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Google Returns Chrome To Beta, Touts Speed Boost

Posted by timothy on from the zippy-to-do-da dept.

CWmike writes "Google yesterday reversed its decision to ditch the beta label from its Chrome browser, saying it is restoring the moniker to some builds to get faster feedback to developers. 'Since we took the 'beta' tag off Google Chrome in December, we've been updating two release channels: developer and stable,' said Brian Rakowski, a Chrome product manager, in a new blog Google kicked off on Tuesday. 'With our latest release, we're re-introducing the beta channel for some early feedback.' The first beta, Chrome 2.0.169.1, includes several new features, said Rakowski, and it boasts a significant speed increase over the current stable version of the browser, 1.0.154.48. According to Google's tests, the beta is 35% faster than the stable build when measured by the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite, and 25% faster on the company's own V8 tests." Reader Al notes too that "Google has launched Chrome Experiments, a site where Javascript coders can upload projects that make use of Chrome's speed and processing abilities. The site already features a handful of cool 'experiments' including a balls that jump between browser windows, a gravitationally-challenged version of the Google homepage and a game that runs through nine different browsers. It's cool stuff alright, but some experts wonder whether browser security might be a more important thing to focus on."

7 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is it going to come to Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's an unofficial Linux build called Chromium:

    http://code.google.com/p/chromium/

    A story ran on it yesterday on a familiar website... I think it's called "Slashdot" or something:

    http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/17/2345216

  2. Re:Linux version by dkegel · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are daily builds you could try. They're pre-alpha, though, so don't expect too much yet. Or you could build it from source, it's not too hard. See http://chromium.org/

  3. Re:worst summary ever by caffeinejolt · · Score: 2, Informative

    This chart shows deployment stats on the "stable" 1.x releases of Chrome. There are instructions on getting Chromium to compile on Linux. Chromium is the open source project behind the Chrome browser.

  4. Noo . This is the 2.0 Beta by AlienRancher · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google has not reversed their position. This is the beta for what will be 2.0 eventually. The 1.0 branch is and will be release. See: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/17/2345216

  5. Re:Is it going to come to Linux? by basementman · · Score: 5, Informative

    I tried Chromium and at this stage it is so buggy and slow that it is totally unusable. At this point I am forced to run FireFox with a bunch of add ons to try and mimic chromium's functionality, but that won't help you get to the speed of Google Chrome.

    --
    A Magic the Gathering Article and Forum Aggregator
  6. Re:Is it going to come to Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Just because they don't release the browser on the platform nobody cares about doesn't mean they're evil.

  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion