Comodo promises faster Dragon browser updates

Several browsers based on Chromium came out shortly after Google released its Chrome web browser. Most had in common that they modified or removed privacy related information or modules.

Comodo Dragon was one of the browsers and while it did indeed remove privacy related information in the port, it did became clear fast that development of the browser was lagging behind in a serious way.

Comodo released version 36 of Comodo Dragon yesterday and with it comes a promise to dedicate more resources to the development to shorten the time it takes to release the browser after a new official Chrome release.

With that promise comes a controversial change that Comodo is criticized for heavily: an interface that looks now very similar to that of Google Chrome.

Comodo is not the first company to face criticism for that though. Mozilla, makers of Firefox, were criticized recently for it as well when Firefox 29 launched with a new interface that resembled Chrome's interface in many regards.

Below you find two screenshots of the interface. The first the old interface with its iconic round menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.

The second is a screenshot of the new Comodo Dragon interface that launched in version 36 of the web browser.

As you can see, the main menu button was changed into a Hamburger menu and moved to the right side in the exact same location that Chrome displays the menu in.

There are still differences when you compare Chrome's interface to the interface in Comodo Dragon. One is the Comodo title, another the color scheme which is different as well.

You are probably wondering why Comodo made the change. The reason given is to speed up further development. Maintaining a different menu and button position requires resources which Comodo wants to spend on bringing updates faster to users and to concentrate on privacy and security features and improvements.

A positive side effect of the change is that the change introduces full support for Chromium themes which was not the case previously.

Comodo Dragon is still three versions behind Chrome Stable which is currently available as version 39. It will be interesting to see if Comodo can close the gap further. Considering that each new release fixes vulnerabilities in the browser accelerating releases is definitely a welcome change.

Comodo Dragon users who don't like the new interface cannot really do anything about it. Staying on version 33 may work for them but it leaves the browser vulnerable to attacks and since Chromium-based browsers are not as customizable as Firefox is, there is no option to create a browser extension or theme to revert those changes again.

Additional information about Comodo Dragon are available on the Comodo website.