A quick test with 15 open tabs (loading the same sites in each browser) showed Chromium requiring over 520MB of RAM versus 310MB for Safari. Opening a new tab or window in Firefox or Safari only adds about 2MB of real RAM usage to each program’s memory footprint. This isn’t all that different than Firefox or Safari, but as the number of open tabs and windows increases, the numbers start to diverge. New processes for each tab/window mean memory usage increases dramatically with open tab/window count.Īll told, that’s about 336MB of RAM for my seven-tab browser. (Those “not responding” processes aren’t crashed they just weren’t doing anything when I took the screenshot.)

Here’s a look at Activity Monitor for Chromium, showing the browser with seven open tabs. As those tabs then gained content, their RAM usage would increase. Each new blank tab I opened in the browser took about 20MB of real RAM. However, this new feature isn’t without its costs-in this case, the cost is RAM usage. This is a tremendous advance in terms of usability I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost a nicely-set-up collection of tabs in Safari or Firefox just due to an issue on one tab. Instead, the tab (or window) that loads the crashing page will have to be shut, and you’ll see the crash message (or whatever it evolves into) as seen at right in that tab or window-but all of your other windows and tabs will remain intact. What you’ll see when a tab or window crashes. Tweeted that newer builds can now play YouTube videos these builds are not yet downloadable.) (Mike Pinkerton, a Chromium developer, has

Based on my initial testing, though, that’s about it-everything else is still to come. Want to watch videos on YouTube, Apple’s movie trailer page, or any other site? Want to view a PDF? Or access a page protected by Apache’sīasic access authentication, play games in Flash or Shockwave, or listen to internet radio? If you answer “yes” to any of those questions, then Chromium is not for you-at least not yet.Īs of today, Chromium can load Web pages, and JavaScript support is there. Second, while Chromium runs and seems relatively stable (though it did crash on me a few times), it’s really only usable for basic browsing needs. First, this isn’t any sort ofīeta release. This is not for everyoneīefore you jump in, though, there are some things you should be aware of. Note that things are changing rapidly-in the time it took me to write this First Look, there have been sixteen new builds posted, and a total of nearly 50 for the whole day. To get the newest build, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the folder above the entry that reads LATEST. The download page contains a ton of folders, each with a unique number and timestamp. If you’re interested trying Chromium, you canĭownload OS X Chromium builds from the Chromium Web site.

Chromium download mac