Google updates Gears for new Firefox 3.5
For those who use Firefox 3.5 but also want to use Gmail with no network connection, Google has an answer: a new version of its Gears plug-in.
Gears endows browsers with some new abilities, including accessing some Web applications even while a computer is offline and juggling multiple simultaneous tasks more effectively. And using Gears, Google last week began letting people see their location on Google Maps by clicking the small circle below the navigation controller and above the zoom controller.
Major updates to Mozilla's open-source browser often break add-on compatibility, and the earlier version of Gears wouldn't work with the newly released Firefox 3.5. The new Gears 0.5.29.0 fixes that.
Users of Mac OS X and Windows can click the "install" button at Google's Gears Web site. The new version is spreading to Mozilla's add-on site, too.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
Mac: http://addons.mozilla.org/google/google_gears_osx.html
Linux: http://addons.mozilla.org/google/google_gears_linux.html
- by ArtInvent July 14, 2009 10:48 AM PDT
- So Google is going to release an entire OS based on Linux and Chrome . . . but at this point they can't seem to get their act together enough to release a Gears for Linux 64, or even a fully baked Chrome for Linux for that matter. I'm still running a Windows version of Chrome through Wine, which is pretty awful. Next, they don't have native linux versions of either Picasa nor Sketchup (the old wine trick again.)
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- by Shankland July 14, 2009 11:51 AM PDT
- Not to be a Google apologist, but the fact that they have any Linux support at all for Picasa and Sketchup (and Google Earth) puts them miles ahead of most companies when it comes to Linux desktop software, Wine or not. It's a small market, and most companies choose to do nothing. You'll get your Chrome for Linux eventually (especially given the Chrome OS push). If you were in charge of allocating finite developer resources and wanted to make as big an impact with Chrome as possible as soon as possible, which OS would you support first?
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- by SteveMcQwark July 14, 2009 6:02 PM PDT
- There is a pre-alpha of Google Chrome. It currently doesn't have plug-in support or Gears, but other than that, its probably much better than Chrome + Wine. And its developing really fast. They'll probably have it ready for the Chrome OS open-sourcing later this year. Just FYI :)
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(6 Comments)Unless they throw a whole sheetload more developers at this stuff, the notion of challenging MS with a Chrome OS while I'm still young seems pretty laughable.
The Gears are turning very slowly indeed.
The more notable trajectory in my opinion though is Google's attempt to make Web applications richer and more powerful, a move that benefits Linux users tremendously since Web-based applications don't care nearly as much about what operating system is underneath the browser.