Browsersphere

As I mentioned on my personal blog recently, I’ve made the switch to 64-bit Windows 7 on my main home computer.  As someone who is used to using Google Chrome as his secondary browser, I was greatly disappointed when I found that Chrome doesn’t work on 64-bit Windows 7 out of the box.  Since making the switch to 64-bit back in March, I’ve been making do with Firefox, which I use as my primary browser, and Safari 4 Beta as Chrome’s replacement.  Both of those browsers work fine on 64-bit Windows 7, and in fact, there is even an x64 build of Firefox available, though I don’t use it personally because it feels too unofficial.

I decided to catch up on the issue today, though, hoping that maybe some progress had been made in getting Chrome working on 64-bit Windows 7.  A Google search on the subject led me to How to Run Google Chrome on Windows 7 64 bit Version, a post from the beginning of this year that apparently recommends opening up a security hole in order to get the browser to run correctly.  Luckily, though, since then, a couple of commenters have mentioned a much cleaner approach.  Paul, one of the site’s commenters, for example, recommends following the instructions in the Chromium Developer Documentation for updating to the latest “dev” version of the browser.

Upgrading to the latest “dev” build of the browser isn’t without its cons either, though.  In doing so, you are opening yourself up to any bugs or ill-conceived features that wouldn’t ever make their way into a normal, end user-oriented build.  However, for someone like myself who doesn’t mind playing around with risky builds, this is a small, acceptable price to pay for being able to run Chrome on my main computer.

Google refers to the upgrade process as “changing channels,” and the three available channels to choose from, using their Google Chrome Channel Changer, are:

• Stable: Official Google Chrome releases (~ quarterly updates)
• Beta: More stable releases (~ monthly updates)
• Dev: The latest features and bugfixes (~ weekly updates)

After using the Google Chrome Channel Changer to change my channel to “Dev,” the next step involved opening the web browser, selecting the “wrench” dropdown, and going to About Google Chrome.  Initially, though, I didn’t see anything about upgrading to a new version in that dialog.  I ended up having to leave Chrome open and idle for quite a few minutes, with the About Google Chrome dialog closed (though I’m not positive this was a requirement), before I opened it again and found that the browser had upgraded itself to the latest “Dev” version (2.0.177.1 at the time of writing).

To my delight, despite the fact that I’m still unable to run the default version of Chrome on 64-bit Windows 7, I am now running Chrome on my main computer without any issues.  In fact, I’m posting this from Chrome.

If you’ve found yourself in the same position and your mileage has varied, or even if it’s been similar, drop a note here and let us know.

Tags: 64-bit, Architectures, Chrome, Firefox, Google Chrome, Google Chrome Channel Changer, Safari 4 Beta, Troubleshooting, Windows 7, x64

A post at Tombuntu uncovers the fact, for me anyway, that there is a pre-alpha version of Chromium already available for use on Linux.  The following is an excerpt of the author’s review:

Chromium for Linux is pre-alpha software, but farther along in development than I expected. The GTK-based Linux interface looks and works just like Windows interface. The browser rendered sites I tested it with just fine, and I haven’t been able to crash the it yet. Lots of features, such as bookmarks, the options window, and even the about window, are simply…not implemented yet.

The review goes on to say that the tab bar is also missing, making it difficult to do anything with tabbed web pages, but that, like on the Google Chrome Windows counterpart, each tab runs in its own process.

Apparently getting the pre-alpha build is as simple as issuing the following from the command line:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

You can read much more about the Chromium build(s) in question over at Chromium on Ubuntu.

Hap-tip to Lim Chee Aun.

Tags: Alpha, Chrome, Chromium, Google Chrome, Lim Chee Aun, Linux, Reviews, Ubuntu, Windows

All the nonsense aside, now that it seems like multi-process architectures are beginning to surface in the world of web browser development, I thought it would be a good idea to dig in to the feature a bit and, at the very least, provide links to some useful information for those who are interested in what multi-process architectures mean for web browsers.

One of the more notable features included in the unveiling of Google’s Chrome was what Google refers to as “Crash Control.”  This feature allows for a “Windows Task Manager” type of interface for managing web browser processes.  Aside from providing the interface for explicit management of the running (or dying) processes, it is also meant to shield tabs within the same running instance of the browser chrome (for lack of a better word) from any issues arising in other concurrently running tabs.  In essence, when you accidentally load a web page in one tab that was developed using Microsoft Word, you don’t have to worry about the severe code bloat of the page bringing your other tabs to a screeching halt.  Or if the JavaScript of one page goes off into la-la land, you won’t necessarily lose any of the other non-offending tabs.

Months after this feature was unveiled in Chrome, it was announced as a feature of Maxthon under the name “The Isolator:”

Maxthon 2.5.1…includes a feature called The Isolator that separates the functions of each Web tab from all other tabs and other parts of the browser. The Isolator protects other tabs from also becoming frozen because a single unresponsive tab is monopolizing a computer’s resources.

Though it certainly wasn’t the first implementation (despite what MaxthonGuy might want you to believe), The Isolator is one of the first official implementations of a multi-process architecture among the web browsers that actually show up on the Browsersphere radar.  Unlike Chrome’s “Crash Control,” though, The Isolator is still considered to be “in advanced beta.”

Other than the press release, I wasn’t able to find much on Maxthon’s actual implementation.  On the other hand, there has been plenty of coverage on Chrome’s implementation.  Marc Chung, for example, does an excellent job of explaining Chrome’s process model.  He even goes so far as to show you how you can control the type of process model used by Chrome at launch time.  He also points to another interesting article from Chromium Blog that explains why Chrome uses the multi-process architecture and why the architecture is more relevant today than it was when web browsers were first created, and refers to a publication from which Chrome’s process model was derived.

Though the multi-process architecture has been heralded by many web users, it isn’t without its downsides.  Google Chrome Memory Usage – Good and Bad explains the trade-offs of separating tabs into their own distinct processes, including the following:

While the multi-process model provides clear robustness and performance benefits, it can also be a setback in terms of using the absolute smallest amount of memory. Since each tab is its own “sandboxed” process, tabs cannot share information easily. Any data structures needed for general rendering of web pages must be replicated to each tab.

For more information on Chrome’s implementation of the multi-process architecture from both a developer’s and end user’s perspective, I recommend checking out the following links:

• Chromium Developer Documentation – Process Models
• Developers and Webmasters: Task Manager
• Crash Control (Video)
• How can my web page open a new tab in a separate process?

And finally, here are some other multi-process-related links related to web browsers other than Maxthon and Chrome:

• The Firefox Process Model
• Download Stainless for Mac – Multi-process web browser
• Evidence tabs will get more attention in future Firefox releases
• Google Chrome vs. Internet Explorer 8 (note the mention that IE8 Beta 2 may have beaten Chrome to the punch, albeit with a slightly different approach to the overall architecture)
• IE8 and Loosely-Coupled IE (LCIE)
• Making Firefox More Robust (interestingly enough, this is from the author of the aforelinked publication, Charlie Reis)

Tags: Architecture, Charlie Reis, Chrome, Chromium Blog, Crash Control, Firefox, Google Chrome, IE8, Maxthon, MaxthonGuy, Multi-process, Performance, Stainless, The Isolator

Over at the Official Google Blog, Google announced today that they are releasing “a fresh take on the browser” tomorrow which they have dubbed Google Chrome.  Here are the choice tidbits from the article (at least from my perspective):

• The release will be a beta version and will be released in more than 100 countries.
• Google “started from scratch” and used the “best elements out there.”
• The browser is apparently clean and fast.
• The browser supports tabs, and each tab is isolated in such a way that a crash in one shouldn’t affect the others.
• Google created a new JavaScript engine for the browser, which they call “V8.”
• Google is working on versions for Mac and Linux, but it doesn’t sound like they will be ready to download tomorrow.
• The browser is based off of both WebKit and Firefox, and will be released as open source, just like they are.

There are a few other details already available on Wikipedia:

• The address bar will have auto-completion features (apparently called “omnibox”).
• Web apps can be launched in their own web browser window with very little surrounding chrome.
• It is integrated with Google Gears.

Be sure to drop by the Official Google Blog tomorrow if you feel like giving the beta a test drive.  Not that I really needed to tell you that, since I’m sure every single browserphile running Windows will be downloading it tomorrow and seeing what it’s all about.

Tags: Beta, Features, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, JavaScript, Open Source, V8, WebKit