Google Chrome on the Mac - When beta doesn't mean beta

I’ve been using Chromium (the developer version of Chrome) since May side by side the WebKit nightlies. They’re very fast and I like Chrome quite a bit however I won’t be moving to Chrome/Chromium as my main browser. Yet. After all it’s still a beta and under very active development.

And like any craptastic method of making sure one has an easy time of making an article/blog post/etc. a set of pros and cons as to what I like and dislike about Chrome/Chromium)

Pros:

  • Super fast, uses a newer version of WebKit than Safari. (If you like Safari but want the new versions of WebKit - use nightly.webkit.org - will never use Vanilla Safari again)
  • Automatically updates itself silently (Chrome only, Chromium must be manually updated
  • Updates often so new features and bug fixes in WebKit show up quite quickly.
  • Bookmark Sync (this came online last week). Awesome.
  • If one tab crashes the entire program doesn’t crash. Huge. Not as huge since Safari started sandboxing Flash but huge none the less.

Cons:

  • Silently installs an auto updater that is hard to remove and impossible to control in a managed environment.
  • Extension support not easily accessible
  • Bookmark Management is near non-existent. It’s a completely broken feature at this time.
  • No Click To Flash yet. Flash Blocker is a poor substitute.
  • Tabs just become a set of mountains when too many are open.
  • Top Sites look alike feature isn’t as customizable. Oddly I use Chrome’s Top Site feature but not Safari’s.

I like it a lot but I believe calling it a beta is disingenuous. A beta usually refers to something feature complete and in bug testing. My usage however says that it’s very solid but that new features are being added all the time. The reality is that Google Chrome is being treated like a web application - iterated fast and often and there is no real distinction between alpha, beta or a final “1.0” version number. Just a stable and unstable branch and the version number to correspond to where development is at.

It’s a bit more chaotic but represents a change in how developers can approach development, after all there are no instances of a user using a version 3 or 4 versions old when you make sure everyone is using the latest version all the time.