Following up on my technology status for RIA under Google's Chrome, I got the scoop earlier today about Google's latest build of Chrome, 1251, updated to address most Silverlight's initial problems, and got to say that its improvements are more than welcome by interactive dev community.
Chrome latest build was released under the Developer chain, an alternative release cycle which let you update to interim builds of Google's Internet Browser, for testing purposes.
Getting yourself ready for the switch
Google's latest turn of events lead them to enable the Dev chain, giving the community access to upcoming features, features in development, and the latest bug fixes in a per weekly basis.
In order to enable this feature on your box, you will need to run the Channel Switcher, which you can get from here, and set the switch from Beta to Dev and then fetch the latest update from the About menu.
As per Google's own words
We need Dev users, and we'll give your feedback and issues higher priority.
Which if you are like some of us and you are used to get your hands into messy set of bits every week in order to get your magic going, I'd recommend to make the switch and keep up testing your applications under these builds at least for expectation purposes.
Getting it to perform: It just works!
Giving that I am out in NYC for the week attending the Web 2.0 Expo and with probably the worst connection to Internet in all the Manhattan island; it took me some time to get the setup done and get it to test with some internal builds of a couple of Silverlight applications I'm working on, yet I am happy to report that it works!
I can also say that from the public beta version to this interim one, an important set of improvements can be perceived in the overall stability of the browser, having fewer crashes and getting both Flash and Silverlight to execute as close to Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 as it can get.
I'd guess that the Chrome team is really spinning up on getting things in the right track, enabling the ever growing world of RIA's to keep on living as 1st class citizen of the web.
Now, for a sneak at some of the flagship Silverlight applications check out Jonas Folleso's post on this update and take a look at his screen test; and, for more up to date news on Chrome, make sure to follow GetGoogleChrome, who are making a great work on keeping up with the news from all around the world.
Cheers and happy switching!
it's funny, the more i use Chrome (for windows), the more unstable it seems to get... crashes a lot more, can't handle sites with flash, hangs every time i close a tab... all that to say, i'm switching back to Firefox
ReplyDeleteThat's precisely what I'd say about Chrome and Flash...
ReplyDeleteI don't remember Firefox doing this in its earliest days.