Oh yes, I am writing this post. In fact, I’m writing it within the subject of the article!
Google recently released Chrome, its own, open-source internet browser. In a market dominated by Internet Explorer 7 (although IE8 is already available in beta 2 form) and FireFox 3, of course Google had to come up with it’s own solution. The real confusion is what open-source solution open-source advocates will rally behind. FireFox has been the primary open-source internet solution for a few years now, with “everyone else” using Internet Explorer (and a subset using Opera or Safari). Adding more confusion, Google has a working contract with Mozilla (they make FireFox) that extends all the way through 2011.
Either way, I’m happy that Google threw their hand into play. This shows that even open-source solutions can benefit from competition. And because everyone has access to the code, the winning modules or solutions can be augmented into the “losing team” anyway. From my understanding, Chrome uses the open-source page renderer webkit (created by Apple) and source code from FireFox itself!
So how is Chrome different than the other guys? For one, they’ve revamped the “home page”. Now, your home page consists of a 3×3 snapshot grid of your most visted websites along with recent favorites and a search bar. The tab system has been massively overhauled, spawning a new “Chrome” process on your computer for each tab. This kind of programming modularity gives Chrome extremely effective memory management and crash resistance. For a more thorough run-down of (fairly technical), I’d recommend reading the Google Chrome Comic, I’ve posted the first page above.
Try it out and tell me what you think!
