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I'm a little disappointed with Google. I understand the rationale behind this decision, however instead of improving their browser's permissions system, instead of doing a better job reviewing all those crappy extensions that turn to mallware over night (e.g. Window Resizer - and btw, Mozilla is doing a much better job), instead of all of that, they decide to drop the ability to install extensions from third-party source. I predict a similar change will also come for Android. Because grandmas need protection of course. For several months now I have been torn between Chrome and Firefox, not able to decide which I like better, switching back and forth depending on mood. Well, I guess this settles it. I was already using Firefox on my Android exclusively, because it's the only mobile browser that has extensions, whereas Google decided that extensions are a nuisance on Android and even if they don't admit it, they probably hate the idea of AdBlock making it to Android. Chrome has had a positive effect on the marketplace, but now the negative effects are starting to show up. Adobe for instance decided to drop the support they had for Flash on Linux and only support Chrome, so at present and going forward, if you want the latest Flash on Linux, you've got to use Chrome. My answer was just to disable it of course. But do we really want a monoculture? Haven't we had enough with IExplorer 5/6? Are we really that dumb? Either way, at the very least Chrome fans should start using Chromium, because the Chrome binary is not open-source and if you use it, you won't realize the true difference/cost between it and the competition. For example the PDF reader bundled in Chrome is something proprietary, whereas Mozilla bundled a PDF reader that's open-source, built in Javascript and that also works in Chromium - you see, whenever Mozilla does something, it usually benefits everybody. |
I'm not sure what this means. This is the way it has always worked in Android.
In order to install apps from third-party sources, you have to enable developer mode. It's easy to do (just check a box in the right place), and is a reasonable precaution, IMO. Most of the malware that is available for Android comes from third-party sources.