Extensions

The Dev and Beta version of Chrome work with extensions (like LastPass, worlds greatest password manager). The dev version has been very stable for me:

http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

Developer Tools! Eeeee!

The thing that sealed the deal is the built-in developer tools. Seems they’ve shipped Chrome with a built-in Firebug-like JavaScript debugger and inspector (press ctrl-shift-j). Its not installed automatically on Linux machines, so apt-get it:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser-inspector

I haven’t used it enough to form an opinion yet, but it looks great. I’m going to finish out the current site I’m developing with Firefox and Firebug, but I’ve got another one in the pipe that is going to be all Chrome.

Fantastic UI

Best user interface of any browser I’ve used.

The teeny tiny branding means I get at least a quarter inch of screen real estate that would normally be full of dialog. Page loading info is shown in a tiny pop-up at the bottom, so I get more space there too. Its overlaid on top of the horizontal scroll bar, taking up no room at all. The combo address/search bar means the horizontal space is more usable too. I can usually see the whole url even when I’m using Chrome in a small window.

I love love love the tabs at the very top. It reinforces the idea that each tab is its own process doing its own thing (dialogs like preferences are also displayed in a tab, just like web pages). Tabs are arguably the most important feature of the browser dialog, they tell you where you are, and I definitely click on them more than anything else. Making them a big target right at the top where they are the most obvious thing in the whole interface is genius.

Way to go Google! Can’t wait for Chrome OS!

Update, 2/25/2010

Well, I tried.  Turns out that the Chrome developer tools has some usability issues that make it very hard to use effectively.  The number one problem is that the font is too small.  I get a headache just glancing at it.  I’m also annoyed by the checkboxes that pop up when you mouse over a css property.  I’m sure that one sounded really great on paper, but in practice its horrible.  The major thing it lacks is the “Larger Command Line” option that Firebug has, which allows you to put multi-line indented code in the console and run it.  It’s really nice and I use it all the time.

I still really like Chrome and I use it more and more (even though it doesn’t work with Netflix) for my non-development browsing pleasure.  Its still a young project and I’m hopeful that Google will improve the developer tools soon.

http://likesalmon.net/browser-testing-with-cloned-virtual-machines/

I really loved using VMWare Fusion in OSX to test my webpages in Windows.  The power to just drag a whole Windows installation into the trash when it gets jacked up is intoxicating. Unfortunatly, Jaunty is still not supported by VMWare, and the bugs were just to much. Plus, I really didn’t like the web interface. Fortunately, I found VirtualBox which is at least as sleek as Fusion, but free!

To install VirtualBox, I got a lot of help from hopla on the Ubuntu Forum. I quote:

You need: virtualbox, qemu, wine

Code:

apt-get install virtualbox qemu wine

Download the free(!) Microsoft Internet Explorer Application Compatibility Check VPC Images here.

(Note: you don’t have to download the full pack, you can cherry pick specific combinations of XP/Vista and IE6-8)

Extract the VPC image(s) with wine (double-click).
(Note: it might take a while before the first window shows up)

Turn the VPC image(s) into (a) VMWare image(s) (which is/are readable by VirtualBox):

qemu-img convert -f vpc image.vhd -O vmdk image.vmdk

Setup a new VM in VirtualBox, using the vmdk image as an existing disk. Boot it, you will see the Windows boot progress bar and … it will BSOD shortly after.

Fixing the BSOD:

The BSOD is caused because the virtual Windows tries to load processor drivers for the wrong processor (it is not running on VirtualPC proc, but on VirtualBox proc). Or something like that…
We need to force Windows not to attempt to load drivers for the processor (it doesn’t need any proc drivers, because it’s all virtual anyway).
Start safe mode by (frantically) hitting F8 at Windows boot and choosing safe mode.

Ignore all the ‘New hardware’ detected warnings (we will deal with those later). Start a command box and run the following command to disable the loading of processor drivers:

Code:

sc config processor start= disabled

(note the space between ‘=’ and ‘disabled’!)

Restart the virtual Windows, it should now boot all the way to the Windows Desktop.

Once your virtual Windows has rebooted, go to Devices -> Install Guest Additions in the VirtualBox window.  This will mount a (virtual) CD with the Guest Additions software.  The autorun feature didn’t work every time, so if a new window doesn’t open up, find the Guest Additions CD in Windows Explorer and run the .exe.  This adds a lot of functionality to your virtual machine.

After rebooting the virtual machine, I followed the instructions from Primeval Soup:

In Windows, go to:

Start > Run > “cmd”

In the terminal, type:

D:\VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe /extract /D=C:\Drivers

Start > Administrative Tools > Computer Management

Select Device Manager.

Select Batteries, Unknown Device -> Disable

Select Sound, video and game controllers, Multimedia Audio Controller -> Disable

Select Universal Serial Bus controllers, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller -> Disable

Select Network Adapters, Ethernet Controller -> Update Driver

Select Yes, now and every time, click Next

Select Install from a list or specific location, click Next

Enter location “C:\Drivers\x86\Network\AMD”

Click Finish

Open a browser, test connection

You’re done!

And that is a good feeling.