Google Chrome v8 developer build hints at future of Chrome OS

[swarfega]

The latest developer preview of Google Chrome 8 has been released through the Chromium Dev channel, giving users a taste of the browser's improved GPU acceleration feature, better stability, and a handful of new labs including Google Instant in the browser's omnibar/omnibox search fields.

Many of the interesting features in this build are deactivated by default, so users must go to About : Labs to switch them on. This includes the GPU Accelerated HTML5 Canvas 2D option, and the Google Instant in Omnibar feature.

Though the feature doesn't do anything yet, "Cloud Print" is now included in the settings menu. This feature was first unveiled last April to answer lingering questions about how the browser-based Chrome OS would handle print jobs.

"Rather than rely on the local operating system (or drivers) to print, apps can use Google Cloud Print to submit and manage print jobs. Google Cloud Print will then be responsible for sending the print job to the appropriate printer with the particular options the user selected, and returning the job status to the app," Google Chrome product manager Mike Jazayeri said at the time.

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[Dave76]

Thanks for the news, just loaded the 8.0.552.0, activated Canvas 2D and it's very fast.

The previous Chrome builds were slow on this site, but good on others. Don't really know why.

Have been using IE9 for use here, but looks like I'm back to Chrome as my main browser again.

 

[johnwillyums]

I just enabled 2D acceleration. prior to that my PeaceKeeper score for Chrome Dev was
8878.
It's also noted that Minefield cannot perform the first part of the complex graphics test. It cannot use "canvas" rendering. This is not added to the overall score though.

As you can see Chrome Dev has improved it's speed with 2D acceleration enabled but still can't match Opera. Yet.

 

[Rhammstein]

How accurate is that Peacekeeper benchmark? I just ran it on IE9b and FF4b and I'm scoring like 20% above the other scores it shows, especially the i7 920, does web have more to do with clock speed than other Cpu features? Just curious. Don't mean to run off topic.

But yeah, I haven't tired Chrome, gonna give it a go.

 

[SledgeDG]

I wouldn't take those values from other systems as a comparison because so many factors play into those numbers
you'd just want to check how one browser on your system compares to another.

-DG

 

[Rhammstein]

Yeah good point, I'll fire up Chrome and the others and see how it goes. I'd prefer to test flash performance too, so I've been using the stuff from Microsoft for IE9, and the marks are nearly opposite, although it may be a bit loaded because it's for 'their' browser.

Regardless I'm glad I saw this post, really enjoying this so far, can't wait to see an OS, something new to play with.

 

[SledgeDG]

I'm looking forward to that too...never tired to try out something new

-DG

 

[Alphamale]

Thank you for the update.