You mean, you couldn't compile it from source, modify the source code and distribute your modifications freely to others?

No, he means Chromium (like Android) in practice are read-only, hostile projects that respond only to Google's needs.

Yes, you are free to create a fork.

In reality, it's nearly impossible to keep up with Google's development pace and their behavior of dumping huge changesets and lack of documentation and communication wears everyone out. If you have some exposure to biology/ecology you'll recognize the behavior as very effective at killing off diversity in ecosystems. It's like trying to co-exist on a lake with someone that keeps deliberately causing giant algal blooms.

> No, he means Chromium (like Android) in practice are read-only, hostile projects that respond only to Google's needs.

Huh? You've obviously never involved yourself in Chromium development. It's easy to get started and to stay up to date. As with all massive projects it takes work to do so, but no more so than any of the other open source browsers.

Have you had a lot of experience in keeping your Chromium fork up to date?

Unlike Android, Chromium is mostly developed in the open. As someone who has contributed to both projects, I wouldn't say Chromium is any less welcoming to contributors than Firefox. Mozilla is a lot better at presenting themselves in a positive light. Firefox even has similar automated downloaded of binary blobs like the EME plugin.

>As someone who has contributed to both projects, I wouldn't say Chromium is any less welcoming to contributors than Firefox.

You're far more likely to have hidden discussions about features or get patches obsolete due to code drops out of the blue when trying to upstream to Chromium.

>Firefox even has similar automated downloaded of binary blobs like the EME plugin.

Mozilla's EME stuff was widely discussed, announced in advance, and coordinated with distros.

Not quite in the same league as this.

Oh ok. So it would be more open source if the upstream vendor contributed less.

Which part of "their behavior of dumping huge changesets and lack of documentation and communication wears everyone out." is not clear to you?

Open source vs FLOSS vs Open development vs Open leadership

Chromium seems more open development than Android anyway.