Free and Open Source Software

My guess is that the vast majority of people using Chrome aren’t even aware that Chromium exists.

Most do not know or care about the evils of Chrome.

Also, trying to install chromium on Android, iOS or Windows is something you really have to get out of your way to do.

And finally, some features that people want like sync are not available on Chromium.

90% of people, possibly more, don't know shit about tech and are not interested in the slightest in learing how to use and understand the tools they get their hands on everyday.

The vast majority of tech savy people don't care about privacy and free software at all, and they'll stick to chrome because it's the "gold standard" in their opinion.

That's it, from my experience at least. People don't know, and if they do, they don't care.

Outside of Firefox, and very niche browsers, every other browser is built on Chromium. Edge, Opera, Chrome, etc. They all just add in their own customizations and things. You have to go look directly for Chromium, which the vast majority of the world doesn't know exist. That's the only reason why.

Another part of it could be because people use Google search, search promotes Chrome for an optimal experience, they decide to try Chrome and end up sticking with Chrome.

They might just like the google sync part? If they use chrome on their mobiles and other computers and so on?

If I had to guess, it is all about branding.

Chromium isn't as well-known as Chrome. A person uses a computer, gets used to Chrome, and that's that. Brand loyalty.

At some point, the user becomes aware of the existence of Chromium. It does everything that Chrome does, even the sync stuff, but the name. Chromium sounds weaker than Chrome. And also, open source.

While it may be hard to wrap our heads around, the question of trust plays a role. Some individuals would rather put their privacy in the hands of a big corporation than an open source project. Without even trying the alternative... You can see the same happen with Office software. Many people, on their personal computers, could probably get by with LibreOffice. But somehow people have this idea that open source is bad. Also, OpenOffice! Why are people still installing that? It is ruining the image of open source...

Finally, they might see the website and be totally lost.

But Chrome's page has that big button we are used to seeing.

I second the opinion people just don't know, in fact, I didn't know there was much of a difference between browsers. Because I don't like Windows shoving Edge on my face, so it has to be another browser. So I guess Chrome is what everyone uses and why not? No reason really. Reading other comments, no, I don't care about sync.

One thing I am liking about Lemmy is the well informed, tech savy crowd. So feel free to explain in layman terms why am I sinning. What have I done wrong?