementation. In that sense it's more akin to UNIX, or IP-based networking.

I do share your thoughts and sentiments at other times (and peer commenter too). The contrarian in me likes to offer up this analogy, though I interpret it much more loosely than the HN critiques I earn each time. To me there is an argument I feel can made that a shared "browser" kernel has some advantage in, for example, security. More eyes, more contributors, which number more organizations than Google these days

https://insights.linuxfoundation.org/project/chromium/contri...

Still, there is a difference between contribution and control, which I hope and dream can and will change.

https://www.learninternetgrow.com/who-controls-chromium/

I will add that I appreciate your response, generally, but especially the missing hyperbole. This civil discourse is very preferable.

Linux isn’t a good analogy to Chromium due to the differences in history, licensing, and project governance.

Linux is GPLv2, it has many outside contributors, it was built from scratch, and it has Linus as a neutral party as the final decider in terms of the direction of the project and what gets included.

Chromium is a mix of LGPL, BSD, and other licenses depending on the component. Chromium was originally forked from WebKit; it isn’t a from scratch project. Google decides what changes get merged to Chromium.

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