Google's Chrome browser (has recently become the most prevelant / popular web browser (web user agent / client software/app)).
Chrome is mostly based upon Chromium, which is its open-source cousin. In relation to Chrome, Chromium can be thought of a branch of Chrome (or vice-versa?). The project/program to develop the (codebase of the) Chromium browser is referred to as the Chromium Project. Google takes the codebase from that project, and adds a built-in PDF reader, and Pepper-plugin API -based Adobe Flash player plugin (among other modifications [1]) and builds and releases the Chrome browser.
wikipedia:Chromium (web browser)#Differences from Google Chrome
Chromium vs Google Chrome is an excellent explanation of the distinctions between Google's Chrome browser, and the Chromium open-source branch/project.
Chris Pirillo, a.k.a. "Locker Gnome" posted Chrome Vs. Chromium (by Robert Glen Fogarty) : see Chris answer Uploaded on Aug 4, 2011 on his YouTube channel
channels
Chrome (and Chromium) are released in different concurrent channels (otherwise referred to as branches (of a software development project)).
dev beta and stable
If in doubt, go with the stable branch (release).
- So, how can I download (to obtain / install) one of these web browsers in the Chrome family? See the links below (for various platforms, including Windows and Mac OS X, etc.).
Chrome Portable
Portable version of Google's web browser. Partially closed-source. specs (technical, from CNET's Download.com)
Chromium
Because Chromium is open source, there have been derivatives made from Chromium's codebase (with modifications).
These derivatives of Google Chromium focus on privacy and security.
Portable
download from SourceForge (md5sum: dbc45bae999fe88faa92e986ba58e827)
ChangeLog changelog on SoftPedia
for Mac
packaged so you can carry around with you on any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (also on your internal hard disk) as long as it has 130 MB of free space and use on any Mac OS X computer
Custom build for Mac FreeSmug build
Drag Portable Chromium folder to your portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (also to your internal hard disk) as long as it has 130 MB of free space.
download (md5: 36791936c7946d64a126b3b8bf8f3390)
Download: ChromiumOSX_30.0.1599.101.dmg (53,3 MB)
Requires OS X 10.6 or later, Intel only.
SHA1: 329b75b7a616ad55ac4cc84cd4206a0b33ac097c
ChangeLOG for 30.0.1599.101 (2013.10.18) ; see latest: "Chrome Releases", particularly : "Chrome has been updated to 31.0.1650.63 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame." DECEMBER 4, 2013.
Iron
Iron is a privacy-minded (non-tracking) derivative of Google's Chrome web browser. It is modified from the open-source codebase of Chromium. It is also available as a Portable App which can run from removable storage (and requires no installation, in the traditional sense). The current build (33.0.1800.0, released, 7 March 2014) can be downloaded from the following hyperlink: (__._ MiB ZIP archive) (size: ___ bytes, compressed) Version ___ (___).
No installation is required to run the portable version of the Iron web browser:
- Download the .zip file (same link as above).
- Extract the .zip file :
IronPortable.zip(to a USB flash drive, for example). - Among the extracted archive members (contents / files) (folder/directory tree) (uncompressed contents of the opened archive/package file), find the .exe executable file, and execute it (double-click it to run/launch/open).
- Iron (like any Chrome/Chromium family browsers) comes with the (Web) "Inspector" Front-end web-development/Developer Tools.
Wikipedia:SRWare Iron, particularly read about how it differs from Google's own Chrome browser, upon which it is largely based.
Mac OSX
discussion board thread mentions latest build:
http://www.srware.net/downloads/iron-mac.zip
- Sep 12, 2013
Linux
for Linux, posted 18 Sep 2013 , first posting lists download URLs (links)
Installation packages (for Intel x86 architecture(s)):
| architecture | Debian-based | RedHat-based (beta!) | Tarball package |
| 32 bit package | iron.deb | iron.rpm | iron-Linux.tar.gz |
| 64 bit package | iron64.rpm | iron64.deb | iron-Linux-64.tar.gz |
- Get notified of updates via: official Twitter (feed)
Comodo Dragon
"Comodo Dragon Internet Browser", from the official website.
Get the latest installer .exe: official URL
changelog on FileHippo now says:
# New: - Dragon is based on Chromium 31.0.1650.48. - Drag&Drop feature # Fixed: - HTTP referrer suppression does not work. - Themes and Extensions was not synchronized for Google account. - Extensions doesn't update.
SuperBird
Superbird official website homepage.
latest version
Version "32" is the latest (stable) release (available) (not to be confused with 32-bit).
Linux
Installation packages for GNU/Linux distros in Debian (.deb), .rpm and Tarball (.tgz)
64bit
Linux .deb download (Debian,Linux Mint)
Linux .rpm download (Debian,Linux Mint)
Linux .tgz download (ArchLinux, Slackware)
32bit
Linux .deb download (Debian, Linux Mint)
Linux .tgz (ArchLinux, Slackware)
mirror
Latest (stable) build/release avilable: is 28.0.1500.71 July 29, 2013 (according to page on download.com.
Torch
Features
- hola! for Torch, is like Chrome's ability to store a profile/state/Settings (including browsing history, favourites/bookmarks) and make them available when signed into Chrome on another browser, on another device. Cloud -sync. Or, no, see "Hola for Torch FAQ" on TorchBrowser Support website.
- Download Accelerator
- built-in BitTorrent client
- "Media" button (when it detects a video to download) (can download yt videos!)
SlimJet
web-browser based upon Chromium, uses Blink! and V8 engines.
- Has this been released at all? I can't find any installer package / download for it. --Fleetwoodta 18:53, 11 March 2014 (MDT)
http://www.slimbrowser.net/web-browser-blog/annoucing-a-new-chromium-based-browser-project-slimjet/
SlimJet is from the same makers as "SlimBoat" (see directly bellow / immediately following this) and SlimBrowser. SlimBrowser, btw, uses Internet Explorer's Trient layout/rendering engine and accessed it through COM objects.
SlimBoat
Fast & Full-Featured Web Browser for Windows, Linux & Mac based upon QtWebKit (explanation from developer) and not Blink!.
This review from "24. Jul 2012, 10:35 AM" provides a very good overview of the browser (from an end-user point-of-view). (as opposed to a developer's POV)
Latest version is 1.1.44 available for several platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Alternate download location on FileHorse (including old versions). The latest version (revision) available there is 1.1.48 (11.7 MiBs) (launch download)
- Use: I installed it: Help >> "Configuration Information" says:
SlimBoat Version: 1.1.48 Application Bit Width: 32 WebKit Version: 2.2.3 Qt Version:4.8.3
1.1.38 specs on Download.com for the browser on their website (which doesn't acknowledge any version later than mid-2013's "1.1.38") See more software from the maker, FlashPeak, which includes Slim Browser.
portable version
for Windows, self-extracting .zip file, (10.17MB, 2013-11-27).'
1.1.38 specs on Download.com (technical details)
Mac installer
article
"A Quick Look Around SlimBrowser and a Trip on the SlimBoat" by Don Pedro posted on June 1, 2013.
Opera
Yes, since version 15, Opera has been based on the Chromium codebase
portable
actually still at 12.16 (which was before the switch to Chromium-basis). This uses its own in-house Presto redering engine. Was very popular in northern and eastern Europe.
Opera Portable Edition on Download.com from CNET.
http://download.cnet.com/Opera-Portable-Edition/3010-2356_4-75449549.html?tag=contentBody;sideBar
July 08, 2013
BZGwebs
Offers an unusual light-weight browser for OS X (and Android) (is it Chrome / webkit -based?)
"Browse 4 for OS X"
Download Browse 4.0.1 for OS X 10.7 and above here.
by [2] July 03, 2013
md5sum of file (checksum/digest/hash) 3a4c80b49673ed159d711b20f3b20ac5 , 584 KiBs
Full Specifications on Download.com.
for android
there is also a version for Android as well.
browser extensions
also known as "add-ons"
Extends the functionality and power of the baseline browser
REST client
"Advanced REST client" on "Chrome Store" under category/group of developer tools.
for GNU Linux
Chromium is available in all (most / major) GNU/Linux distros repos (software repositories of most OS distributions). I highly recommend using a Live OS, which requires no installation -- simply boot up your computer from the removable media) distro for browsing the web. It's safer and more secure than using Windows, for one thing. --User:Fleetwoodta 18:50, 2 January 2014 (MST)
Bridge-linux can be booted live as well as installed and comes bundled with Chromium (from June 2013, latest build). Bridge Linux is based upon (downstream from) arch linux (parent distro).
Sabayon prefers Chromium for browsing, and is bundled with that rather than Firefox, as most distros bundle.
See Also
Mozilla-based web-browsers#Firefox Portable
Rich Internet Applications#Chrome Apps
about: URI scheme article on wikipedia. Type "about:" and something, in your title bar and you'd be surprised by what you will find!
WebKit and Blink
- the innards of these web browsers (and shifts from Apple's WebKit to Google's (fork thereof,) Blink!)
Wikipedia:WebKit and Wikipedia: Blink (layout engine) are HTML rendering/layout engines (which comprise the heart/core (kernel?) of any web browser). Chrome (and Chromium) used to use Apple's WebKit until Google (announced, Feb/March 2013) spawned a fork of that codebase to create their own: Blink! so that Google could pursue their own approach, independently of any direction that Apple is or will take with WebKit. With Google's fork of the codebase for WebKit, WebKit is now controlled and dominated by Apple. Outside of Apple, the dominant (prevailing) trend is a move away from WebKit to a Chromium (Blink and V8 -powered) basis.
Qt migrating from WebKit to Blink
"Introducing the Qt WebEngine", Published Thursday September 12th, 2013 | by Lars Knoll
- That article serves as a good example of a software development architectural decision (strategy). quoting:
"After spending some time researching and looking at both" [...] "we have now come to the conclusion, that we will base our future Web engine on Chromium." and the reasons are listed. This is of interest to web-developers. This is the KDE/QT community's/project's pivot from QtWebKit to a Chromium/Blink!-based (binding with the Qt widget toolkit/library).
"Chromium is currently by far the most dynamic and fastest moving browser available. Basing our next-generation Web engine on Chromium is a strategic and long-term decision. We strongly believe that the above facts will lead to a much better Web engine for Qt than what we can offer with Qt WebKit right now. "
QtWebEngine official wiki "QtWebEngine is an attempt to integrate chromium’s fast moving web capabilities into Qt." more on the wiki about this
- Related: The developer of SlimJet and SlimBoat browsers (see above) explained [3]: "Chromium is open source and will give us ability to fully customize its behaviors and features without any limitation. Another reason to choose the Chromium engine (a.k.a the Blink engine) is that it is arguably the best web platform among all the candidates. It implements all the latest web standards. It also has a high-performance V8 javascript engine. And it has a robust and secure sandboxed multi-process architecture." - "Posted on October 9, 2013" (by...)
- Stephen Cheng continues: "SlimBoat is based on QtWebkit. Blink was originally derived from Webkit as well but Google has made tons of improvements on top of that. Most of the changes are not ported back to the open-source webkit project. So, at this date, Webkit significantly lacks behind Blink on both performance and support of web standard. Recently Digia has also announced they will transit QT’s web engine to Chromium’s blink engine. Obviously they lost confidence in webkit as well. Therefore, we will wait until Digia releases its new QT-wrapped version of blink (called QtWebEngine). After that, we will migrate SlimBoat from QtWebkit to QtWebEngine."
The availability of QtWebKit has spawned (inspired?) the development of more obscure browsers (that, in fact, are bundled with some distros, like Manjaro)
ReKonq is part of KDE the developer announcing release 2.4.0 developer's blog
"http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/Applications using WebKit" and GTK+ -bound
on the GTK side of things, there is the cute little Midori browser. I am not sure if it still uses WebKit, or has moved to a Blink! (Chromium) basis yet.