Chrome on Linux

I have been a Chrome user since I first heard about it shortly after it was released in beta. I have watched it grow and become a beautiful and incredibly usable piece of quality software. However, since I spend most of my time in Kubuntu Linux, I am unable to use Chrome for my day to day browsing. I like Firefox, but I miss the screen real estate and the speed I get from Chrome.

A couple of days ago I came across instructions for installing a pre-alpha build of Chromium on Ubuntu, and I decided to give it a try. Even though many features do not work, I was pleased with how well it did function overall. It is fast, and hasn't crashed on me yet. Granted, I haven't pressed it too hard.

Upon starting this build of Chromium, one is greeted with a somewhat unfriendly warning that this should not be used, and should not be blogged about. Since sending in bugs and blogging are not helpful, the only thing that is helpful is contributing to the project.

Being a Computer Science student, a Linux user, and a Chrome enthusiast, and a Google evangelist, I decided that I would apply to the Google Summer of Code program this year and try to work on Chromium for Linux. Although I cannot hope to singlehandedly port Chromium to Linux since it a monumental task, I would like to do my part while learning more about the technologies involved.