Seeing Google from the inside, I have way more trust in it than the general public. But I do use Firefox as my personal browser because I like what they're doing with the tech stack. Having everyone just slap their logo on Chromium sounds like a way towards eventual stagnation.

This is the reason why I was initially excited about, and then disenchanted with Vivaldi. I initially had the impression that they weren't going to use Chromium, and that their return to Opera's roots meant returning to the spirit of innovation that made Opera so compelling back in the day (I will never stop singing the praises of Opera Unite). But then I learned that Vivaldi, too, would be based on Chromium.

I find I am not missing anything in terms of features or stability since the quantum engine except perhaps bookmark management being a bit clunky.

If you truly prefer chrome why not use a chromium browser that is not Google? (Brave for example)

I question the longevity and/or motives of institutions maintaining any of those builds other than possibly Microsoft.

And believe me, if you would have asked me if trusting Microsoft was the safe bet 20 years ago, I would have said you were nuts. But here we are.

I understand questioning the motives, but does the longevity matter? I have a ton of bookmarks and some extensions, but those carry over easily across chrome variations. If Brave died next year you could switch back to chromium relatively easily, I think.

I guess, I may be missing something, and would like to know what.

" I use it because it's not google. "

Me too.

That's a tough sell for the vast majority of non-HN users.

Try the privacy sales pitch. And for mobile there is Firefox-Focus. Yes you have to do a lot of typing, but hell do I not miss targeted advertisement in browser.