Is Ubuntu Chromium still safe to use since its so out of date?
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1Outdated browsers are really dangerous !!!! – Tachyons Aug 17 '12 at 23:37
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1Alex Shkop has added an updated version of Chromium on Launchpad here is the link. https://launchpad.net/~a-v-shkop/+archive/chromium – Rob Aug 26 '12 at 18:08
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The version in the archive is current Chromium 18, that's three major stable releases behind Google Chrome, so yes, it is vulnerable for every issue Chrome has fixed in the past three releases.
Since Chromium is in universe it's really a manpower/best effort issue, whereas Firefox is in main and gets full security team support. Another option is to build/download your own Chromium or use Google Chrome, which is updated on Google's schedule. Personally I use Chrome.
Some other options:
- How to properly Install chromium from zip and make it the default browser?
- Active PPA for latest stable chromium? - This one has a disadvantage that you get new chromium but you need to enable the webapps PPA, which means you're beta testing something that isn't finished yet.
Jorge Castro
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Even the Chromium from the Webapps PPA may not be as secure and stable as the Chrome of equivalent version number since Chromium builds do not get any stability or security improvements that are subsequently applied by Google as Chromium evolves to Chrome dev and then to Chrome beta and then to Chrome stable. IMO, Chromium is more of a caveat emptor thing than Chrome. – Aug 18 '12 at 02:09
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1As Jorge Castro pointed out, "it's really a manpower/best effort issue" by the community. For the curious, here are two links with background on the difficulty of prepping Chromium: 1, and 2. – Aug 18 '12 at 11:29
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http://www.iasptk.com/ubuntu-ppa-repositories/19353-install-latest-version-of-chromium-from-new-ppa
Install Latest Version of Chromium from new PPA
While Chromium team ppas won't release new versions of Chromium browser, Alex Shkop will try to maintain more-or-less fresh releases of Chromium. Two PPAs were built for Chromium stable and Chromium development version. Install Latest Version of Chromium: For now, two PPAs only provide packages for Ubuntu 12.04.
To add Chromium Stable PPA (currently it's version 21):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:a-v-shkop/chromium
To add Chromium Dev PPA (currently it's version 23):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:a-v-shkop/chromium-dev
After added a PPA, update your repository and install Chromium:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
ptheo
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If you use the snap version of chromium (available here), you can run your browser in a contained environment. This way you eliminate most of the risks associated with browser bugs, known or not.
Agoston Horvath
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