Google Launches First Beta Build of 64-Bit Chrome for Mac

[MacRumors]

Google today announced the launch of the first beta build of 64-bit Chrome for Mac, following the public release of 64-bit Chrome for Windows.

Earlier this month, Google added 64-bit support to Chrome Canary for OS X, the experimental build of its Chrome web browser, but with this new beta version, testers on the Beta channel will have access to 64-bit Chrome support.

According to Google, 64-bit support for Chrome will bring several speed and security improvements to the browser, in addition to decreasing the amount of memory it uses.

64-bit Chrome has become faster as a result of having access to a superior instruction set, more registers, and a more efficient function calling convention. Improved opportunities for ASLR enhance this version's security. Another major benefit of this change comes from the fact that most programs on a modern Mac are already 64-bit apps. In cases where Chrome was the last remaining 32-bit app, there were launch-time and memory-footprint penalties as 32-bit copies of all of the system libraries needed to be loaded to support Chrome. Now that Chrome's a 64-bit app too, we expect you'll find that it launches more quickly and that overall system memory use decreases.

64-bit support for the Windows Chrome beta was implemented in July with a stable release coming a a month afterwards, so a stable Mac release could possibly follow a similar timeline, coming in September.

Article Link: Google Launches First Beta Build of 64-Bit Chrome for Mac

 

[lumuba]

amen

finally!

 

[locoboi187]

Finally.

 

[GeneralChang]

I have a message for the Chrome development team.

Sure took your sweet time, didn't you guys?

 

[Stridder44]

Chrome added DirectWrite support for Chrome recently as well. The result is that text in Chrome looks amazing now. While DirectDraw is of course only a Windows thing, does anybody know if OS X had something similar that Chrome could utilize (or has already been utilizing)?

 

[pedromcm.pm]

Chrome added DirectDraw support for Chrome recently as well. The result is that text in Chrome looks amazing now. While DirectDraw is of course only a Windows thing, does anybody know if OS X had something similar that Chrome could utilize (or has already been utilizing)?

OS X renders things properly.

 

[lotuseater99]

Performance degradation

I have always greatly preferred Chrome over Safari, but the 32-Bit version was overheating my MBP after I installed Mavericks. I switched to Safari for awhile because I couldn't stand the fan noise.

When I noticed the Canary 64-Bit build of Chrome a few weeks ago, I jumped on it. It was great (no overheating/fan noise) up until build 39 a few days ago. Now it is just as bad as the 32-Bit version.

 

[kappaknight]

I honestly can't tell the difference between Canary and regular Chrome on my rMBP.

 

[simonmet]

So they can track you in 64-bits now... Better than 32 I suppose if you're into that.

 

[mbrokerny]

Does it support java?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

most programs on a modern Mac are already 64-bit apps. In cases where Chrome was the last remaining 32-bit app, there were launch-time and memory-footprint penalties as 32-bit copies of all of the system libraries needed to be loaded to support Chrome.

Acknowledging the fact that they're only 6 years behind on this. Seriously - the migration from 32-bit to 64-bit predates Chrome's first release, why the hell did it take this long? Why wasn't it 64-bit out of the gate?

 

[arkmannj]

Does it support java?

that's my question also

 

[a0me]

OS X renders things properly.

To be fair, text usually looks like crap on Windows.

 

[Traverse]

To be fair, text usually looks like crap on Windows.

Windows doesn't do a good job at font smoothing so text looked too jagged. However, when running Windows on a Retina MacBook Pro, Chrome's UI and all rendered content was pixelated due to terrible scaling. Chrome now incorporates Windows Direct Write allowing for a sharp UI and high quality content. I am amazed that FireFox incorporated this so long before the "most advanced browser".

 

[genovelle]

I wonder if it has the same server running in the background that my service tech showed me at work is on the widows version.

 

[isomorphic]

I installed some software the other day that sends all my keystrokes to servers in the cloud, and automatically updates itself in the background (at any time) without asking first.

Oh, and other than Chrome I might also have some spyware on my system.

/s

 

[Sonmi451]

Nice but I think it's too late.

 

[thomaskc]

Nice but I think it's too late.

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

Anyway, 64bit chrome is good, late or not.

 

[groovyd]

blow the public beta yosemite out of the water on sunspider. chrome runs in all of 10 seconds while safari takes minutes. interesting is they both return very close results. something is def wrong with this preview build.

----------

one big feature for me however is the double light tap on the magic mouse to zoom into a paragraph or photo or video under safari.

Google seems to be using a quarter of the memory of safari as well rendering the same page.

 

[rrm74001]

Why did it take so long for the most popular web browser to do this? Especially one created by the king of the internet: Google.

 

[groovyd]

safari still scrolls much smoother even in the public beta which i imagine is doing all sorts of background data collection. text seems smoother too.

 

[Sonmi451]

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

Anyway, 64bit chrome is good, late or not.

Um what has Apple been late on? Besides bigger iPhone screen. I love how you criticize Apple so much but then you look at your url and it says macrumors.com. Do you have scars on your back from all the whipping?

 

[imageWIS]

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

Anyway, 64bit chrome is good, late or not.

You mean like the Macintosh, the Quicktake, the Newton, the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the iPhone? Yeah, Apple is ALWAYS behind...

 

[gearaholic]

Netflix!

This release also supports Netflix without Silverlight!

just set your User-agent to:

 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3, Win64, x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2114.2 Safari/537.36

using https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...r-c/djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg?hl=en-US

and then go to chrome://components/ and press "Check for update" next to WidevineCdm

 

[theBostonian]

I installed some software the other day that sends all my keystrokes to servers in the cloud, and automatically updates itself in the background (at any time) without asking first.

Oh, and other than Chrome I might also have some spyware on my system.

/s

Why don't you run Chromium instead? You can either compile it yourself so you know what you're getting or go the lazy route and use this: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36244/chromium