Posts Tagged ‘chrome’

Want Faster Browsing? Google FTW!

Well, Google is at it again. I am now relying on yet another set of Google products..

This week was a big week for non-Windows users waiting for the Chrome browser. Earlier this week they released the beta of Chrome for Linux and Mac. I actually held out a bit on using many of the pre-release version of Chrome on Linux/Mac, mostly because I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands, but also because I didn’t realize just how much faster it really was than the browsers I’d been using. But, it wasn’t just Chrome that has sped up my browsing experience this week either.

Last week Google announced the general availability of its new public DNS service, touting it  as a speed booster(?). DNS typically isn’t something that we give a ton of thought to when chasing after faster browsing speeds, but I was pleasantly surprised by a bit snappier browsing experience. Of course, my download speeds really aren’t any faster, but the initial connection to my favorite websites (and non-favorite I suppose..) has sped up a bit. Just how much faster did this new DNS service make my little network go? Well, I really don’t have any numbers. If you haven’t tried it, it’s definitely worth a shot.

All’s not entirely well in my new Google world since Chrome is still in beta. I have to close the browser on occasion because things start acting up and some of my saved passwords are acting a bit weird, but overall the experience has been great. I still have to rely on a combination of Firefox and Safari for things that Chrome is buggy at (or can’t do like my Zimbra admin :( ), but that’s to be expected with a beta.

If you are running a Mac or Linux machine as a desktop, I’d encourage you to check out the new Chrome beta. I guess even more of my data are now belong to Google..

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Filed under How-Tos / Tips, News : Comments (0) : Dec 10th, 2009

Just What Is Google Doing with Two OS’s?

I just got done reading TechFlash’s account of Steve Ballmer’s comments regarding the newly announced Google Chrome OS project and he raised some good questions. Now, I have about as high opinion of Ballmer as the next open source person, but when the CEO of the largest operating system maker in the world speaks, you better at least entertain what he has to say. You can view the webcast here, but here’s the money quote:

The last time I checked you don’t need two client operating systems. We tried it before. Windows 95 and Windows NT. It’s good to have one. So I can’t.. I don’t really know what’s up at Google.

Obviously Steve knows about as much as the rest of us about Chrome and if he knows any more, he’s not saying. He calls into question Google’s strategy with building two different products with a bit of overlap on netbooks. He has a good point there. Microsoft’s tried it and failed with having a home and professional edition. But, what about Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and Windows Vista? You can’t tell me that those are the exact same code base. Two of those run on embedded devices that have processors measured in Megahertz and memory measured in Megabytes. Vista barely runs on a machine with 2 Gigabytes of RAM, a fairly new processor, and has a minimum of 15 GB of hard drive space.

Okay, so Microsoft is doing the same thing, just much more quietly. But why would Google? It’s quite simple, really. They were built for different purposes. Of course, I can only speculate, but I’m guessing that since the two are meant to serve two completely different needs, it would be a waste for them both to contain code that’s not shared. A waste of hard drive space, memory, and processing time. Each of those will contribute to a slower-running OS. Chrome is supposed to be built as an OS for web-applications, not for local applications. Cell phones are a world of local apps that utilize web services, especially in a world where network connectivity isn’t always all that fast on cell phone networks.

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Filed under News, Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jul 15th, 2009

Chrome for Mac and Linux Before Q3 of 2009

According to CNET, Google has promised a Mac and Linux version of its Chrome browser by the middle of 2009. Chrome for Windows went into a non-beta state (which is a big accomplishment for Google) in December of 2008. CNET has a poll on their site asking what users’ biggest barrier to entry to Google Chrome is and the lack of Mac and Linux versions was number 2 and 4 respectively. Number one was better performance and number 3 was plugins and an RSS manager and reader. Zimbra did test on browser performance when Chrome came out and performance-wise it did slightly worse than Safari but better than Firefox 3 and IE8. Google is also working on an extension platform that it says will “develop over time”.

You can follow the development status here and find a “pre-beta” version of Chrome for Mac here.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Jan 14th, 2009

Chrome No Longer Beta

Google announced today something that I didn’t realize they were capable of doing. They removed the “beta” label from Chrome and announced it was ready. Chrome is the search giant’s new browser and has been in a beta release stage since early September of this year and it was announced by Google today that it is ready and will remove the beta label. Google will also be working on Mac and Linux versions that are “coming soon”. Google is boasting better stability, speed, bookmark manager and privacy controls in the new non-beta release. They stated in the announcement that the 1.0 release is 1.4-1.5 times faster than the first beta at interpreting JavaScript using its V8 JavaScript Engine. The announcement also admits some of this early release’s shortcomings: missing form autofill, an RSS interpreter, an extensions platform, and support for other OS’s besides Windows.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Dec 12th, 2008

Google Pulls a Microsoft

Several PC vendors have come forth and stated to Google that they want Google’s Chrome to ship pre-insatlled on their PCs. Dell, HP, Acer, and Toshiba have all said they would rather be shipping PCs with Chrome as the default browser rather than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. IE has become the most-used browser on the web consuming about 70% of all users on the web after Microsoft started shipping it with Windows in the mid 90’s as the default browser. Microsoft has been at odds with OEMs over the last couple of years blaming them for the failures of Vista. As Mac sales surge, OEMs have to be looking in other directions for some help in losing the public perception that PCs are less secure and less reliable. The argument really lies in OS X vs. Windows, but both companies have gone by the terms “Mac vs. PCs”. Chrome is expected to be out of beta early next year and Google plans on pushing their product to try to take over IE as the dominant browser. Microsoft has been setting their sites on Google to take down their dominance as in the search market and it seems Google is trying to turn things around on Microsoft. Consumers tend to use the default browser with default settings that ship with the computer. Given that Chrome will come with Google as the default search provider, it will continue to dominate the market as well as hopefully gain a stronghold in the browser market as well.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Nov 22nd, 2008

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