Google debuts Chrome for Mac, Linux
Updated 8:53 p.m. with download links and further details and 9:47 p.m. with hands-on testing results.
Google released Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux Thursday--but only in rough developer preview versions that the company warns are works in progress.
"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 employ 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 clamoring 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.
Chrome for Mac OS X sports the same new-tab interface as the Windows version. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)The Flash plug-in won't work, for example, so forget watching YouTube videos. Printing or bookmark management aren't implemented yet. And privacy controls aren't fully baked. Google said there are more than 400 bugs that need to be stomped.
Even though only released 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, though. Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya said the Linux version is supported only the Debian and Ubuntu incarnations of Linux, and the Mac OS X version only works on Intel-based Macs.
I gave the Mac OS X version a 40-minute whirl and was delighted to find one of my favorite Windows features--fast launch. Pages loaded reasonably quickly, too, though a few times the browser seemed to hang while loading one.
Chrome has edged up to 1.8 percent of the browser market--small but good enough for fourth place.
(Credit: Net Applications)The only pages that didn't work for me were Yahoo Mail, which told me I had an unsupported browser, and those that required Flash. But a number of complicated JavaScript-based sites, including Gmail, Flickr Organizr, and Google Docs, had no troubles.
The animation around the tabs is pleasing, but also helps your mind grasp what's going on. A new tab rises up from the window frame. When you close a tab, the adjacent ones slide over to fill the gap. The active tab is lighter, though the other tabs are not as relatively dark as in an earlier build that I tried.
I experienced what I thought was one crash I feared brought down my machine, but after about 15 seconds the browser and machine became responsive again as if nothing had happened.
I was pleased to see the three-finger left or right swipe work to page backward and forward. However, some keyboard shortcuts were flaky--or perhaps I just have to learn new ones.
Google isn't 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, fueled 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 battleship Microsoft is slowly starting to speed up with the weeks-old Internet Explorer 8.
The Mac OS X version, 3.0.182.5, is close to the latest Windows developer preview, 3.0.183.1.
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)According to Net Applications statistics, Internet Explorer remains the king of the heap, 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 that 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 IE 8. However, varying interpretations of standard and varying degrees of support complicate the matter, and a large number of people haven't upgraded from IE 6, much less IE 7.
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. 
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=mac
The 'net will continue to evolve. We have no idea what things will look like 10 years from now.
Google reveals Chrome extensions plan (December 2008)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10110247-2.html
Chrome extensions draw near... (May 2009)
http://news.cnet.com/chrome-extensions-draw-near-but-advanced-html-5-features-recede/
can i know why ?? is it faster than Firefox ?? some ppl w'd say yes and a lot w'd say no , but whatever i'd not switch for the 2 miliseconds that chrome can load the page befor firefox.
does it have plugins ?? NO
does it have themes ?? NO
can u get the same chrome theme on firefox ?? YES
so even people who like chrome for its simple theme..they can have that on firefox and enjoy the millions themes and plugins that firefox got.
.. the only acceptable reason for anyone to switch from firefox to chrome is if they have stoned PC with less than 1 GB of RAM
but with 3-6 GB RAM ..firefox even starts faster than chrome .. you can open more tabs than you can do with chrome since it doesnt use as much resources as chrome uses after opening +6 Tabs..and it doesnt crash as much as chrome does..for me firefox never crashed .
Way slower than chrome.
An that without Add ons.
And my computer has a pretty descent 3 gig worth of ram, and 2.6 dual core processor.
Firefox stand nowhere near chrome speed.
I call BS.
The only reason Chrome exists is to be a marketing tool.
Am I wrong to think that this applies to every Micro$oft user?
This was not intended as an insult to chrome developers. It was a quote (uttered by the chrome devs themselves) to set the expectation at the right level for a pre-beta release (developer preview).
You're a liar. I see Vi$ta crash and slug along all the time on people's computers. Most say they want to go back to 98 or XP.
Provide us proof that your XP with a Vi$ta skin doesn't crash before you make a claim so false that it makes Obama phony birth certificate look real.
I have Vista running on 2 machines and Win7 on 1, I haven't got a blue screen on any of them.
Having a Beta tag can same them from trouble I'd imagine too. Find a large bug, or other showstopper? It's still in beta.
But I agree, for what I have seen their beta products are pretty much stable and usable.
If you hate Apple so much, why oh why, do continue to read articles about Apple and then put in your two cents worth of mostly non-sense. If I hate a particular company, then I am not going to waste my time reading and commenting about them just to stoke the fires! It just make any sense to act like a bunch of 12 year olds. Get a life people!! Stick to the subject at hand in a constructive manner or just move along. Having said all that, I will wait until the Chrome is a little more polished. It does look promising at least.
Ok, so I assume you don't? Why not just post your last sentence and left out all the rest instead of looking to provoke the people in your first sentence.
ckh1272: Dude that won't happen until and unless all those ignorant CrApple trolls continue to troll that's when Windows fan boys will come to the RESCUE!!
That means it's only gonna happen with the release of endangered os--snow leopard because finally you guys get a different color for dialog boxes--similar to that of Vista. That means you guys will finally get rid of that ugly grey color that can't be changed. By the way I can change and choose any color I want on Vista and 7 :)
ckh1272: Dude that won't happen until and unless all those ignorant CrApple trolls continue to troll that's when Windows fan boys will come to the RESCUE!!
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ROFLMAO! Oh wow man, you *actually* believe that garbage, don't you? Don't worry, those pads on the walls are for your protection.
i'd rather buy 3 pc's which cost less than 3000$ , but not buy a MAC , which makes things look ugly , and cant be used for gaming ..and after all waiting for Microsoft to give your crap system a decent office .. most of the guys who come here to show their ignorance are the ones who baught MAC system and feel they were fooled , but instead of admiting it they try to act smart .
Anybody knows If they plan to integrate the tab bar within the title bar like they did with Windows?
I say good for them!
Cody
Oh, and Apple's laptops and desktops out-sells Dell, HP, and others every quarter. So your statement is moot.
"Oh, and Apple's laptops and desktops out-sells Dell, HP, and others every quarter. So your statement is moot"
maybe they just like the model , but the sad thing , ppl uninstall MAC and install windows right away lol and thats why MAC has less than 1.80 of the OS market share .. it just a poor product and i belive with windows 7 out OS X market share w'll drop below 0.50%
The knowledge that neither my youtube account nor my yahoo mail will work is a big deterrent, though.
Here's to hoping they create a fix for that in a month or two.
As far as trying to get another browser popular on the Mac, basically most hardcore Mac users are on Safari, most geeks who switched over from Windows are on Firefox... neither of those camps are likely to switch to Chrome. Safari practically is the same as Chrome for most things.
- by queticomn June 6, 2009 7:33 AM PDT
- Chrome the spyware machine. Google will not implement adBlock, if google did implement adBlock it would be the same as google turning their back on its advertising partners, which then affects google's revenue source and bottom line.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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