June 5, 2009

Google Chrome for Mac and Linux, Dev Preview

In the past 9 months, Google Chrome's developers have been hard at work to post the Windows version of the browser to Mac and Linux. Even if the Mac and Linux versions aren't ready for the general public, Google decided to release a developer preview for those who want to use an early version of the browser.

"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! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software. How incomplete? So incomplete that, among other things , you won't yet be able to view YouTube videos, change your privacy settings, set your default search provider, or even print," explains the Chromium blog.

The Mac version requires Intel CPU and Mac OS X 10.5.6, while the Linux version requires Intel Pentium 4 / Athlon 64 or later CPU, and Ubuntu 8.04 or Debian 5 or later.

I installed Google Chrome 3.0.183.1 in Ubuntu 8.10 and the process was painless. Most web pages are rendered properly, with the notable exception of the pages that require Flash or Google Gears. The settings dialog lacks many of the options that are available in the Windows version, the bookmark manager doesn't work, you can't change the default search engine, but these are just missing features that will be added in the near future.

Google Chrome for Mac:



Google Chrome in Ubuntu 8.10 (initial warnings):


22 comments:

  1. Going to try out the Mac build when I get home and see how it's progressing!

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  2. Aren't those specs ( Intel Pentium 4 / Athlon 64 or later CPU ) too high? I wanted to install it in my EeePC 901 (with Ubuntu), and considering that FF3 works fine there, I would expect Chrome to be even better!

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  3. @UVL:
    Try to install it. I installed Chrome on a laptop bought 4 years ago (Mobile Sempron / 1.8 GHz / RAM: 512 MB) and it works fine.

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  4. It seems to have problems with twitter.com though, signing in gives me a "403 Forbidden: The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it." error. Don't have that problem with Firefox on Linux.

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  5. Google hired an ex-mozilla noob. GTK+ sucks.
    If it would have used QT, there would have been mac and linux versions long time ago, with minimum effort.

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  6. @Dread Knight They explain why they avoid cross-platform toolkits at http://groups.google.com/group/chromium-dev/msg/f3507e2ded99b354

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  7. The screenshots here for linux version have cut off the actual title bars. Chrome's color scheme looks quite out of place. I'm wondering why they don't use the current GTK theme's colors for the Linux version just like they have used brushed aluminium for the Mac. :(

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  8. Its a good news for me and many mac users. The effort of google programmers have to be appreciated.

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  9. That's pretty crazy it would seem that a company like Google would not release software like that.

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  10. era ora! One point other than those already stressed by google itself: when you open chrome in ubuntu 9.04 you still see the window bar on the top

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  11. Awesome. I use Ubuntu 9.10 and I always missed Chrome... Thanks a lot.

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  12. Well Google chrome is a faster,stronger browser as compared to Google..Now this is also available on MAC & LINUX...its really great...

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  13. Thanks for giving me knowledge about google Chrome.

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  14. Gmail also works better in Google Chrome than any other browser

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  15. Google chrome is nice as compare to other browers, except firefox.. and all google application works better in chrome.......

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  16. I waiting for google chrome to come up with more features.

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  17. there is a setting in the options menu to use the current gtk theme. QT wouldn't have been an option with the BSD license that chromium (Chrome's core) uses, QT's LGPL license simply isn't compatible.

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  18. The effort of google programmers have to be appreciated..... it's a very good news for mac users....

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  19. I use Ubuntu 9.10 and I always missed Chrome... Thanks a lot.

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  20. Have been doing extensive testing on the Mac version. Seems to be working pretty well.

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  21. :l i hope they fix it, its really good with windows 7 vista

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