reopen 886358 thanks On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:20:14 +0200 Philipp Hahn <h...@univention.de> wrote: > Sorry for re-opeing this bug, but it cost me some time to find that > Debian disables the shreen sharing extention in its build of chromium. > > > This is the intended default configuration. For those that would like > > it enabled in their version, the suggested patch is correct. > > Can you at least clarify *why* that feature is disabled? Neither my web > search nor looking in the Debian source package found any hint: > * Does it make the package non-free/contrib > * Is it an security issue? > * or is there some other technical reason to disable it in Debian? > > After re-compiling chromium with that extension enabled I was finally > able to use the screen sharing extension with my colleges.
The new text in README.Debian does not answer any of these questions. Quoting the relevant section in its entirety: > Built-in Extensions > =================== > > The debian package disables most built-in upstream extensions by default > since users have stated concern about enabled features that they have not > specifically requested. This includes things like Google Hangouts, etc. > > There are two exceptions, the pdfium extension for viewing pdf files > directly in the browser and the two-factor authentication extension. > > If you would like to use one of the upstream built-ins that are currently > disabled, please edit debian/rules to enable it and rebuild the package > from source. See debian bug #886358 for more information. This is not in any way an explanation. "users have stated concern" - *what* concern? Rebuilding the Chromium package is not a viable path for most people, especially since the package gets updated regularly. Having this disabled breaks the ability to do screen sharing in Hangouts meetings. Having this enabled causes...what problem, precisely? I'm not suggesting that this extension is the ideal method to enable that functionality; indeed, there are more standard WebRTC features that could work instead. But that's not the question at hand. At the very least, this needs an explanation commensurate with "why is it important to break people's ability to do screen sharing by default in a way they won't easily discover and can't easily fix". If there's a reason that outweighs that, it needs to be documented. And if there *isn't* a reason that outweighs that, then please enable this extension.
