The switch to Google Chrome
So Google finally has a proper deb package of Google Chrome for linux. About time too! Prior to this, I’ve seldom used Chrome, only a couple of times on Windows preferring instead to stick with Opera there. And I never bothered with Chromium.
Anyway, I’ve been using the Linux beta for a couple of days now and I must say I’m really impressed. There are many nice touches, some of which remind me of Opera at times.
- Speed!
- No separate downloads window. Downloads show in a new tab like Opera.
- The ability to “pin” a tab. I love how my most used tabs can be pinned and they take much less space.
- More screen real estate for webpages. Ok, I liked this from the first time I tried Chrome.
- Extensions! I somehow always felt Firefox extensions slowed down my browsing experience, so I never bothered with them. But unlike Firefox, Chrome extensions feel unintrusive and lean. I remember the Delicious extension on Firefox doing way too many things I didn’t want it to. All extensions on Chrome just add a simple button next to the address bar. However, there are some really great extensions and I do not notice any slowdown in the browser. Among the recommended extensions: Feedly, Google Mail Checker, Delicious Bookmarker. And they all work very well.
- The little status bar at the bottom when you hover on a link. Again un-intrusive and neat.
- The bookmarks bar which conveniently pops up when a new tab is opened.
- Despite the themes, it integrates nicely with GTK.
It’s my primary browser for now. At least until Opera 10.5 or Firefox 4. :)
Notes