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Google Upgrades Chrome To Beta For OS X, Linux

Posted by timothy on from the browsing-is-what-cows-do dept.

wkurzius writes with this nugget from Mac Rumors: "As anticipated, Google has finally released an official beta version of its Chrome browser for Mac. The initial beta version, termed Build 4.0.249.30, requires Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, and is only compatible with Intel-based Macs." And hierofalcon writes with word that Chrome has also been made available as an official Linux Beta.

18 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Adblock by Nerdfest · · Score: 3, Informative

    Support for extensions is currently in development ...

  2. Works Great on Leopard by organgtool · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have been running one of the Chrome nightly builds on Leopard for several weeks and I am extremely impressed with its speed and stability. I have never had a single tab crash on me. I'm sure that people will complain about the lack of support for extensions compared to Firefox, and rightly so. But if you don't need many extensions, I highly recommend trying out Chrome.

    1. Re:Works Great on Leopard by Trev311 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have been running one of the Chrome nightly builds on Leopard for several weeks and I am extremely impressed with its speed and stability. I have never had a single tab crash on me. I'm sure that people will complain about the lack of support for extensions compared to Firefox, and rightly so. But if you don't need many extensions, I highly recommend trying out Chrome.

      Or if you want to not give google more information you can wait until SRWare* or someone else releases it without all the tracking (and google updater) crap in it for Liunx/OSX. SRWare releases Chrome without the google-bits in it as Iron

  3. Re:Adblock by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... and per-tab processes for Firefox are also currently in development.

    I don’t think I’ll be switching any time soon, since I see per-tab processes as a nicety and adblock as a necessity.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  4. Beware Google's penchant for auto-updates... by courcoul · · Score: 5, Informative

    Beware that the first time you run Chrome, it will install their Keystone auto-update facility, with which Google feels free to update whatever they want, whenever they want and however they want. Even when you're not running the browser, as the Keystone agent will launch itself automatically at system boot.

    You have been warned.

    1. Re:Beware Google's penchant for auto-updates... by just_another_sean · · Score: 2, Informative

      He didn't say it ran constantly, just that it did not depend on the browser running. Check your cron tables*.

      * I'm not running Chrome so I can neither confirm or deny the GPP but AC's post above is certainly not enough
      to convince me that GPP is definitely wrong.

      --
      Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
    2. Re:Beware Google's penchant for auto-updates... by psocccer · · Score: 5, Informative

      The OP might not be completely wrong, according to a dpkg-query -L google-chrome-beta it installs some stuff to /etc/cron.daily/google-chrome which apparently adds an extra source to your apt sources then updates google chrome based on some settings in your /etc/default/google-chrome. It also adds the source to /etc/apt/sources.list.d. Seems a bit invasive to me.

      --
      Free Online Woodworking Resources Directory
    3. Re:Beware Google's penchant for auto-updates... by the_crowbar · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just installed the beta from google.com and it installed an entry in /etc/crond.daily. The comments say it only reactivates the repository after dist-upgrades disable it. I.E. intrepid->jaunty From a quick read of the script that is what it does.

      Cheers,
      the_crowbar

      --
      Have you read the Moderator Guidelines
    4. Re:Beware Google's penchant for auto-updates... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh, and I also discovered a file at /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist, which runs "/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon" and can be disabled in the same manner described above.

      (BTW-- I have a few google apps including Google Earth installed, so I'm not sure which installed what. But this is what I've found so far...)

      I just installed Chrome on my MacBook Air, which doesn't have Google Earth installed... and I don't have that file on my system.

      I've poked around all the various and sundry locations used by cron, anacron, and launchd - nothing. So I'm guessing Google Earth was the culprit in your case - the Chrome drag-and-drop install looks clean.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  5. Re:Adblock by nate_in_ME · · Score: 2, Informative

    On my computer, Chrome just auto-updated today to 4.0.239.30(Windows Version) and in the "new tab" display, it advertises at the bottom that extensions are now available. No reliable ad-blocking solution yet(just a couple with dodgy reviews), but I imagine its only a matter of time. There was one specifically to remove the ads on Facebook profiles, which does seem to work quite well so far.

  6. Iron. by nawitus · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you don't want to be spied by google every second, download the Iron browser. It's based on Chrome code base, but has spying disabled.

    1. Re:Iron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      At least that's what SRWare claims - I haven't heard about anyone reviewing their code.
      They only provide an archive on rapidshare, no source repository, no changelog.

  7. Re:Adblock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Answer me this, please. Why would anyone who likes this browser ever use the Google-released version, for any reason??

    Why would they not use this instead? No really, I want to understand this.

  8. Re:Adblock by mdm-adph · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because SRWare only releases updates to Iron every now and then. I don't think there's even an auto-update.

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
  9. news at 10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    who needs an "official" release? would you mess around with apt's keyring? i use this for about three months. it's fast and mostly stable on Debian lenny and squeeze. the v8 java script engine is a magnitude more powerful and faster than iceweasel's. put it in ~/bin or something. it's worth trying:

    http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-linux/LATEST

  10. Re:Adblock by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Software should update itself when it runs. It should not rely on a separate boot-time updater.

    The only software that should update itself by a boot-time updater is the OS itself.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  11. Re:SRware Iron for Linux has been in beta since No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    (Remember, Iron is the no-phone-home, no-spyware, privacy-assured derivative of Chrome.)

    Remember Iron has a closed development process. The source is only released as an archive on rapidshare and I'm not aware of anyone ever reviewing it. There's no issue tracking either, just a moderated forum.
    I wouldn't trust a browser from people that can't operate a source code repository.

  12. Chrome on Linux is not in wine by caseih · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wine? What does wine have to do with it? Chrome for linux is a GTK-based (for better or worse) native linux app.