[jrockway]

I doubt this is the reason. The reason is that less-educated users are being tricked into installing extensions they don't want and that make using their computer miserable for them. Meanwhile, anyone that wants to write their own extension need only click a checkbox.

[captainmuon]

But how does this protect against bad extensions? I mean they are installed along other programs as AdWare anyway, can't they just install themselves in developer or enterpise mode?

[jrockway]

I assume this interacts with Windows in some way to make that more difficult, but I don't use Windows much so I don't know. According to the docs, the change doesn't apply to Linux or OS X.

[blueskin_]

Then why not just make it a hidden option behind a huge "THIS MAY CAUSE BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN" warning to frighten them like Firefox do?

...because Google hate user customisability.

[jrockway]

I don't know. If you actually care you can probably ask on the mailing list; it is an open-source project after all.

(This week I read about attacks convincing users to open the dev console and paste Javascript code in there. Users will do anything as long as it harms their account or their computer, it seems.)