Some Web site made Google's Web browser for Linux available sooner than Google wanted. As the site noted, hey, it's open source!
I installed it on my netbook computer running Linux Mint, possible because the download file is a .deb (Debian install file), and Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian GNU/Linux -- kind of like Windows uses .zip or .msi or .exe files for downloads.
I no sooner installed it than my son wandered into my office, wondering if I could find an address in Chilliwack for him. He has a 7:30am meeting at a Starbucks the next morning. I boasted that I would try out the shiny new Chrome browser. He asked for Streetview, so he could see what the intersection looks like.
I was impressed at Chome's speed in displaying the graphics-heavy Streetview imagery on the so-called "underpowered" netbook. (See figure below.) I was also impressed by how stable this unreleased beta is; I had given up on the Windows version, because the first few releases crashed with nearly any Web site I tried to visit.
Certainly, the puzzle in the computing community is why Google releases Linux versions of their software later (or not at all) when the company runs on Linux.
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Google recently unveiled StreetView for my part of the world, ranging from Whistler in the north-west to an arbitrary point in the eastern Fraser Valley. Below is a screengrab of the last photo taken on the Lougheed highway side of the Fraser River. You can tell that the photo-car had pulled onto a gravel side road to make its U-turn "back to civilization." Notice the fruit stand on the other side of the road.
I installed it on my netbook computer running Linux Mint, possible because the download file is a .deb (Debian install file), and Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian GNU/Linux -- kind of like Windows uses .zip or .msi or .exe files for downloads.
I no sooner installed it than my son wandered into my office, wondering if I could find an address in Chilliwack for him. He has a 7:30am meeting at a Starbucks the next morning. I boasted that I would try out the shiny new Chrome browser. He asked for Streetview, so he could see what the intersection looks like.
I was impressed at Chome's speed in displaying the graphics-heavy Streetview imagery on the so-called "underpowered" netbook. (See figure below.) I was also impressed by how stable this unreleased beta is; I had given up on the Windows version, because the first few releases crashed with nearly any Web site I tried to visit.
Certainly, the puzzle in the computing community is why Google releases Linux versions of their software later (or not at all) when the company runs on Linux.
- - -
Google recently unveiled StreetView for my part of the world, ranging from Whistler in the north-west to an arbitrary point in the eastern Fraser Valley. Below is a screengrab of the last photo taken on the Lougheed highway side of the Fraser River. You can tell that the photo-car had pulled onto a gravel side road to make its U-turn "back to civilization." Notice the fruit stand on the other side of the road.
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