Google readies Chrome for Mac and Linux

Google has revealed it is working on versions of its Chrome internet browser for Mac and Linux operating systems.

Writing on the the search giant's Mac Blog, Google software engineer Amanda Walker said the company is now "actively working" on versions of the newly released Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux.

Although the project started off with a Windows-only focus, Mac and Linux specialists have since joined the Chrome team.

Walker said: "Once the design started to settle down, we started adding Mac and Linux engineers to the team, and they started getting the ball rolling on those platforms. Since they are, in many respects, more similar to each other than either is to Windows, we've ended up being able to share code between them, which has sped up development a bit."

Despite Chrome's Windows heritage, Google is already promising the Mac and Linux versions of the browser will be designed for the platforms they run on, rather than a recreation of the Microsoft version.

"Sometimes even code written with multiple platforms in mind (as much of the Chromium code already is) will turn out to have embedded assumptions that aren't valid once it's actually running on the other platforms. The team is fully aware of this and is prepared for it, rather than dictating that everything accommodate to how things work on Windows," Walker wrote.

There's no word on when Chrome for Mac and Linux will be ready, however. "We're not setting an artificial date for when they'll be ready," she added. "We simply can't predict enough to make a solid estimate."