Google stuck code into Chromium, the supposedly free version of Chrome, to download and install a nonfree piece of spyware.

Because Chromium itself is free software, users have the power to change it to prevent the download of that module.

This highlights the difference in ideas between free software and open source.

Open source claims to yield practical superiority: better quality code. Free software is about an ethical, political superiority: the users have control over the program.

In this instance, open source did not achieve its stated benefit, but free software is vindicated.