Chromium is a Google Project where users and developers will pave the way for a safer, faster, and more stable experience for all Internet users. Chromium browser is open-source project and any developer can contribute to its source code. It is based on the simple concept that Google’s Chrome is based on Chromium’s codebase, while Chromium serves as Chrome’s open-source project.Unfortunately, Chromium is not available natively for Mac or Linux systems, but Chromium is available for build and a CrossOver Chromium is also available. CrossOver is a software hat runs on Wine, which is a free software application that allows Mac or Linux (Unix-like systems) to run Windows programs. With CrossOver Chromium, Linux and Mac users will be able to use Chromium on their systems. CrossOver simply spares you the trouble of building Google Chromium on your Mac or Linux system.

Although if you’re feeling very adventurous, you can always build Chromium with Google’s Build instructions.

Building Chromium:

Prerequisites Linux: Though Chromium doesn’t support every Linux distribution, Google has tried to make the prerequisites as basic as possible.

Chromium currently runs 32 bit program, and there has been reported problems with Linux 64-bit users.

For more prerequisites, check out Google’s Linux Build Requirements.

Prerequisites Mac: There are two applications available for Mac. Choosing one depends on the level of involvement you want to put into Chromium.

Intel Mac running Leopard (Chromium does not fully function in Snow Leopard)

XCode 3.1.2 and gclient are both needed. Both can be downloaded for free. Find out more on Google’s Mac Build instructions.

Besides building your own Chromium onto your Linux or Mac, the closest thing to a native system available to day is running Chromium under Wine.

A fully native system for all Unix-like operating systems is under work but will not be available for a long time. Google developers state that you shouldn’t wait days but more like months.

DrawBacks

Chromium is not a browser to replace your default browser! Chromium is an open source program for Chrome to improve its functions and to make the user-experience the best that it can be. This is not browser to do heavy surfing, but it functions as a fun way of putting your own 2 cents in on how you think the internet browser should be run. Also, Chromium does not receive security updates. This is the one the main differences between open source Chromium and other commercial browsers. Chromium updates involve a series of new builds and upstream updates. Chromium is only for advanced web users and expert coders and is a great way to contribute your services. But unless you are well versed in web development, do not go with Chromium. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera are much more commercial and usable browsers for the average web surfer. Chromium lacks many browser features. There is no expansion service, such as plug-ins. Only flash and quicktime work properly on Chromium. Chromium does not fully support 64-bit architectures.

Contributing to Chromium

There are numerous ways of helping the Chromium project. The easiest way is simply using Chromium and submitting comments to the discussion groups that Google has set up. Other ways range from finding bugs and reporting them, filing bug reports (telling Google exactly what the problem is and where), and even submitting your own patches for these bugs.

Find more about Chromium

Chromium has an up-to-date Blog that has recently announced a new FTP Implementation! There also 2 major Discussion Groups available for Announcements and Discussion. Announcements are usually for letting users know about new builds and updates. Discussion is much more high-volume and anyone can subscribe and join in numerous topics. Topics range from design, feature improvement, questions, coding, and many others. There is also an “Issues” list that shows a list of problems and bugs that users have run into.

Everything can be found on http://dev.chromium.org/ and http://chromium.codeweavers.com/

Download Chromium

For screenshots click here