# Chromium Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/chromium/ 75 people recommended Chromium in Hacker News comments, 37 had mixed feelings and 148 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 72 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. An open-source Chrome alternative recommended for its strong security, broad Web API support like WebUSB, and good ARM performance, though critics cite Google's control and heavy RAM use. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. Claude agents reviewed it against the quotes on 2 Nov 2026. ## What people warn about - Google controls the project (4 comments in the sample): "Chromium being open source is not a mistake. Letting google be the sole driver and not forking it has been." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49222317)) "Chromium commits are controlled by a pool of Google developers…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45956086)) "I wish I could drop it like a bad habit, because frankly Google's shenanigans piss me off on a semi-regular basis." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48473188)) - Bundled into every Electron app (3 comments in the sample): "Every Electron app ships with its own copy of Chromium (for rendering the UI) and Node.js (for system APIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47367485)) "which is both good (from abilities standpoint) and bad (when copy of chromium is bundled with every app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48627645)) "Chromium exists to help further that goal including, if necessary, being packaged up and shipped with those apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029138)) - Huge, hard-to-package build (2 comments in the sample): "It is not too much to ask that the Chromium maintainers either 1) test all the combinations of optional flags they have…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50118714)) "making the build system convenient, especially convenient for distribution packagers… is quite a big blocker to the primary goal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115683)) - Heavy memory use (2 comments in the sample): "Chromium itself has had the reputation for eating RAM for well over a decade at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927905)) "chromium/electron IS, nominally, a thin client for HTTP servers, and it'll gladly eat up as much memory as you throw at it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47545096)) ## Why people recommend it - Industry-leading security and sandboxing (4 comments in the sample): "Chromium uses probably the single most advanced sandbox out there, at least for software that users are likely to run into." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47069312)) "Chromium is also some of the most highly invested in software with regards to security." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47073076)) "Chromium was able to mitigate Meltdown/Spectre before OS vendors shipped an update" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072687)) - Open-source build of Chrome (4 comments in the sample): "The FOSS builds of VS Code, Chromium, and Android are good examples of high quality FOSS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371198)) "You have the corresponding FOSS versions (code-oss and chromium) in the main repository." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48518826)) "Consider Chromium (the open source build) instead of Chrome when you migrate to Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48543064)) - Supports WebUSB, Bluetooth, Serial APIs (3 comments in the sample): "in the Chromium ecosystem, you can use WebUSB and WebSerial to flash and communicate with these things from the browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48515791)) "too many features dependent on the full Chrome stack that it's just more pragmatic to use a real Chromium installation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47753661)) "Although I must admit to the guilty pleasure of gleefully using Chromium-only features in internal apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47064131)) - Fast on ARM devices (2 comments in the sample): "unlike Chromium it seems like the Mozilla team doesn’t really have an interest in keeping up with ARMs latest security features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004980)) "Chromium is so much more performant than Firefox on ARM devices that any difference isn't worth it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172976)) ## Other web browsers people recommend - [Firefox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firefox/): 1028 recommend, 359 mixed, 1139 criticize - [Brave](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-browser/): 310 recommend, 61 mixed, 215 criticize - [Google Chrome](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-chrome/): 242 recommend, 170 mixed, 998 criticize - [Safari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/safari/): 178 recommend, 80 mixed, 522 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Chromium", https://hackerapproved.com/p/chromium/ (75 recommend, 37 mixed, 148 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.