Chromium Web Browser Review

As you may know, Google released a Web Browser named Google Chrome which is becoming popular on the Internet. Google Chrome is a lightweight browser that adheres to standards, and is competing with Opera, Firefox, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for your desktop. The Chromium Web Browser is the browser code base that Google chrome is based from. The Chromium Browser does have a few slight differences in it to is Google Chrome brother.

Differences Between The Chromium Browser and Google Chrome

The primary differences between the Chromium Browser and Google Chrome is that the Chromium Browser does not come with the Google Branding, and the other Google specific services built in like page translation. The Chromium Browser also does not support the h.264 codec for html5 video by default. You can view more a more in-depth chart of differences between the Chromium Browser and Google Chrome on the following pages from Google’s Code Lab.

Installing Chromium Web Browser

Windows users and Linux users alike can install Chromium, there are instructions on how to build the Chromium Browser for your specific operating system from the Chromium dev pages. If you are an Ubuntu user, then you can add the Chromium PPA repository and code signing key and install Chromium from Synaptic by taking the following steps:

Installing Chromium on Ubuntu

1. open “Software Sources” from the System–>Administration menu.

2. Add the following to your Software Sources

Karmic Users

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Jaunty Users

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Now we must add the GPG code signing key for the Chromium Repos, add it by following the steps below.

Add the GPG Key for the Chromium Repos

1. Open a terminal

2. Copy and paste the following in the terminal : sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

3. In the terminal type sudo apt-get update and press enter

that will update your software sources and allow you to install Chromium on Ubuntu. You will also get the added benefit of being able to get updates from Chromium pushed like regular software updates.

Installing Chromium in Windows

To install the Chromium Browser in windows, one must build it from the source and then install it according to the instructions on the Chromium development site. however, if one doesn’t want to or don’t know how to do this, you can easily install the SRware Iron Browser which is pretty much the Chromium Browser for Windows. SRware Iron Browser has all the Google customizations and such removed and is the equivalent of the Chromium Browser. you can easily download and install SRware Iron Browser from their web site.

Chromium Browser In Everyday Use

In everyday use, you will not notice much of a difference between Google Chrome and the Chromium Browser. The interfaces on the two browsers look pretty much the same, and if the absence of  Google’s integrated branding and other Google services appeals to you,  then the Chromium Browser is probably right up your alley.

The Chromium Browser supports plug-ins just like Google Chrome does and it is very trival to get Adobe Flash, Sun Java, and other plug-ins to work with it. In fact, the only plug-in Chromium didn’t recognize right off the bat was the Adobe Flash plug-in which is a special case for me because I am running 64-bit Ubuntu Karmic. All I had to do was download the 64 bit Adobe Flash beta and drop it into Chromium’s plugin directory.

The Chromium Web Browser passes the Acid2 and Acid3 tests 100%. It also incorporates Google Chromes V8 JavaScript Engine which in many benchmarks is the fastest performing JavaScript engine of any browser. This means JavaScript heavy sites should be much faster in Chromium then other web browsers. The Chromium Browser also supports the same sand-boxing technology that Google Chrome does(Even though some Linux distros disable this, Ubuntu is not one of them. The sand-boxing is fully functional under Ubuntu)

The Chromium Browser allows you to choose which search engine you would like to use with it. I changed the default search engine from Google to IxQuick Search engine. The Chromium Browser gives you a few options on which search engine you would like to use like Yahoo, Bing, Google, Ask, and a few others. I had to go to Ixquick’s web site and add their search to Chromium, but after that its been smooth sailing.

Chromium Browser Conclusion

Overall, I must say I am very impressed with the Chromium Browser. Even though I am a very avid Firefox fan, the Chromium Browser does give users a reason to think about switching. It offers excellent standards compliance, supports plugins, has all the Google branding stripped from it, and is very speedy and stable. It is good enough that it will stay on my Ubuntu machine, but it won’t become my default browser yet. The sheer amount of extensions available for Firefox at the moment still gives Firefox a one-up on Chromium and the Google Chrome web browser both. however, I will keep a close eye on Chromium, and users who are not tied to Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera could make the switch to the Chromium Browser and be very satisfied. Overall, the Open-Source Chromium Browser is a very worthy browser in its own right.

Comments Welcome!

Update

Thanks Bona for the contribution