Google Chrome
Google's browser, available as an official Linux installer file. Not open source, unlike the Chromium project it is built on.
Our verdict
Chrome on Linux is the same browser you already use. Sign in and your bookmarks, tabs, passwords and extensions come straight across. If your bank, your work portal or your accounting site has ever told you to use Chrome, this removes that worry on day one.
Two honest caveats. Chrome itself is not open source, even though the Chromium code underneath it is, so you are trusting Google exactly as much as you were on Windows. And it is the hungriest browser in this list for memory, which matters if part of the reason you moved to Linux was to get more life out of an older machine.
Get it from Google's own download page, which gives you a standard installer file for Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora. The Flathub entry is a community package that Google does not verify or support.
What's good
- Identical to Chrome on Windows, including profile, bookmark and password sync
- The browser every website is tested against, so nothing breaks
- Built-in support for paid streaming video with no extra setup
- Google supplies an official Linux installer file and keeps it updated
What to know first
- Not open source, so you cannot inspect what it does with your data
- Heaviest browser here on memory, which shows on an older laptop
- Not in most distributions' app stores by default, so you fetch the installer from Google
- The Flathub listing is a community wrapper, not published by Google
The details
- Cost
- Free
- Open source
- No (Proprietary)
- How you install it
- .deb installer, .rpm installer, App store (Flatpak)
Windows apps it can replace
Last checked . Sources: