Debian will abandon Google in favor of DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for its Chromium

Debian and DuckDuckGo

As for search engines and browsers, there is almost a total monopoly on the part of Google. Chrome is on around 80% of devices, with Chromium still holding onto some of the remaining 20%. If we talk about search engines, only those that seek privacy or something different and practices such as those of Microsoft, which forces us to search in Bing if we use the native search in Windows, make the panorama change slightly. It can also be changed, though not too much, by projects like Debian if they make changes like the ones we bring you today.

Starting with Chromium 104, the browser offered by Debian will start using the DuckDuckGo search engine, abandoning the Google that is by default today. One thing must be clear: this change, at least for now, will only affect the Chromium that they offer in their repositories. Firefox will continue to be the default browser, and Google will continue to be the search hub.

Debian Edu 11 opened the season

Shortly after the release of Debian 11 came Debian Edu 11, and that's where it changed most drastically. Both Firefox and Chromium started using DuckDuckGo. And it is that this type of change is made little by little, like when Canonical made Chromium disappear from its official repositories to offer it only as a snap. In the last chapter of this story we have seen how stitches are not given without thread, and in April was Firefox the one that happened to be only as snap in what is expected to be the second of many. With Debian the same could happen, but with the browsers.

In addition, Debian had been warning for a couple of years, but it was in the middle of this month when has been accepted definitely the proposal. The change will be done from Chromium 104, and it will be done for privacy. Google, Facebook and other companies like Amazon know everything about us, they have an X-ray of each one of us, and it is difficult to escape from them. Using a search engine like DuckDuckGo helps, but at the sacrifice of a bit (a lot) of search accuracy.

I use DuckDuckGo for a long time, but I have to admit that I keep poking around Google when I want precision and not waste any time. Of course, I do it from the !bang of the duck, which for me is the best thing about DuckDuckGo. More and more of us are using it, and we do it precisely to avoid being watched. The support of the different projects could be key to its improvement, but it is difficult to fight against a giant like Google. Next stop, maybe, and if they do like the Edu version, Firefox ESR.


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  1.   Marco said

    A wise decision. I've been using DDG for a couple of months and so far I haven't missed Google, except, as the article says, for very specific topics.

  2.   Nonamed said

    now the logical thing would be to do the same in firefox

    1.    Diego German Gonzalez said

      Hard. Most of the Mozilla Foundation's resources come from Google.