Google Chrome, the open source browser that recently made headlines, was unfortunately only released for Windows. Linux and <a href="Mac users were left out in the cold.
It was possibly to get the browser working with Wine, but it wasn’t very stable by all accounts. Thanks to CodeWeavers, they have ported the Chromium browser to Linux and Mac OS X and packaged it ready for download on both systems!
First impressions of the Linux version? For some reason my whole screen goes black while a page is loading or when a new tab is opened. I see this in Vice (The C64 emulator) and any movie player other than mplayer so it’s an issue with my setup, not the browser. The fonts in the url bar suck as well, but I’m sure they can be fixed too. My curiousity is sated. CoveWeavers did a great job, but I’m going back to Firefox. (Via Tom)
So today I am pleased to announce that we have shipped freely available versions of Chromium for both the Mac and Linux. Not only does this give Mac and Linux users a chance to see what all the hype is about, it also lets the world see just how far Wine has come and how powerful it truly can be. In just 11 days, we were able to bring a modern Windows application across to Mac and Linux.
Code Weavers didn’t actually port it. They just took the Windows Chrome code and tweaked Wine to make it work. If it was truly a port, you wouldn’t see things like the black screen you see when loading a new tab. I’m not saying that their package isn’t great, but it’s definitely not as good as getting a true port from Google.
eventually google should make a *real* linux version like they did with google earth. does it support embedded fonts yet?
Scott – I think the black screen would still show, it’s a problem with something on my video system because even native Linux apps blank the screen too. Makes firing up x64 very annoying 🙁
Dan – not sure about the fonts, but yes, hopefully there’ll be a native version eventually!
I think I’ll wait for a native linux or osx version before I try it out, though I might try it via parallels if I have the time (doubtful!)