The Wanderer <wande...@fastmail.fm> writes: > On 2022-01-19 at 19:08, Richmond wrote: > >> I see debian 10's chromium is currently on version 90.0.4430.212 >> (Developer Build), whereas google-chrome is on Version 97.0.4692.99 >> (Official Build) (64-bit). Does that mean it is out of date and has >> security vulnerabilities? > > Roughly speaking, yes, but there's background and context here. > > First up: the version of Chromium in Debian stable, like that of every > other package in stable, will remain unchanged until such a time as a > new Debian point release is made. However, there may be updated versions > made available in stable-backports in the meantime. (I do not use > stable-backports myself, so anyone who knows better than I do may feel > free to clarify, amplify, or correct on this.) > > Recent-ish-ly, there was discussion about dropping Chromium from Debian > entirely (except for the version in stable, which would remain unchanged > and quickly become stale), because the packagers couldn't keep up with > updating the packaged version against the upstream releases, and as such > vulnerable versions were being shipped for too long anyway. If I recall > correctly and my archives are accurate, the chromium package actually > *was* dropped from Debian testing at that point, with the most recent > release before the drop having been 93.0.4577.82. > > I followed parts of that discussion, and from what I can tell, the > outcome of it was that more people stepped forward and took up > maintenance of the Debian packages for Chromium. Version 97.0.4692.71 is > now in Debian testing, and I understand that a stable-backports build > was pending, as of the last word in the part of the discussion I was > following (about a week ago now); that version, or a successor, should > make it into an updated version of Debian stable at some point. > > That may not help very much for now, but it should give hope for the > future on this front, as well as bring relief that at least things > aren't going to be ending up getting that much worse.
Thanks. I have belatedly discovered the wiki https://wiki.debian.org/Chromium which suggests https://wiki.debian.org/ungoogled-chromium which is also out of date. :)