Comparing Chromium Development at Google and Igalia
Chromium developer Sharon Yang discusses her transition from working at Google to the employee-owned cooperative Igalia. The talk highlights the cultural and operational differences between a massive tech corporation and a worker-owned co-op within the same open-source ecosystem.
Why it matters
It provides insight into alternative organizational structures within the software development industry and how they impact developer experience and open-source contributions.
Every article on LWN.net is written for humans, by humans. If you've enjoyed this article and want to see more like it, your subscription goes a long way to keeping the slop at bay. We are offering a free one-month trial subscription (no credit card required) to get you started. By Jake Edge September 30, 2026 FOSSY Sharon Yang is a Chromium developer who worked at Google on the browser and now works on it at Igalia. On the final day of FOSSY 2026, she gave a presentation on her experiences with both of those companies, comparing and contrasting the ways each one operates and how that affects work on the code base. She enjoyed working at Google and feels the same about Igalia, so the talk was not aimed at complaints—instead it was meant to give a feel for two companies that are rather different.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in