Google Chrome

[portseven]

Installed it last night, first impressions are 'not bad' though to use it as my browser of choice, I would need a Foxmarks plugin, Foxy Proxy, portable and Linux versions.

It's pretty quick and lightweight too

[bogeyman]

Ooh! Nasty rendering issues....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurafire/2822606444/

[darmstadt]

Ooh, nasty EULA:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09...me_eula_sucks/

[NickFitz]

Ooh! Nasty rendering issues....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurafire/2822606444/

That's happening because WebKit was originally designed to use OS X's Aqua for the actual pixel-level compositing and rendering. When Apple ported Safari to Windows, they included their own libraries to provide such effects, as Windows (XP, at least) doesn't have native support for the range of compositing and rendering capabilities that Aqua has.

So Google will have to also supply their own device-level rendering libraries if they are to support WebKit's CSS 3 capabilities on Windows - although there's a chance that Vista might have the appropriate rendering support, as I believe it works in a similar manner to Aqua to support various bits of Vista eye candy. Judging by the OS component of the UA string Faruk posted, his test was done on XP.

[VectraMan]

as Windows (XP, at least) doesn't have native support for the range of compositing and rendering capabilities that Aqua has.

XP has support for alpha channel blits (as did Win2K). It also has GDI+ which can draw antialiased arcs like that. I don't think Vista has anything extra, other than the fact the shell now uses it.

But it's easier to blame Microsoft.

[NickFitz]

XP has support for alpha channel blits (as did Win2K). It also has GDI+ which can draw antialiased arcs like that. I don't think Vista has anything extra, other than the fact the shell now uses it.

But it's easier to blame Microsoft.

The problems Faruk was talking about weren't just to do with antialiasing an arc, there's things like compositing the text shadows. Aqua is optimised for such rendering. Windows is in principle capable of it, but it doesn't mean that the multiple rendering and compositing steps involved can be done in a performant manner; hence Apple's optimised libraries for Safari.

OTOH, these are implementations of CSS 3 properties which aren't yet part of any defined standard (hence the "-webkit-" prefix on the property names) so there's actually no reason why Google should feel impelled to support them. I can certainly understand why they would regard an experimental implementation of a proposed standard as being very far down indeed on the list of priorities. After all, they aren't claiming to be producing a Safari clone.

[bogeyman]

Ooh, nasty EULA:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09...me_eula_sucks/

Unreal

Well, that's one browser I will be avoiding.

[NickFitz]

Ooh, nasty EULA:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09...me_eula_sucks/

Unreal

Well, that's one browser I will be avoiding.

False alarm folks - somebody in Google's legal department mucked up

From Matt Cutts at Google:

...it was clearly a mistake on Google’s part to include that language when it shouldn’t have been there...

Read the whole of Matt's post for details, but basically what it comes down to is that, if someone creates a Google Doc or Spreadsheet (using any browser) and wants to share it with another person, they have to give Google permission to display it to that other person, and that's what that clause is all about. It shouldn't have been in the Chrome Ts & Cs, as it really makes no sense there; it just sort of drifted across when they were drafting the Chrome Ts & Cs based on the existing ones for other products.

It has now been replaced with a clause that explicitly states that you retain all rights in your own stuff. Storm in a teacup, and as so often in this world, it was down to cock-up, not conspiracy

[VectraMan]

Just noticed Chrome installs itself under Documents & Settings, not under Program Files. Wierd.

Also noticed that Chrome.exe is small (620KB), and doesn't statically link to any DLLs other than the usual system ones. Firefox.exe is smaller, but statically links to 12 DLLs one of which is 9.7MB. Shows why Chrome starts up in an instant, and FF is dog slow.

[d000hg]

Doh! Okay so I figured out how to show the bookmark bar. I think I would have had that on by default though.

On the top-right, I have a "Other Bookmarks" button. It has all my bookmarks from FF.

I was impressed to see that Chrome not only imported my bookmarks, but form auto-complete data also - I had to login to CUK on thefirst visit with Chrome as there was no cookie, but the user/password fields were already filled. Neat.