Google prepping 64-bit browser for Linux
Google's Chromium project announced it is working on its first 64-bit version of its Chrome web browser, which will will arrive first on Linux. Meanwhile, Linux is increasingly driving development of 64-bit software -- simply because Linux power users are demanding it, says an industry blog.
The mailing-list entry from the Chromium project's Dean McNamee last Thursday did not mention an expected launch date for the 64-bit Linux version of the Chromium browser, but suggested that the build was progressing nicely. Chromium, which is an open source version of the Windows Vista-based Chrome browser for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP, was recently made available in a 32-bit developers version for Linux.
"The v8 team did some amazing work this quarter building a working 64-bit port," writes McNamee, speaking of Google's V8 Javascript engine. "After a handful of changes on the Chromium side, I've had Chromium Linux building on 64-bit for the last few weeks. I believe mmoss or tony is going to get a buildbot running, and working on packaging. "