# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  Google Chrome beta launched today...

## Adam

Anyone tested this new browser from Google?

Info: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

 ::shock::

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## ninja9578

Looks cool, will try it.  They're saying a lot about speed, lets see how it really stacks up against Firefox and Safari.

Where did they get the idea that browsers are single threaded?  Safari's running 6 threads and I don't even have any apps open.

EDIT:  Uhm, did they not release it yet?  I can't find a download anywhere.

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## [SomeGuy]

LOL Looks cool. Firefox willl still murder it though, unless they work together.

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## Adam

Was released today... Not sure how to get it though - I couldn't find it just now looking O_o

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## [SomeGuy]

Cool. I want it. Post Download links pleeze when you find it?

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## Dizko

Yea same. Might aswell try

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## Adam

Well you can get it from here apparently, but this just goes back to the home page of Google  :Sad: 

http://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en

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## Adam

Actually this place has a different view on it... They have a countdown...

http://www.freechromethemes.com/Down...ogleChrome.php

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## Dizko

Its like some kind of bad april fools joke.

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## Adam

lol - It is released at some point today, so guess we have to keep checking...

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## Dizko

Looks nice. Screenshots are cool.

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## ninja9578

Uhm, so far I've only seen screenshots on PCs?  Uhm... Linux and Mac versions I hope?

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## [SomeGuy]

Probably since it's open-source, SOMEONE will release it as mac/linux. I'll make it mac if you want with the source...or at least i'll try.

http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/200...os-x-or-linux/

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## Dizko

Interesting video about it.



And incase that doesnt work, heres the link.

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## ninja9578

Huh, it uses WebKit, that's good.  That's the same rendering engine that Safari uses so it should render really quickly.

No Mac beta yet  :Sad:

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## Adam

No any beta yet lol

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## Adam

WooHoo ready  ::D:

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## Adam

I have it now!!!!

SHIT THE BED THIS THING IS FAAAAAAAAST!!!

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## Marvo

Ok, I like it so far. Now it just needs addons  ::D:

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## Adam

I don't understand the spell checker, it underlines words but then you right click there's no option to correct it.

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## Dizko

I hit accept and install but no joy.

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## Adam

go to the Google home page and download it from there, there is a link under the search bar - that works, the link I posted doesn't

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## Dizko

Cheers.





> SHIT THE BED THIS THING IS FAAAAAAAAST!!!



Ha ha ha. xD

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## Dizko

Wow, the fast start up is awesome :O

AND Wtf :O Theres a spellchecker in my quick reply box now. lololol

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## Bayside

Oh wow, it is fast.

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## ninja9578

Does it use it's own spell checker or the one built into the OS?  I don't know about Windows' spell checker, but I like mine and don't want to teach a new google spell checker lucid dreaming jargon  :tongue2:

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## Identity X

> Does it use it's own spell checker or the one built into the OS?  I don't know about Windows' spell checker, but I like mine and don't want to teach a new google spell checker lucid dreaming jargon



I don't think Windows has a built-in spell checker. At least, Opera needs GNU aspell for the spell check to work.

And yes, this thing is fast. Fast. But not much liking the custom UI atm, and the fact I'm in sodding Windows to try it. Let's hope the Linux version is coming soon (doubt I'll sway from Opera to be honest, though, feature set is pretty Spartan).

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## Dizko

Yea well i think I've found my new browser. Front page looks a bit ugly without any of my 'most visited' places showing up yet.

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## Ynot

from what I've heard, they've taken the best bits from Firefox & Safari and bunged them together
Should be interesting to try
(any news on when the Linux version will be available?)

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## Identity X

Ugh, hating the "last tab closed closes the program" behaviour.

I'll have to get used to this.

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## Adam

Okay been using for nearly 2 hours and had two crashes so far - Not sure if this is because my PC is just grinding to a halt or because of the browser - TBH Firefox crashed too so could be me lol.

One thing I noticed is when I use the scroll on my mouse it moves down too jerky and too much...

Still loving the speed, just need to get used to the UI which I am still trying to get used to..

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## ninja9578

> from what I've heard, they've taken the best bits from Firefox & Safari and bunged them together
> Should be interesting to try
> (any news on when the Linux version will be available?)



Yeah, so why is the Windows one out first?  ::angry::   Doesn't google use Linux internally?

Fast compared to what?  If it's fast compared to IE then I'm not impressed, if you're saying its fast compared to Safari 4 or Firefox 3 then I'll think about switching to Google.  I still want to try it now though  ::cry::

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## Adam

Fast compared to Firefox 3 with the changes you can make in config to speed it up!!

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## Dizko

Well on my computer, firefox takes...4-5 seconds to start up.

This one is just 'click' and its there.

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## Identity X

> Yeah, so why is the Windows one out first?   Doesn't google use Linux internally?
> 
> Fast compared to what?  If it's fast compared to IE then I'm not impressed, if you're saying its fast compared to Safari 4 or Firefox 3 then I'll think about switching to Google.  I still want to try it now though



You know, I'm not quite sure, but I get the strange sensation, and I'm sure some of the other users can empathise with me, that this just floats on a layer of teflon or something. It's just so slick. Horribly covered in baby blue and with a feature set as luxury as Milton Keynes Travelodge, but it feels very nice.

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## Dizko

> You know, I'm not quite sure, but I get the strange sensation, and I'm sure some of the other users can empathise with me, that this just floats on a layer of teflon or something. It's just so slick. Horribly covered in baby blue and with a feature set as luxury as Milton Keynes Travelodge, but it feels very nice.



Yea thankfully though it goes well with my start bar, which is almost the exact same blue. Its a lot less cluttered than firefox aswell, which i like.

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## Ynot

> Yeah, so why is the Windows one out first?   Doesn't google use Linux internally?



probably just to annoy MS
(IE 8 beta 2 was released only a few days ago)





> You know, I'm not quite sure, but I get the strange sensation, and I'm sure some of the other users can empathise with me, that this just floats on a layer of teflon or something. It's just so slick. Horribly covered in baby blue and with a feature set as luxury as Milton Keynes Travelodge, but it feels very nice.



HA

Can someone let me know it's RAM usage?
after a couple of hours usage with multiple tabs
just curious

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## Dizko

> probably just to annoy MS
> (IE 8 beta 2 was released only a few days ago)
> 
> 
> HA
> 
> Can someone let me know it's RAM usage?
> after a couple of hours usage with multiple tabs
> just curious



Control+Alt+Delete > Process > Chrome.exe > mem usage. Right?

It says 30, 020 K and theres another that says 43, 020 K.

I think im looking at the wrong thing..

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## Adam

> probably just to annoy MS
> (IE 8 beta 2 was released only a few days ago)
> 
> 
> HA
> 
> Can someone let me know it's RAM usage?
> after a couple of hours usage with multiple tabs
> just curious




How would one find that out?

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## Identity X

> Can someone let me know it's RAM usage?
> after a couple of hours usage with multiple tabs
> just curious



All tabs are created as separate processes, a blindingly obvious good idea that somehow has been amiss in most browsers till now, so memory is reclaimed by the OS as soon as a tab is closed, so "running time" shouldn't have an impact on mem usage, and means that web pages crash gracefully without taking the browser down in flames with it. Their JavaScript engine has state of the art garbage collection, too.

EDIT: To be precise, it's clocking it a not-so-respectable 40 MiB with two tabs open at the moment. Hmm.

@ Dizko, Adam: Empty space in tab bar -> Right click -> Task Manager.

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## Dizko

Okay now there is a third 'chrome.exe'. Im sure im looking at the wrong thing now..

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## Dizko

> All tabs are created as separate processes



Ah yea. That would explain it

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## Adam

> @ Dizko, Adam: Empty space in tab bar -> Right click -> Task Manager.



Oh you mean standard task manager lol - I thought it would have been some fancy thing lol

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## Identity X

> Oh you mean standard task manager lol - I thought it would have been some fancy thing lol



Well it is a fancy thing surely. Not every program has it's own task manager.

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## Ynot

> All tabs are created as separate processes, a blindingly obvious good idea that somehow has been amiss in most browsers till now, so memory is reclaimed by the OS as soon as a tab is closed, so "running time" shouldn't have an impact on mem usage, and means that web pages crash gracefully without taking the browser down in flames with it. Their JavaScript engine has state of the art garbage collection, too.
> 
> EDIT: To be precise, it's clocking it a not-so-respectable 40 MiB with two tabs open at the moment. Hmm.
> 
> @ Dizko, Adam: Empty space in tab bar -> Right click -> Task Manager.



the reason I ask is because IE 8 now does seperate processes per tab as well
and it's gone tits up
what isn't clear, is whether it's an issue with Windows or IE

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterpri...onsumes_m.html

Google Chrome uses similar memory tactics, and from the comments above, it seems the issue is not an OS one

This release could not have been more perfectly timed
(which is why I think the Windows version came first)
this could turn into a real embarrassment for MS

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## Dizko

> Well it is a fancy thing surely. Not every program has it's own task manager.



Oooh right, now i get ya. Yea thats cool.

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## Identity X

I did a little 10 tab test myself. ~ 150 Mb compared to IE8s "350-400".

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## Dizko

Coolio's.

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## Ynot

> I did a little 10 tab test myself. ~ 150 Mb compared to IE8s "350-400".



100 Mb for Firefox 3.0.1 (Linux x64)
(multi-threaded, not multi-process)

150 Mb is damn good going
threads are cheap
processes are not

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## Bayside

I'm loving the speed and the look, however it did crash on me once already, but I mean it is a beta, and it's literally just been released and it's Google's premier browser, so it's understandable, but so far it's doing great.

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## Man of Steel

Downloading now. I'm already impressed with the small file to download, which is nice for us dial-up users. It just finished. I'll post back once I have the chance to try it out!

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## rockinred

I've been using it for a few hours and I'm impressed! Startup time is incredible compared to Firefox and it doesn't slow my computer down like Firefox. I like that it loads the web pages really fast and it hasn't crashed on me once. To those of you who it's crashed on: What were you doing when it crashed?

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## Man of Steel

Alright, I've used it for a bit, and I like it overall, but it has a few issues. It sure as heck starts up fast, though! Loading is pretty zippy as well, though I've not really 'tested' it.

Also, if you click the little icon second from right on the toolbar, the picture of the page, and go to Developer, then Task manager, it opens a new tab detailing the processes being used by Chrome, and allows you to individually terminate them through the browser. I imagine this could be handy at times.

My main issue with it is scrolling. It won't scroll up via my touchpad's scrolling section, or the 4-way scrolling button on my laptop. It scrolls down fine, but I have to either click and drag the scrollbar or use the arrow keys to scroll up. That gets very irritating.

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## ninja9578

How does it load so fast, is it spidering the webpages?

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## Marvo

> Yeah, so why is the Windows one out first?   Doesn't google use Linux internally?
> 
> Fast compared to what?  If it's fast compared to IE then I'm not impressed, if you're saying its fast compared to Safari 4 or Firefox 3 then I'll think about switching to Google.  I still want to try it now though



IE8 is pretty fast.

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## Man of Steel

So far I'm loving it, besides the scrolling issue. I've made it my default browser, because Firefox would always open pages in the wrong profile and I have no clue how to fix that. Plus it's just so damn FAST! Both in startup and page loading. Faster than Firefox, Safari, Opera, or IE7, as far as I can tell. It just..._zips_. I'm using it right now, in fact.

I also really dig the application shortcut feature. I can now double-click a shortcut on my desktop, and it opens Gmail in a special no-frills tabless window, with nothing but screen real-estate. It's far cooler than I'd expected. And the resizable text boxes are damn nifty. All in all, I'm seriously impressed. I can definitely see this taking over as the new fast, lightweight browser.

I'll probably stick with Firefox for a lot of stuff, but since I closed my last Firefox window, I haven't missed it much, so I dunno. I'm putting up with the scrolling problem. Hopefully it'll be fixed by the next release though. One thing; the ToS kinda bugs me. I'm pretty sure it's just boilerplate copy+pasted over though, and will be revised soon.

Edit: Even opening a new tab is lightning-fast. It's like it opened it before I clicked. And I just closed out the window, then clicked a link inside an email, and the speed with which it opened a new window (otherwise it opens a new tab within your existing window) was nothing short of amazing. I had no idea it was even _possible_ for it to open that fast! I mean, damn, I'm not usually this easily impressed, but I'm loving this browser!

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## ClouD

Fucking *FAST*.  ::shock:: 

My new browser.

Will have to use FF3 and IE8 for developer tool bars though, until an add-on...
Though the task-manager was a nice surprise. Stats for nerds. o:

Hmm, can't copy-paste pictures into WYSIWYG post editor though.
All laptop scroll functions seem to work still on my laptop, but WACOM pen flicks don't.

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## Adam

MOS - I find scrolling on my mouse annoying, hopefully they will smooth this out.





> I've been using it for a few hours and I'm impressed! Startup time is incredible compared to Firefox and it doesn't slow my computer down like Firefox. I like that it loads the web pages really fast and it hasn't crashed on me once. To those of you who it's crashed on: What were you doing when it crashed?



Not sure what I was doing, I think most of the time it was returning to the homepage.

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## ClouD

> MOS - I find scrolling on my mouse annoying, hopefully they will smooth this out.



It's way too sensitive for me D:

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## Adam

Yeah for me too, and quite jerky...

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## ninja9578

> It's like it opened it before I clicked.



Exactly why I think it's spidering pages.  Has anyone looked at the network usage yet, is it spidering?

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## Rakjavik

Using it at work now, insanely fast. The scrolling is a bit abrupt though.

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## Marvo

When you scroll in Google Chrome, it scrolls further than FireFox and Internet Exploder, since its apparently not acknowledging the scroll settings in windows.

About it being "jerky", this is an effect that mostly only Internet Exploder users would notice. By default, "smooth scrolling" is turned on. However, this is by default turned off in FireFox, but can be turned on.

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## Adam

I use Firefox though - I will look through the settings to see if there's anything there about it. But you're right, it does scroll further than I would want it to.

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## Dizko

Hehe.

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## ninja9578

You found the "porn mode"  :tongue2: 

It really says "People Standing behind you?"   ::lmao::

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## Dizko

Yep xD

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## ninja9578

Here's the official press release for us geeks.


Looks like they're very inspired by Apple, I like the sad-mac spoofs  :tongue2:   I can't wait to get my hands on it, being able to move tabs back into windows once you've pulled them out looks like it will be so nice, even Safari doesn't let you do that.  ::D:

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## Catbus

It's wicked fast, but I don't get a little scroll arrow when I click my wheel  :Sad: 

Other than that I like it so far.

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## Bearsy

I miss AdBlocker+ 


Add ons come soon please!!


I also don't like how you have to have the mouse pointer directly over highlighted text to cut/copy and to "search Google for..."

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## PuppyCat

I love it! Super fast and neat!

But has anyone noticed how crappy it runs FlashChat? But besides that, it is pretty cool. It isn't cluttered like internet explorer.

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## Adam

It would seem the honeymoon period is well and truly over.

It is crashing and freezing all the time, several times tonight it has just shut down with no warning... Anyone else experiencing extreme difficulties with Chrome?

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## poog

I like it,

its pretty fast  ::D:

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## Identity X

> It would seem the honeymoon period is well and truly over.
> 
> It is crashing and freezing all the time, several times tonight it has just shut down with no warning... Anyone else experiencing extreme difficulties with Chrome?



Eh, it is my opinion that at ts current state it is too feature-deprived to be considered the primary browser of most users. And yes, for all it's slickness, it has plenty of rough edges.

If you are in the market for a new browser - and no, I won't say Opera - Safari looks excellent, I've used it for a wee bit in Windows and it's very nice, feature rich, almost as fast and highly usable. 

Sady, there is no Linux version of it, but I'm happy with Opera besides. Currently I'm using Firefox as my secondary "lightweight" browser for browsing help files, Wikipedia etc. (nothing more; Flash tends to crash it). Alas, Firefox hardly meets the "lightweight" standard, so when Chrome is released as a deb package, that'll be the replacement.

EDIT: Also Poog, about Spore. Enjoying the vast plethora of bugs? And no, I speak not of any insectoid creations. Worst half-arsed release I've played in a long time, talk about cheek.

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## poog

> EDIT: Also Poog, about Spore. Enjoying the vast plethora of bugs? And no, I speak not of any insectoid creations. Worst half-arsed release I've played in a long time, talk about cheek.



 ::D:

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## Bearsy

I've experience my first instance of Chrome freezing up last night... and I must say... it's much more of a pain in the ass when it does as opposed to IE7 or Mozilla. It took forever to recover.

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## Identity X

> I've experience my first instance of Chrome freezing up last night... and I must say... it's much more of a pain in the ass when it does as opposed to IE7 or Mozilla. It took forever to recover.



Really? I thought the whole point of each have having it's own sandboxed  process was that the Chrome held together well if there was one point of failure. Oh well...

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## ninja9578

That depends on the operating system.  If any Windows process crashes the whole computer stops.  It's only a really good feature for Linux and OSX  :tongue2:

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## Amethyst Star

Ha!  It's cute when you uninstall Chrome.  I quote: "Are you sure you want to uninstall Google Chrome? (Was it something we said?)"

And then it takes you to a feedback page.  I'll probably take another shot at it when it gets its bugs worked out..

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## Serendipity

It continually crashed and was very slow for me, not overly happy with it.
Like Amethyst, I'll try it again when they have worked out some of the problems.

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## Adam

I think I will be switching back to FireFox until it's full release - too many crashes, and handles switching between favorite websites badly, often freezing.  :Sad:

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