So How Good Is Edge on Linux?

“No one asked Microsoft to port its Edge browser to Linux,” writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at ZDNet, adding “Indeed, very few people asked for Edge on Windows. “But, here it is. So, how good — or not — is it..?” The new release comes ready to run on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE Linux distributions… Since I’ve been benchmarking web browsers…

Google Patched an Actively-Exploited Zero-Day Bug in Chrome

“Google released an update to its Chrome browser that patches a zero-day vulnerability in the software’s FreeType font rendering library that was actively being exploited in the wild, Threatpost reported this week: Security researcher Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero discovered the bug which is classified as a type of memory-corruption flaw called a heap buffer overflow in FreeType. Glazunov informed…

Chrome Caught Exempting Google Sites From User Requests To Delete Data

This week the Verge reported: If you ask Chrome to delete all cookies and site data whenever you quit the browser, it’s reasonable to expect that this policy applies to all websites. Recently, though, a bug in the browser meant data wasn’t being removed for two sites in particular: Google and YouTube. This problem was first documented by iOS developer Jeff…

Firefox ‘Site Isolation’ Feature Enters User Testing, Expected Next Year

An anonymous reader shares a report: Site Isolation is a modern browser security feature that works by separating each web page and web iframes in their own operating system process in order to prevent sites from tampering or stealing with each other’s data. The feature was first deployed with Google Chrome in mid-2018, with the release of Chrome 67. Although initially,…

Cloudflare Offers ‘Isolated’ Cloud-Based Browser, Plus a Network-as-a-Service Solution

Cloudflare has released the beta of its new “browser isolation” service, which runs a web browser in the cloud, reports TechRadar. As more and more computing is done inside a browser as opposed to on a system itself, many enterprise organizations have begun to deploy browser isolation services where the browser doesn’t actually run on a user’s computer. Instead the browser…

US Antitrust Regulators Could Target Google’s Chrome Browser For Breakup

Slashdot reader alternative_right shares a report from Politico:
Justice Department and state prosecutors investigating Google for alleged antitrust violations are considering whether to force the company to sell its dominant Chrome browser and parts of its lucrative advertising business, three people with knowledge of the discussions said… The conversations — amid preparations for an antitrust legal battle that the Department of Justice…

Chrome Changes How Its Cache System Works To Improve Privacy

Google has changed how a core component of the Chrome browser works in order to add additional privacy protections for its users. From a report: Known as the HTTP Cache or the Shared Cache, this Chrome component works by saving copies of resources loaded on a web page, such as images, CSS files, and JavaScript files. The idea is that when…

Chrome 86 Brings Password Protections For Android and iOS, VP9 For MacOS Big Sur

An anonymous reader writes: Google today launched Chrome 86 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Chrome 86 brings password protections for Android and iOS, VP9 for macOS Big Sur, autoupgrades for insecure forms, focus indicator improvements, and a slew of developer features. You can update to the latest version now using Chrome’s built-in updater or download it directly from google.com/chrome….

Google Patches ChromeOS Update Bug That Caused 100% CPU Usage

“Hello Chrome OS Community,” posted one of Google’s community managers Wednesday. “Thank you for raising this issue, and for your patience as we work to resolve this. Our team has identified the issue and is rolling out a fix to affected devices.” The issue? ChromeOS users reported the latest updates “cause a Google Play Store service to utilize 100 percent of…

ZDNet Argues Linux-Based Windows ‘Makes Perfect Sense’

Last week open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond argued Microsoft was quietly switching over to a Linux kernel that emulates Windows. “He’s on to something,” says ZDNet’s contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:
I’ve long thought that Microsoft was considering migrating the Windows interface to running on the Linux kernel. Why…? [Y]ou can run standard Linux programs now on WSL2 without any trouble. That’s…