

Google Chrome Officially Out of Beta - mqt
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-chrome-beta.html

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nickb
Google desperately wants browser marketshare. My guess is that by taking it
out of beta and announcing an official version 1.x as stable, they'll be able
to finalize few distribution deals with PC OEMs. OEMs don't like shipping beta
stuff (even though some stuff they ship is worse than most betas you'd try
from MS or Google) so this will pacify them. In short, this is just a
marketing move on their part... don't read much into tech side of things at
all.

~~~
peregrine
Exactly. I love chrome and can't wait for the plugins, scripts and Linux
ports.

Minimalist: Check Fast: Check Secure: Check

Its a win for me, Firefox is great and I will always love it but I could never
get a good theme for Firefox that would return my screen and I never liked the
download manager, and the bloat.

Chrome was a dream come true.

~~~
ii
Check Chromifox 2 <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9427>

I was fooled by good Chrome UI design myself, but after careful tweaking of
Firefox with good theme and plugins I just can't use Chrome, I switched back
to Firefox completely, it's so much better in every way...

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bprater
Whoa. Didn't it just come out?

I'm really, really surprised they haven't pushed out an official Mac version.

Many techheads on the bleeding edge (and the ones that tend to push new
technology) use the Macs.

~~~
jwesley
Seriously, where is the Mac version? These are all your evangelists Google!

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ObieJazz
Mac users don't need to be saved from IE.

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maryrosecook
a) Why would Chrome, a browser that doesn't come bundled with PCs, save PC
users from IE when they already have Firefox as an unbundled IE alternative?

b) Chrome is not a competitor to IE or Firefox or Safari or any other
traditional browser. It is a competitor to Windows and OS X and other
operating systems that is being snuck in wearing a very unconvicing mask with
a picture of a web browser on it.

~~~
Xichekolas
To answer your a)... Because most users don't think about their browser and
hence use whatever the default is. OEMs will likely never bundle Firefox, but
there is a chance that they'll bundle Chrome since it has Google's name behind
it.

Hence, Chrome rescues users (developers?) from IE.

As for your b)... I agree totally. Chrome is nothing but an application
delivery platform for Google apps that is disguised as a browser. Which is all
the more motivation for Google to pursue bundling deals with OEMs.

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jacktasia
I was hoping they would have a linux version out before it (windows version)
was out of beta.

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dmpayton
How can it be out of beta when there is still no Mac or Linux version? Will
those versions spend any time in a beta state?

If the Mac and Linux versions are initially released as beta, it seems odd to
me to have one product in differing states of 'completeness' on different
platforms.

However, I can't imagine that Google would give the Mac or Linux versions the
gold star seal of approval right off the bat.

Does anyone know about the status of the non-Windows versions of Chrome? It'd
really be nice to use it, but I use a MacBook Pro at work and Ubuntu on my
dsktop at home.

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joshwa
And yet gmail is still in beta?

~~~
Shamiq
I remember they had a piece talking about this. Something about beta meaning
they would continue to add new features to it.

So I'm guessing that Chrome will not see additional functionality.

EDIT: Like he said...RTFA...

~~~
tsetse-fly
RTFA:

"We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance
have been met but our work is far from done. We are working to add some common
browser features such as form autofill and RSS support in the near future. We
are also developing an extensions platform along with support for Mac and
Linux."

~~~
transburgh
RFTA?

~~~
Shamiq
Read the F*n Article.

~~~
judofyr
Read the Fun Article?

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MikeCapone
Doesn't seem to have fixed the problem where your hard-drive keeps chugging
along for as long as Chrome is open.. I hope they'll get to that soon, or at
least, that it won't be a problem on the Mac version.

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gibsonf1
They have a bug that makes chrome unusable for me, and its still there. You
simply cannot save a file from Chrome if a file of the same name already
exists. It cannot overwrite. Geez.

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sgibat
I was a little confused about how it could be out of beta without any steps up
to this, but apparently it auto-updates without asking or telling. Not
complaining, but that's news to me.

~~~
visitor4rmindia
It didn't do the auto-update thing for me. If it doesn't for you either you
can go to "Tools" (the little spanner icon)--> "About"-->"Check for updates"
and it'll install the latest version.

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tlrobinson
Shortest Google "beta" period ever?

Now, OS X please :)

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sh1mmer
May this mark an end to the ridiculous trends of perpetual betas.

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eli_s
Memory usage is amazing in chrome. I've recently been comparing footprint on
exactly the same tasks with my own web app. Chrome < 30mb, IE 7 fully patched
XP > 160mb, FF ~80mb. I'm still using FF as my default but may be switching
soon ;)

I'm jealous of the next generation of web developers who will (hopefully) work
in a web environment with lots of competition and not so much of a browser
monopoly!

