The difference is that the extension platform itself is open. I can compile Chromium and create/install/redistribute extensions all without ever asking for Google's permission, and still have an acceptable user experience on non-Windows platforms. Afaik, Edge doesn't allow easy extension installation prompts from third party websites.

Yes, redistributing extensions for Windows Chrome users (not Windows Chromium) does require the Chrome Web Store. This is unfortunate, but at least Google has a better track record when it comes to banning extensions that modify their things on their own web properties.

Compiling UWP apps such as Chrome extensions doesn't "require Microsoft's permission" either and you can sideload them as well.

However, as you point out, Google prohibits side loading for the majority of real Chrome installs.

The time since I last found a malicious extension in the Chrome Web Store is five days[0]. They're terrible at policing this, which is a point I've actively complained about for years.

[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13111884

> yes, they've removed extensions for business reasons before

Interesting, which ones?

I tried searching for some examples of removed extensions, so far I've only found some awful stuff like this:

http://fortune.com/2016/06/03/google-chrome-jews/

It's an ad company that allows ad blockers, so it seems at most like a small chain-link fence garden.

YouTube downloaders.

And YouTube centre

It can also be problematic if you want to author extensions on it... Google requires a $5 payment to be able to publish extensions. Reasonable, but what if you have issues making the payment? My 100% valid CC gets rejected though it obviously works everywhere else. Now, try to get support from Google for that...

You can install a Chrome extension manually. The store is convenient but not required.

If you enable Developer Mode and load unpacked extensions on Windows, it complains about it every time you start Chrome. I'd call that a (major) inconvenience.

Does it? I have never experienced this.

Yeah it shows a tiny little balloon-tip style thing over the hamburger menu.

I was going to say it's not a big deal but I quite distinctly remember it being the entire reason I switched to Vivaldi instead of Chrome. Full extension store compatibility with none of the nagging, and all the other cool shit it does is just a bonus at this point.

It does. You can pay 5 bucks to get a dev account on the play store and then upload your extension there (unlisted if you want), and install it from there, and you won't get the nag popup

No, you can "sideload" extensions.

You can do the same for Windows. People bring their religions in here without facts and end up at the top of threads. The parent post is baseless and wrong.

> People bring their religions in here without facts and end up at the top of threads

Only popular religions ;)

I agree. I pointed out that your statement "You can only install extensions from their store" is incorrect for Chrome. Thank you for adding information about Edge.

Ah, haha, yeah, that's fair. I usually disregard things that are "heavily discouraged" behind developer modes and checkboxes buried deep in menus.

Enabling local extension install in Chrome is a single checkbox at the top of chrome://extensions -- the same place where you manage the rest of your extensions. But point taken.

Same is possible in Edge as far as I know.