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Don't get me wrong, I agree. What Im getting at is more of the "they have the funds and manpower to keep it up". I'm not saying it can't be done, just wondering what ifs.

While chrome is an extreme example, what I'm getting at is resources. Projects are very expensive. And they may require funding to upkeep. In other words, if sold off, it would need to be to a company of scale that could afford to continue to develop and maintain. Plus, My guess is if actually sold off, it would be under some deal that would allow Google to still influence. Whether that's like the Firefox deal to default to Google search or some other manner. Either way, I don't see a sale of chrome being a "win" without knowing other factors.

Edit: forgot to answer your other question. I don't see Firefox as less secure but tying back to my original text, they recieve a ton of funding. A lot of which is from their Google deal I believe among other things. Which i could see ending up happening if chrome were to actually sell too.