Smartalyx Computer Musings

There it was a laptop on my recently organized desk just screaming to be abused. Or at least, treated like some lab rat. How could I resist- the DVD in my hand was screaming to be used on something- anything? So the two got their wishes and this is the beginning of their story.

Big huge note here: If you want to ‘replicate’ this procedure feel free, but as always do so at your own risk. The steps I take here will delete all data on the hard drive. I did not back up anything- after all Rat-meister laptop wanted to be abused. More importantly, this was a test machine. Nothing of any value was there anyway. So I say again- I did not back anything up. It is up to you to judge the value of your data. If you want it- save it. Moving on..

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I have been using Google Chrome web browser about three months now. I split my time between Chrome and Firefox almost equaly. Firefox still has more tools and add-ins, so I go there when I need specfic functions. Generally speaking either browser works well. Google Chrome has a better feel though. I am nto sure why, but when I jump back into Firefox it feels dated. I know I can change the look and feel with themes (a nice plus) but most users won’t do that.

I have yet run into many sites that do not work with Chrome. Or if I have they are so few and far between it is minimal impact. I do know some sites still do the “Browser check” and say you need IE 5 or better or Firefox, but those sites are slowly catching on that if they keep to web standards that check is becoming less important. I am not a web designer so I cannot say whether the recoding is cumbersome, but I would think not. Day to day, Chrome works well. Well enough I could comfortably recommend someone give it a try.

Onward with my exploration of Google Chrome. I haven’t had any problems running Chrome in my day to day. Have I heard of problems? Yes, in fact there have been a couple of security related items that have surfaced . Will I hold that against Chrome- no. No more than I held Firefox 3’s flaws and shortcomings when it was still in Beta. And I won’t hold similar flaws against Internet Explorer 8 either as long as it is in Beta. read more »