Chrome on Linux: A good look

By: JP Smith | Published: December 9, 2009

Categories: Software, Internet

When I saw that the Linux beta of the Google Chrome browser had been released, I was all over it. If you aren't familiar with Chrome, it's a very lightweight web browser that is very standards-compliant and speedy. Right now, I rank it as my second-favorite browser, behind Firefox. Firefox still has it beat in the extensions department but, beyond that, Chrome has the potential to be a real contender.

While its been out on Windows for a while, Linux (and Mac) users have been on hold for a while, waiting for this to drop.

For us Linux folks, there were user-maintained versions that we could get our hands on (example: chromium).  However, I wanted to wait for an official version from Google.

Installation:
The first thing I noticed was that installation was a breeze. I run Ubuntu 9.10 on my laptop so, it was a just a matter of downloading and running GDebi to install Chrome.  In a couple of minutes, it was installed.

First impressions:
I didn't time it but, to me, the browser performed much like its Windows counterpart.  It's very fast and renders pages well. The text renders, to me, much the same as Firefox.  However, like I said, it just feels faster.  Now, this could be, in part, due to the lack of extensions running, unlike my Firefox install.  But, for the most part, I am sure it goes back to how the browser was built.  It's definitely made to interact well with modern web applications.

 

Plugins:
Okay, this is where my gripes lie.

I wanted to check out Flash video so, I went to YouTube.  I didn't expect it to work but, I didn't see any message telling me I needed Flash player installed, which I would get for Firefox under Linux.  However, what was really annoying was that there was no clear explanation of where the plugin should go. After search online, I found were someone had posted a sort of how-to based on a previous build of Chrome.  In a nutshell, I had to go to the /opt/google/chrome directory and make a directory there called "plugins".  I then had to copy the Flash plugin there and restart the browser. After that, I was able to view Flash videos. However, my question is, why didn't Google have the plugins directory created at the time of the install.  It might save a few headaches.

Extensions:
I didn't really get into this.  However, I noticed that Chrome's extensions site is growing, sporting some 400+ extensions.  I think that the success of this browser will rely heavily on the enthusiasm outside developers will show for creating extensions and plugins.  So, let's see if this number grows.

Final thoughts:
If Google can get it together, it might be able to take on its bigger competitors.  I think that Firefox is actually in more danger than IE just because of its relative market-share and the fact that corporations seem to rely heavily on the Internet Explorer browser above all others.  I am hoping that Mozilla is taking not of this because, if they don't speed up Firefox, it could end up losing users to Chrome.  So, we'll have to see how Chrome pans out but, I get the feeling that the future is bright for this browser.