As Ubuntu 10.04 has Chromium in its package archives, it is time for me to have another look on Chromium.
The first impression is quite positive.
- More Space – The missing menu- and status bar are giving me 86 pixel, I can use for watching homepages. Especially on a widescreen monitor this is really nice. It is as well the main argument for Chromium.
- Fast – Chromium is starting really fast and is running nicer (at least it feels like this)
- Tab-Usage – Tabs are usually opened in the background. A feature I like, especially when I am reading pages with many interesting links. Every Tab is an own process. I like it. I can now surf on other pages while uploading a picture on WordPress, what used to freeze my whole Firefox until it finishes the upload.
Some few weaknesses are there, nevertheless:
- Loading pages – Chromium needs more time to load a single internet page. I am not sure, if it is true. But for my GPRS-Connection it feels like this.
- Design – This is the point, I really don’t like. Chromium does not fit into Ubuntu. Adding the window manager and using the GTK-Theme helps a bit. But nevertheless it needs improvement here.
Generally Chromium seems to be a nice browser. It won’t replace Firefox directly, but I think I will use both for some time. The last question now is, when Chrome is coming into the Partner Repository. I don’t think it will take much more time.