Google releases beta of Chrome for Mac and Linux

Google Chrome for Mac Beta on Mac OS X 10.6. Google has officially released version 4.0.249.30 of Chrome for Mac and Linux, the first betas of its Chrome WebKit-based browser for each platform. For nearly six months, Google Chrome for Mac and Linux has only been available as developer channel (a.k.a. the Dev channel) releases. Once Google considers the Dev builds to be stable enough, they are promoted to its Beta channel for future testing.

The Mac Beta of Chrome lags behind the Linux Beta because it lacks working extensions and a bookmark manager. According to the announcement on the Chromium Blog, the Linux Beta "works well with both GNOME and KDE". Chrome for Linux is installed and updated using using rpm or deb package managers.

Chrome for Linux Beta on Ubuntu 9.10. Google has launched a beta of the Chrome extensions gallery to support the launch, also in beta, of extensions for the Windows and Linux versions of Chrome. Extensions allow users to extend their browser by writing scripts which can become part of the browser experience, in a similar fashion to Firefox Add-Ons. The gallery has more than 300 extensions which users can install from the site with a simple click. Google's sample extensions include a Mail Checker and Feed Reader subscriber.

According to Google, the Chrome for Mac Beta requires an Intel-based system and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. The Linux beta of Google Chrome is available for 32/64 bit Debian/Ubuntu or 32bit/64bit Fedora/OpenSUSE systems. More details about the Google Chrome Beta releases can be found in the announcement on the Google Chrome blog and on Google's Chrome features and Mac features pages. Google Chrome 4.0.249.30 Beta for Mac and Linux is available to download. The developers note that Linux users that have already installed the Dev channel version may need to uninstall that first before installing the beta.

See also:

• Chrome extensions gallery opened to developers, a report from The H.

(crve)