SRWare Iron
Encyclopedia
SRWare Iron, or simply Iron, is a free
and open-source web browser
implementation of the Chromium
source code which primarily aims to eliminate usage tracking and other privacy-compromising functionality that the Google Chrome
browser includes. While Iron does not provide extra privacy compared to Chromium, it does implement some additional features that distinguish it from Google Chrome, such as built-in ad blocking.
On 11 August 2010, Microsoft
updated the BrowserChoice.eu
website in order to include Iron as one of the possible choices.
On 26 May 2009 a Preview-Release (Pre-Alpha) of Iron came out for Linux
. And on 7 January 2010 a beta version for Mac OS
was released .
More recent versions of Iron has been released since then, which has gained the features of the underlying Chromium codebase, including Google Chrome theme support, a user agent switcher
, an extension system, integrated Adblocker and improved Linux support .
features are not present in Iron:
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open-source web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
implementation of the Chromium
Chromium (web browser)
Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's...
source code which primarily aims to eliminate usage tracking and other privacy-compromising functionality that the Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
browser includes. While Iron does not provide extra privacy compared to Chromium, it does implement some additional features that distinguish it from Google Chrome, such as built-in ad blocking.
On 11 August 2010, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
updated the BrowserChoice.eu
BrowserChoice.eu
BrowserChoice.eu is a website that was created in March 2010 as the result of the European Union Microsoft competition case which involved legal proceedings by the EU against Microsoft that found that, via market dominance of the operating system market with Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer's...
website in order to include Iron as one of the possible choices.
Development history
Iron was first released as a beta version on 18 September 2008, 16 days after Google Chrome's initial release.On 26 May 2009 a Preview-Release (Pre-Alpha) of Iron came out for Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. And on 7 January 2010 a beta version for Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
was released .
More recent versions of Iron has been released since then, which has gained the features of the underlying Chromium codebase, including Google Chrome theme support, a user agent switcher
User agent
In computing, a user agent is a client application implementing a network protocol used in communications within a client–server distributed computing system...
, an extension system, integrated Adblocker and improved Linux support .
Differences from Chrome
The following Google ChromeGoogle Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
features are not present in Iron:
- RLZ identifier, an encoded string sent together with all queries to Google or once every 24 hours.
- Google searchGoogle searchGoogle or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
access on startup for users with Google as default search - A unique ID ("clientID") for identifying the user in logs.
- A timestampTimestampA timestamp is a sequence of characters, denoting the date or time at which a certain event occurred. A timestamp is the time at which an event is recorded by a computer, not the time of the event itself...
of when the browser was installed. - GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
-hosted error pages when a server is not present - Google Updater automatic installation.
- DNS pre-fetching, because it could potentially be used by spammers.
- Automatic address bar search suggestions.
- Bug tracking system, sends information about crashes or errors.