Chrome 5 Beta Released | Hacker News Reader

Chrome 5 Beta Released

thechromesource.com

22 pointsdcawrey27 comments

Holy version inflation, batman! At this rate, it won't be long before it's 'better' than IE8. :) And poor Firefox, they've got lowest version of any major browser.

Under Firefox's versioning system this is 1.5 or so.

Quite. Strangely messy too...option and page menus have the same icon, the appliction doesn't seem to render properly, and a number of other quirks. On the other hand it feels faster: considerably so, in fact.

1. right "Wrench" -> Options -> Personal stuff -> Reset to default theme

2. https://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/themes/index.html

I don't know how you can call it a new version with no new features. It's strange.

It's not a new release, it's the beginning of development on a new version because they shipped the old one. This is no different than any other development process ship cycle, one of the first things you do after you ship is rev. the version number for new development. That doesn't mean there's any substantial feature difference, the unusual bit when it comes to chrome is the dramatically open development process of the dev team, which gives anyone in the world the ability to install what are basically automatically updated daily builds just by selecting one radio button over another.

By the time that version 5 actually ships it will certainly have new features.

But it's already in beta, and betas are generally supposed to be feature-complete.

Stable and beta channels are 4.0.x, only the dev. channel is 5.0, it's not a beta release.

See: http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/

> Also, in the Under the Hood tab for Chrome Options, there is a new Content section for fonts, language and Google Gears settings:

This is not new as these settings are available in the 4.x version, but I was really hoping they would add a setting to set a freaking default zoom level finally. I've been wanting to use Chrome on my high-DPI HTPC for about a year. Chrome will DPI scale flash, while Firefox does not but the no-default zoom means every tab you create you have to zoom in to get your 6' interface.

Also, I tried downloading from the beta channel on windows and got Chrome 4.x (beta). Is there a trick to getting on the 5.x stream?

switch to the dev channelr ather than the public beta, that's where most of the excitement is. It is a bit more alpha than beta, mind - it's not uncommon for major functionality to break for a day and then be repaired the day after.

Cool, and there I discovered a plug-in for my default zoom issue, if anybody is interested:

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jgfonhdeiaaflpgp...

I'm happy to see browser competition heat up once again, and Chrome is running my htpc for the limited web usage it needs, but the Mac version 4 was totally unimpressive when you factor in the scarcity and immaturity of the plugin ecosystem, compared to the excellent (and much faster) plugins that I depend on in Firefox(1). Here's hoping they catch up fast.

(1) Specifically Rikaichan, which turns on/ off in < 1 second on all my various computers, compared to anywhere from 1 second to 30 seconds (no joke) in Chrome's Rikaikun.

On dev channel, both in Mac and Windows, I have had ver 5 running since about last week. I know its kind of hard to believe, but as fast as ver4 was, ver5 'feels' even faster. I didn't know it could be even faster than it already was. Extremely impressed. The dev version on mac is much much better than ver4.

This is kinda sad, because this is the first time I had a 'stable' mac browser. Safari has 'beach ball syndrome' and it could be argued that, as far as stability is concerned, safari 4 on mac is like IE6. Firefox was never very stable under Mac (still much better than safari).

Experiencing such amazing speed and stability from a google browser, I can't wait to find out what google will bring to the table with Chrome OS when it finally comes out.

Exciting times.

Interesting side bit: "For those of you interested in making some money finding flaws in Chrome browser, you probably want to have the latest and greatest version." pointing to http://www.thechromesource.com/know-a-chrome-flaw-google-wil...

Guerrilla tactics for exploit hunting. They'll pay $1337 for each new security problem. How un-Microsoft :-)

They've removed the goat teleportation from this version :'(

Since server is still throwing a 500.

Another source: http://centralcomputing.blogspot.com/2010/01/tech-mania-down...

(a bit ad-infested, though. I am not affiliated in any way.)

Or, Google has cached the posted article:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.thechromesource.com...

offline full installer without the bootstrapped updater crap

http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/307.1/chrome_installer.e...

Mac download still offers 4.0.249 currently :-/

You can use TechCrunch's Chromium Updater to get to the latest 5.0 version.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/16/our-mac-chromium-update...

I had upgraded using that and I didn't even know it.

or... just use dev channel. Which automatically updates for you with nightlies. Why would anyone use a third party software to update browser when they already make it extremely easy for you?

To update, just use the browser (dev channel), and it will update for you even before the blogheads starts writing about it, with the latest version as soon as it comes out.

Was not aware of this, thanks for the heads up.

Internal Server Error

I just want any release version for Mac. Do I have to wait for version 12?

No, you don't have to wait.

Posted from Chrome on Mac.

I meant an actual release, not a beta. I'm using Chrome on a Mac as well, but the bookmark manager doesn't work, and there's no syncing. Interesting how I get voted down because people on Hacker News don't know what it means for software to be a "release". It means, a release, as in, not beta, or alpha, or a release "candidate".

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