SRWare Iron

SRWare Iron is a Chromium-based web browser developed by the German company SRWare.[11] It primarily aims to eliminate usage tracking and other privacy-compromising functionality that the Google Chrome browser includes.[12] Iron ships with certain Chromium privacy options switched on by default, it provides some additional features that distinguish it from Google Chrome.[1][12]

SRWare Iron
Developer(s)SRWare
Initial release18 September 2008 (2008-09-18)[1]
Stable release(s)
Android102.0.5200.0[2][3] Edit this on Wikidata / 6 July 2022
Linux113.0.5750.0[4][5] Edit this on Wikidata / 14 June 2023
macOS113.0.5750.0[6][7] Edit this on Wikidata / 20 June 2023
Windows114.0.5800.0[8][9] Edit this on Wikidata / 17 July 2023
EngineBlink, V8
Operating systemWindows 7 and later, OS X 10.9 and later, Linux, Android 4.1 and later
Size74.1 MB (Windows), 110 MB (Android)
TypeWeb browser
LicenceBSD, with some parts under other licences.[10] Source code not provided.
Websitewww.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

Development history

Iron was first released as a beta version on 18 September 2008,[1] 16 days after Google Chrome's initial release.

On 26 May 2009 a Preview-Release (Pre-Alpha) of Iron came out for Linux.[13] And on 7 January 2010 a beta version for macOS was released.[14]

On 11 August 2010, Microsoft updated the BrowserChoice.eu website in order to include Iron as one of the possible choices.[15][16]

More recent versions of Iron have 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.[1] Support for Windows XP ended with version 50, but all older versions are still available.[17] With version 55.0.2900, control of WebRTC is taken over by an add-on.[18] Therefore, the "WebRTC disabled" builds are no longer available.[19]

Differences from Chrome
See also: Google Chrome user tracking

The following Google Chrome features are not present in Iron:[20][21][22]

  • RLZ identifier, an encoded string sent together with all queries to Google.[23]
  • Google Search access on startup for users with Google as default search.[23][24]
  • Google-hosted error pages when a server is not present.
  • Google Updater automatic installation.
  • DNS pre-fetching,[25] because it could potentially be used by spammers.[26][27][28]
  • Automatic address bar search suggestions.
  • Opt-in sending of both browser usage statistics and crash information to Google.
  • Google Native Client.[29]

Added features include:

  • An ad blocker.
  • A user agent switcher.
  • Opt-in blocking of other background communications, such as extension, GPU blacklist, and certificate revocation updates.[30]
  • Increased number of recent page thumbnails shown on the New Tab page.

Criticism

In December 2014, Lifehacker said that Iron offers little that is not available by simply configuring Google Chrome's privacy settings.[31] However, the_simple_computer wrote that Iron removes the Google Native Client, Google's custom navigation and error pages and other similar features.[29]

In October 2014, the_simple_computer wrote that even though SRWare Iron released under the BSD licence, the latest source code publicly available at the time was incomplete and for version 6, even though the binaries were on version 14;[29] source code was moved to RapidShare in 2013, with external access blocked, effectively making the program "entirely closed source".[29] In the same year, Lifehacker wrote that SRWare had not released the browser's source code for years.[31] In 2015, SRWare temporarily resumed releasing the source code for the browser.[32]

See also

References
  1. SRWare. "SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future". srware.net. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  2. "New Iron-Version: 102.0.5200.0 Stable for Android".
  3. "New Iron-Version: 102.0.5200.0 Stable für Android".
  4. "New Iron-Version: 113.0.5750.0 Stable for Linux". 14 June 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  5. "Neue Iron-Version: 113.0.5750.0 Stable für Linux". 14 June 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  6. "New Iron-Version: 113.0.5750.0 Stable for macOS". 20 June 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  7. "Neue Iron-Version: 113.0.5750.0 Stable für macOS". 20 June 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  8. "New Iron-Version: 114.0.5800.0 Stable for Windows". 17 July 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  9. "Neue Iron-Version: 114.0.5800.0 Stable für Windows". 17 July 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  10. "SRWare Iron is based on the Soucecode of Chromium. It is licensed under the BSD-license." SRWare Iron installer. Accessed 2020-05-19.
  11. "SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future". Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  12. SRWare (n.d.). "SRWare Iron: The Browser of the future - Overview". Retrieved 18 July 2010.
  13. "Iron Pre-Alpha for Linux Download". Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  14. "New Iron-Version: 4.0.275 Beta for MacOS". Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  15. Kai Schmerer (10 August 2010). "Microsoft aktualisiert Browser-Auswahlbox" (in German). ZDnet. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  16. BrowserChoice.eu (n.d.). "Choose Your Browser". Archived from the original on 8 February 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  17. "Index of /old/iron/win". download1.srware.net. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  18. "WebRTC Block Extension - SRWare.net". www.srware.net. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  19. "Iron WebRTC disabled Builds". www.srware.net. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  20. SRWare. "SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future". srware.net. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  21. "Privacy, unique IDs, and RLZ - Google Chrome".
  22. "Google Chrome Privacy Whitepaper". google.com. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  23. "Google Chrome, Chromium, and Google". Retrieved 28 January 2010. See Which Google Domain
  24. "View of /trunk/src/chrome/browser/google/google_url_tracker.cc". Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2010. Source code comment on line 31
  25. "Chromium Blog: DNS Prefetching (or Pre-Resolving)". Chromium Blog. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  26. Srinivas Krishnan, Fabian Monrose (2010). "DNS prefetching and its privacy implications: when good things go bad". USENIX. p. 10.
  27. Mike Cardwell. "DNS Pre-fetch Exposure on Thunderbird and Webmail". Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  28. SRWare. "SRWare Iron - Frequently Asked Questions". SRWare. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  29. "The Private Life of Chromium Browsers". thesimplecomputer.info. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  30. SRWare. "New Iron-Version: 13.0.800.1 Stable for Windows". srware.net. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  31. Alan Henry. "The Best Privacy and Security-Focused Web Browsers". Lifehacker. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  32. SRWare. "SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future". srware.net. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
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