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Google Chrome slated for bloat removal
Now, however, Google is starting to take a look at where Chrome can be slimmed down. A special group of Chromium developers has been assembled and tasked with reducing the size of the Chrome binaries. While Windows is the primary target, it's likely that Mac and Linux versions will be looked at as well.
Various reasons for the "diet" are put forward by developers. Ian Fette notes that Chrome is delivered as part of several app bundles (like Avast) and larger binaries can cause difficulties. He also points out that Google sees an increased number of failed download attempts as the file size grows. Another developer, Lei Zhang, reminds that not everyone in the world has broadband -- and even a few megs here and there can make a big difference to those users.
A monitoring system has been put in place, and developers will now made made aware of increases in size as the Chromium buildbot churns out new snapshots.
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsJasonMar 22nd 2011 7:58PM
Trimming the bloat is great, but I'm still waiting for the addition of a bookmarks sidebar to switch.
With widescreen monitors these days there's no reason not to have bookmarks displayed on the side.
NeoprimalMar 22nd 2011 8:43PM
Or offer a separate Chrome download, sort of like Winamp...in pieces.
So a Chrome 'core' which is the browser itself as well as whatever parts are absolutely necessary and then Chrome 'addons' which plug into the core and add functionality like extension support, syncing support, flash/pdf/etc. support so on and so forth.
Don't get me wrong, trimming the fat away is great but as it is I find Chrome pretty efficient (size-wize, memory use, etc.), I am no programmer so I don't know if the binaries are bigger than they have to be, but I just don't want anything to be removed in order to affect Chromes slimdown.
SlashZakuMar 22nd 2011 11:17PM
@Neoprimal
Oddly enough, I kind of wish all browsers were set up in this manner. I personally have no use for syncing or something like 'Panorama' in FF4 so it would be nice to have a DL of just the barebones/necessities of a browser.