If you are confused about the distinction between open-source and free
software check out this
(https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/essays-about-free-software) which contains
some essays about free software. This article
(http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html)
specifically deals with the difference. In short open source and and free
software do share some things in common such as using the same licenses a lot
of the time and similar development. However the philosophies are totally
different. People who promote free software care about the freedom aspects
(see the article on what free software is if this is unclear) while
open-source philosophy is mostly concerned with producing powerful and useful
software.
As far as the parts that are iffy look at
(http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/universe/c/chromium-browser/chromium-browser_11.0.696.68~r84545-0ubuntu1/copyright)
which contains the copyright files. Many files in there have unknown
copyright. The source may be available but if the copyright is unclear we
can't guarantee all 4 freedoms such as the freedom to share copies.
I haven't read every post but I don't see anything about specifically hating
google. If google releases clearly free software we include it. Trisquel
will play webM which was free'd by google. It is just because some files are
unverified we can't include it. If google clears up the copyright it can
probably be included.
This is a quote from an IRC chat we had about chromium a while ago:
(11:46:33 AM) quidam: that would in any case come after someone really
reviews the code
(11:46:53 AM) quidam: and I'm putting that pretty low in my priority list
(11:48:41 AM) quidam: in any case, bear in mind that we do not claim chromium
to be non-free
So basically it is in "possibly free" category. Unfortunately that doesn't
meet our licensing requirements and until someone actually takes the time to
do the work and sort through chromium's licensing mess
(https://code.google.com/chromium/terms.html) we can't include it until we
are sure it is "truly free" vs "possibly free"
As to your last statement I wouldn't disagree. Chromium would probably be a
powerful addition. But this goes back to the difference between open-source
and free software. Our primary concern is software freedom first and
software quality second. So if parts of chromium are non-free and midori is
free, well then we have to pick midori even if chromium is more powerful
until the issues are resolved.
