Chrome queries

I suspect that I should be asking these questions on a different forum. On my Rpi4 running Raspbian Buster I use Chrome as my browser for those occasions when NetSurf in RISC OS is not up to it. Chrome keeps asking me for my Google account, and I am unwilling to open one. I am slightly allergic to storing data in the cloud. Broadband is still comparatively slow in my village, and I feel much happier storing my data on something that I can wield a hammer on. I note that Chrome looks for settings and resources at URLs beginning chrome:, which I presume to be an expression decoded by Chrome to a URL in the cloud. Is that correct? Is there any way in which I could get chromium: to be decoded to a URL in my home directory? If Firefox were available for Raspbian I would use that instead.

It’s just accessing local resources as far as I can tell. chrome://version gives the information on the current version installed. You can’t ping \\chrome from the command line.

I note that Chrome looks for settings and resources at URLs beginning chrome:, which I presume to be an expression decoded by Chrome to a URL in the cloud. Is that correct?

According to this IANA page the “chrome:” scheme is used to control the settings of the Chrome browser itself. While it could in theory reference a remote object in the cloud, it is just as likely to be of strictly local significance.

chrome://settings is your browser’s local settings – for a full list of all the chrome URLs, try chrome://chrome-urls/

Firefox does similar with about: URLs

If Firefox were available for Raspbian I would use that instead.

Firefox is available for Raspbian, I have just installed it, from the Add / Remove Software tool, on my RPi4, It has synced with the other Firefox’s I have, has found the saved passwords and installed the AdBlock extension. I am using it right now.

HTH.

Chrome keeps asking me for my Google account

Funny… The browser created by the privacy-pillaging ad slingers want you to open an account for them to pillage. Whodathunkit?

I am slightly allergic to storing data in the cloud.

That’s not a surprise. Anything that leaves your control is… well.. out of your control.
I suppose a certain amount of data pillaging is expected these days, but it’s best to keep a close eye on what is shared and with whom.

Obvious question – why did you choose Chrome?

Broadband is still comparatively slow in my village,

Define “comparatively slow”. FWIW, mine varies from 3-ish to a-little-under-4 (megabit) depending on the phase of the moon, and it’s enough to stream HD video from Amazon, download stuff, and… well, all the things I need to do.

I say this, as I personally would say “less than 2” is slow. Others might thing less than 20 was the end of the world. ;-)

which I presume to be an expression decoded by Chrome to a URL in the cloud. Is that correct?

I don’t know about Chrome specifically, but Firefox has various “about:” URLs which are held locally within the browser, a famous one being “about:config” (here be dragons).
I would presume/hope that most of the chromium URLs to be similar.

Is there any way in which I could get chromium: to be decoded to a URL in my home directory?

Why? You could use file:// references, or better yet – Chrome ought to have an option for setting what page opens when you start the browser. So just set it to start with the local page you want to access opened automatically. It’s useful if this is a page with bookmarks or the like.

I’d go with David and suggest you try Firefox. I am using it on Android with various add-ons: Ghostery (filter out bad stuff), UBlock Origin (filter more bad stuff; also useful for picking video URLs out of streaming sites to get a direct link to the mp4 file ;-) ), Cookie AutoDelete (naff off auto-trackers), Cookie Manager (useful for logging into this forum!), Display #anchors (exactly what it says) and Don’t Track Me Google (changes Google’s obfuscated URLs into links to what they’re supposed to be so the link tracking no longer works (oh diddums)).
It can be a little slow on my freebie tablet (1GHz quad core jobbie), better on my S9, but I’d rather slow and heavily filtered than something that will let in any old crap from wherever. It’s always a bit of a shock when I go online using Chrome for the stuff that Firefox (or my paranoid filtering) doesn’t work with. Not only is Chrome’s messing around with font sizes fugly beyond the telling of it, there’s also SO much advertising and junk, not to mention damn-near constant pop-ups telling me I either have a billion viruses, or I’ve won the latest iPhone…

Firefox, lots of filtering, and make all the demons go bother some other soul.

Firefox on Raspbian: it’s possible that you have to use firefox-esr.

Many thanks. I had not got to grips properly with Add/Remove software and jan’s advice was crucial.

I say this, as I personally would say “less than 2” is slow. Others might thing less than 20 was the end of the world. ;-)

I’m on an “entry level” 100 Mb/s plan, and the fastest service I can order is 1 Gb/s. Meanwhile, the local provider has announced that a 4 Gb/s residential service will be available next September (at great expense, no doubt!).

In short, I would say that less than 20 Mb/s is indeed the end of the world :P

I now have Firefox-esr running in Buster Raspbian and I like it a lot better than Chrome as a general browser. However I have to admit that Chrome does a better job with videos and music. I have not yet got to the bottom of why.

However I have to admit that Chrome does a better job with videos and music. I have not yet got to the bottom of why.

Using Firefox, right-click over a video related site page, select the inspect element, in the panel that opens select the "network ‘tab’ and then press ctrl-F5 to refresh the page.

Note how many google related items are used. For entertainment block the google-analytics and see how that affects render speed.

To quote Rick:

Funny… The browser created by the privacy-pillaging ad slingers want you to open an account for them to pillage. Whodathunkit?

Using Firefox, right-click over a video related site page, select the inspect element, in the panel that opens select the "network ‘tab’ and then press ctrl-F5 to refresh the page.

Thanks. Very interesting. I suppose streaming data is a task whose efficiency depends critically on how much memory the recipient offers for buffering and the variation in response time of the connection.

Firefox also has this “subtle” method of letting you know when an https site has a duff certificate which is quite handy when checking problem sites¹ and the certificate revoke list site run by Microsoft is quite amusing:

https://crl.microsoft.com also has an http version, but do you really want to collect critical data from a non-certificated site?

¹ Given my previous comments round here you probably wouldn’t be surprised how many medical supplier sites have bad certificates but sometimes the culprits are quite amusing – like people who act as self-appointed judges of the way the NHS secures things.