Google debuts Chrome for Mac, Linux
Summary
Topics
"In order to get more feedback from developers, we have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux, but whatever you do, please don't download them," Google product managers Mike Smith and Karen Grunberg said in a blog post, evidently trying to use a little reverse psychology. "Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable and potentially crashing software."
Until now, Google's open-source browser has been a Windows-only product, and some Mac and Linux users have been clamouring for their own version. Google coders have been working to rebuild some Chrome components, such as its graphical interface and its sandbox that isolates different processes from each other, to move beyond just Windows.
Google offers three versions of Chrome: stable, beta and developer preview. The Mac OS X and Linux versions fall into this last category, the most buggy and least tested and complete.
The Flash plug-in will not work, for example, so watching videos is out of the question. Printing or bookmark management are not yet implemented; and privacy controls are not complete. Google said there are more than 400 bugs that need to be resolved.
Although they are released only for the experimental crowd, the new versions are a big step forward for the browser. First, the versions will plug into Google's auto-update service that automatically downloads new versions. Second, the products bear the Google Chrome brand, not just the Chromium label of the only incarnations available until now. And third, a much larger audience will be helping Google debug the code through automated crash reports of the new versions.
Not everyone can try the Mac and Linux versions, however. Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya said the Linux version is supported only in the Debian and Ubuntu incarnations of Linux, and the Mac OS X version only works on Intel-based Macs.
Google is not saying when the new versions will make it to beta status, much less stable. "It's unclear. This is a first step," Bencuya said.
After years of near-dormancy when Microsoft's Internet Explorer ruled the roost, the browser world again is on fire, fuelled by competition and a new generation of more interactive web applications. Mozilla is on the cusp of releasing Firefox 3.5, as is Apple with Safari 4 for both Windows and Mac OS X. Opera 10 is in beta, and even Microsoft is slowly starting to speed up with the weeks-old Internet Explorer 8.
According to Net Applications statistics, Internet Explorer remains at the top, with 65.5 percent market share in May 2009. Firefox has 22.5 percent, Safari 8.4, and Chrome has edged up to 1.8 percent since its launch in September.
All this variety means web developers have to test their sites to make sure they work with more versions. Because Chrome uses the WebKit engine for interpreting and displaying web-page coding, the same engine Safari uses, Google argues that Chrome should be similar. But Chrome uses a different engine for JavaScript called V8, and web-based JavaScript instructions are at the heart of much of the present proliferation of elaborate web pages and applications.
The browser challengers argue that having multiple browsers on the market means web programmers will aim more for supporting standards such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript. And indeed, Microsoft made a standards mode the default for IE8. However, varying interpretations of standard and varying degrees of support complicate the matter, and a large number of people have not upgraded from IE6, much less IE7.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 10 Talkback(s)
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A Cross and garlic needed
I view Chrome with deep suspicion and will be keeping it at arms length, besides I doubt it will ever come with an ad blocker.
Alan Smithie5th Jun 2009 -
RE: Google debuts Chrome for Mac, Linux
Um, this is probably a dumb question, but where's the
download link?
teddybairs15th Jun 2009 -
Here
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-
channel
Download the .deb file appropriate for your
system.
I used the Chromium daily builds so far, and on
the surface, it doesn't seem like there's a
difference between the two, except the name and
logo. Which is good: Apart from the lack of
features, the release is very stable: Hasn't
crashed once, even on the previously crash-prone
Javascript-intensive Facebook.
MetzM5th Jun 2009 -
I just downloaded Chrome to my old Aspire One, and it rocks.
Firefox did not run very well on the Aspire One
with 8 GB SSD. I am using XUbuntu.
DonnieBoy5th Jun 2009 -
Why are they so squeamish about it?
I've been using the chromium-browser from the dev repos
at google for Ubuntu for several weeks now. I've been
watching it as it's moved from a relatively unstable
curiosity which crashed frequently to a stable,
functional browser on which the only thing I can't seem
to do is run flash. Are they testing the same linux
browser I've been using? It seems to work just fine to
me, yet they seem so uncertain of it.teddybairs15th Jun 2009 -
Negative Publicity
They probably want to avoid negative publicity.
I, like you, watched chromium-browser evolve
from a ticking time-bomb to a stable
environment. I now use it as my full-time
browser safely, and I accept that for Flash,
I'll have to switch to the similarly-light
Midori (DON'T install the Jaunty one: it's
horrendously unstable. Add the newest version
instead, it's perfectly stable) - but I think
the Average Joe that just wants his YouTube
won't like it when Google Chrome refuses to do
it - and that even when it's implemented in the
future, he'll remember that time it didn't work.
I do miss the daily updates, though. It was
pretty, watching Chromium evolve: Step by step,
it gained a basic GUI, then tabs and such.. It
stopped crashing on Javascript so often, and
slowly but surely developed into an almost fully
functional (Flash excepted) browser. About a
month ago, it stopped crashing on SSE
exceptions, and two weeks ago, it gained the
ability to limit crash-damage to just a single
tab.MetzM6th Jun 2009 -
RE: Google debuts Chrome for Mac, Linux
There is no download for Mac, even the link given by MetzM
is bad. Has this been pulled already?
SD_Johnny6th Jun 2009 -
Sorry
The problem was on my end/ZDnet's comment system:
The last bit of the link ended up in a different
line, so different link. Here's a shorter one,
hopefully it won't cut off?
http://tinyurl.com/chromedevsMetzM8th Jun 2009 -
Never could get the PPA Ubuntu Chromium daily builds
to work on my x86_64 Jaunty setup, so I was thrilled when the 3.0.183.1 version of Google Chrome for Linux practically installed itself and ran without any problems. If an ad blocker like Adblock Plus were made compatible and I could run my Delicious bookmarks and tags in a sidebar, I'd almost be willing to ditch my trusty Firefox/Swiftweasel for Chrome. Talk about trophy wives !...
Henri
mhenriday8th Jun 2009 -
It is about time
I never understood why google didn't have an ubuntu version of chrome when they run entirely on a derivative of ubuntu themselves.
cyrusvannorman10th Jun 2009
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