https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:SRWare_Iron#Controversy
I never knew there was any controversy about the SRWare Iron browser, but on the Wikipedia Talk Page there are some accusations. Whether the criticisms are legitimate or credible is still in question.
Would this sort of controversy affect your decision to use SRWare Iron?
It would give me pause. If I really loved Iron I might continue to use it while keeping an eye on the controversy for facts.
With that said, I never could get Iron installed on my Ubuntu laptop. I no longer remember what the problem was.
As for Chrome/Chromium, it has been a few years since I tried them. Frankly, I never liked the minimalist approach to browsers Chrome uses, and back then it always felt like a Beta. Add to that, that I don't trust Google not to cheat means I quit using them.
One thing I did learn from reading all of that was that SRWare Iron isn't really a Chromium fork. They essentially just take the Google Chrome browser each time it is upgraded, and manually pull out the code that phones home to Google.
Here's a good list of alternate Chromium browsers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_%28web_browser%29#Other_browsers_based_on_Chromium
>>fork
I saw that too, though they take the Chromium code, not the Chrome code. In that sense neither Chrome nor Iron are forks of Chromium.
Maybe I'm crazy for using Chrome, but I seem to attract and ferret out all browser instabilities and recent versions of Firefox and Chrome are so solid for me, that I just don't want to bother experimenting, especially with a semi-shadowy SRWare Iron.
Ultimately, knowing that the EU is always ready to sue Google if their browser is phoning home more than they claim is more comfort than knowing some resident of the EU claims to oppose the phoning home and claims to be a force for good.
I was on a Chrome kick for about a year or more, but it got too crashy for me...both SRWare Iron and Chrome, so I've reverted to Firefox. If I did go back to Chrome I'd certainly take a look a the non-Google variants. However, I guess Opera 18+ could fill that role for me as well.