Tag: app-subdomain-redirection:chromium

Chromium-based Opera 15 out for PC and Mac now

Back in May of this year, Opera released its experimental Opera Next browser, which signaled a monumental change. For the first time, Opera would be using the WebKit rendering engine instead of its Presto engine. Today, Opera Next has finally come out of beta and has dropped the “Next.” The browser will simply be known as Opera 15.

Opera 15 is actually based off of Chromium so it’s actually using Google’s “Blink” engine, which is a streamlined version of WebKit. The browser hasn’t changed much from what we saw with the Opera Next beta. Users can look forward to a Chrome-line interface as well as the new “Discover” feature, which lets you read the news in a magazine style layout.

Opera has always been known for saving bandwidth and the “Off-Road mode” makes a return. If you have a slow connection or have a limited bandwidth cap, Off-Road is a great tool for helping you keep data use under control.

Since Opera 15 is now Chromium based, you can expect performance on par with Google Chrome, which is a very good thing. Still, Opera’s features may not be enough to sway the Chrome and Google loyalists.


[Source: Opera | Download: PC, Mac]

Is Chromium OS launching next month?

Only 11 months after its official presentation, rumor has it that the first final version of Chromium OS (also known as Chrome OS) will be launched next month. The news was unveiled by TechCrunch, after spotting references to the project reaching the Release Candidate development stage – usually the final debugging and beta-testing phase, right before the official final release.

According to these references, included in bug comments on the Google Code site, Chromium’s most recent build is 0.9.78.1, so we can expect the first final version of Google’s operating system as soon as that version hits “1”.

Is Chromium OS launching next month?

There are several possible dates for this release. Some blogs bet on November 11th, mainly due to a Google employee mentioning this date in a thread over at Google Code site. ‘We will push this after November 11’, he replies to a request about a certain feature. Another possible release date, on the other hand, would be November 19th – the first anniversary of their presentation event last year.

Whatever the final launch date is, Google Chromium OS will be one of the most important software events of the year, and I’m sure the hype will keep on growing until we can finally lay our hands on it.

First impressions of Google Chromium OS

Google Chromium OS has been on everyone’s lips for a few weeks, and is finally available for download – only as source code, though. The new operating system developed by Google is intended to dramatically change the way we use our computers today, and definitely move on to the Cloud.

Google Chrome OS

I’ve tested this very first version of Chromium OS on VMware, and I have to say that my first impression has been one of disappointment. After reading so much about it I expected something else… at least something more than a web browser! Because that’s exactly what Chromium OS looks like: a simple, standard web browser.

Google Chrome OS

After the initial shock, the truth is that having a web browser as operating system – or viceversa – is quite a revolutionary idea, with a few positive sides to it. First, everything’s done online: you use online apps, you store files online, you work with online documents. Everything is available anytime, anywhere. Second, it makes the system much faster and lighter on resources. Chromium OS hardly takes 10 seconds to boot up, and has been developed with netbooks in mind. Third, the web browser interface saves you the pain of having to learn how to use a new operating system. You’ve probably been using web browsers for a few years now, so you know how they work. Continue reading “First impressions of Google Chromium OS”