We’re six months after the initial release of Chrome for Windows, and we still don’t have the promised Linux and Mac OS X versions. Jordan already detailed the progress on the Linux/Gtk+ version of Chrome not too long ago, and now Ars has done the same for the Mac version. As it turns out, Chrome for Mac is making some serious progress.
Just before Consumer day Valentine’s day earlier this year, Google engineer Mike Pinkerton posted a few screenshots of the work-in-progress Mac version of Chrome, but noted that it was all extremely preliminary. The renderer crashed constantly, clicking didn’t work, and it all looked a bit weird. The interface was 100% Cocoa, however, and despite the renderer crashing, the browser itself kept on running.
Ars checked out recent code of Chrome for Mac, and built it. Much has been improved, as the video they made shows:
Late March Chromium Walk-through from Ars Technica on Vimeo.
You can load web pages, click on links, and work with tabs (to a degree). There is no support for plug-ins yet, though, and it’s all still highly volatile. While the video shows that Chrome is still recognisable as “Chrome”, it’s also an obvious Cocoa application. According to Google, platform integration is important. “Mac users are especially concerned with fit and finish,” Senior Software Engineer Amanda Walker told Ars, “And we have paid particular attention to those details while integrating with the OS.”
This integration is more than just skin deep, however. “We wanted to do as much as possible to work with native services, from threading and the Mach layer through working with the native keychain and with PDFkit. We wanted it to feel like a real Macintosh application, from using stored passwords and the address book to Spotlight,” Pinkerton explained to Ars.
Ars also had the chance to ask the Google engineers about Chrome’s security features, which proved to be too formidable for the crackers during the PWN2OWN contest. “We were surprised to get as much attention as we did,” Amanda Walker told Ars, “But it validated our architectural decisions, like sandboxing our renderer. We’re not under any illusion that Chrome is immune from a security standpoint but this does vindicate some of the choices we made.”
A beta of Chrome for Mac is supposed to arrive before or during autumn.
Much as I like the idea of Chrome I can’t see what I would gain from using it.
I use Firefox 3 on my MBP because of several extensions that I can’t live without.
Granted, it’s JS engine is slower than Chrome but if I needed the extra performance in that area I can already use Safari 4 (With adblock plugin) or wait on FF 3.5 and still have my extensions.
That only leaves one Chrome feature that isn’t covered already, namely sandboxing.
Though one can’t miss what one has never had.
I gained a fast, lightweight, and nimble browser – and that covers both the rendering engine as well as the user interface. It’s not bogged down by useless crap like Firefox, IE, and Opera are. And, of course, the sandboxing for security, and the process management for stability.
For me, there’s no other browser that even comes close. Whenever I’m forced to use Safari or Firefox (on Mac and Linux, respectively) I feel like I’m making a trip back in time.
I gained a fast, lightweight, and nimble browser – and that covers both the rendering engine as well as the user interface.
For now. Wait until Google catches featuritis…
Sad thing is that you are right…sooner or later google will do like every other browser and add loads of useless crap…and then be just like every other browser with no apparent advantage over the others.
However, until then, Chrome stays my primary browser
There is a slight ray of hope. One of the main guys behind the mac version of Chrome is Mike Pinkerton (which is who the article got a lot of the information off).
He’s still the project leader, and longest serving contributor to Camino, Mozilla’s Mac native browser which continues on with its goal of avoiding feature bloat. They are extremely picky about what features they add in this respect (though of course as they use gecko, whose development is mostly driven by firefox, they don’t have complete control).
Hopefully Mike will be able to have some influence in where Chrome goes.
I don’t really see the point either. On Windows chrome is nice because there is no good webkit browser there (Safari for windows doesn’t count).
But on the mac? They already have Safari, so why have another browser? Safari has essentially the same JS speed, so that can’t be the reason. And just to offer some improved sandboxing they are going to put so much effort into a browser?
I’m not sure I would gain much from Chrome either but we’re not the main targets.
They’re trying to sell their services and they need a strong, supportive browser to do that. As with operating systems, you don’t want your word processor to crash and take down everything else.
A problem with their word processing won’t affect their spreadsheet, mail, or calendar and keeping disruptions to a minimum is exactly what a business needs. Google Chrome + Google Gears could be a good deal for small businesses that can’t afford a powerful machine with MS Office on every desk.
Install MS-Office 2003 + Office Live extension. Then do something stupid like copying an Excel spread sheet into a Word Document as an Icon.
I was getting a 100% repeatable crash of Excel that left Word unable to do anything.
Is that really a surprise to you?
1) MS Office applications use a lot of the same DLLs
2) MS Office has quite often used undocumented APIs.
3) Was any non-MS application affected?
I’d agree about safari 4, but I think the upcoming version of FF gets too much hype for speed. It’s consistently benchmarked at about three times as slow as chrome 2.0 on my system. Which is still pretty fast compared to the current stable version of ff, but it’s a pretty big difference between it and chrome or safari.
“The renderer chrased constantly”
I was wondering what chrased meant, so I tried to look it up, but when I didn’t find anything I realized it was supposed to say crashed.
Yeah, the “h” landed at the wrong place. Probably a bug in the author’s brain. Please access Bugzilla to file a bug report.
The way tabs are integrated seems far better (visually and functionally) then the safari4-tabs. It doesn’t compromise the functionality of the tabs or the title-bar and doesn’t take up to much space.
Looking forward to use this browser on my mac!
I’m looking forward to giving it a spin and since the sandboxing seems to be quite successful I’ll definitely seriously consider making it my default browser.
I tried Chrome when it came out and really was not thrilled. When you consider the privacy issues (even when opting out) I don’t see it as being worth it. If you really like Chrome why not try Iron?
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
If you download the latest Chromium releases you lose the Google branding and all the privacy issues (except the ones you can turn off easily under Options). More on it here: http://outerheaven.c-reality.com/archives/125-Chromium.html