Rust in Chromium and New Betas of Chrome (UPDATED)
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Google Online Security Blog: Supporting the Use of Rust in the Chromium Project
Our goal in bringing Rust into Chromium is to provide a simpler (no IPC) and safer (less complex C++ overall, no memory safety bugs in a sandbox either) way to satisfy the rule of two, in order to speed up development (less code to write, less design docs, less security review) and improve the security (increasing the number of lines of code without memory safety bugs, decreasing the bug density of code) of Chrome. And we believe that we can use third-party Rust libraries to work toward this goal.
Rust was developed by Mozilla specifically for use in writing a browser, so it’s very fitting that Chromium would finally begin to rely on this technology too. Thank you Mozilla for your huge contribution to the systems software industry. Rust has been an incredible proof that we should be able to expect a language to provide safety while also being performant.
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Chrome Releases: Beta Channel Update for Desktop
The Chrome team is excited to announce the promotion of Chrome 110 to the Beta channel for Windows, Mac and Linux. Chrome 110.0.5481.30 contains our usual under-the-hood performance and stability tweaks, but there are also some cool new features to explore - please head to the Chromium blog to learn more!
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Chrome Releases: Chrome Beta for Android Update
Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Beta 110 (110.0.5481.29) for Android. It's now available on Google Play.
You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.
UPDATE
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Chromium 109 Update Brings Faster Scrolling to Linux Users
Browsing on Linux just got a whole lot better! Chrome and Chromium 109 update brings faster scrolling for a seamless experience.
The web browser is the most often used application in our daily computer work. And the most popular one that currently dominates the Internet is Google Chrome. However, aside from the fast and accurate rendering of web pages, many other minor invisible aspects contribute to the big picture for a complete and pleasant user experience.
One of these is the mouse wheel scroll sensitivity. For example, have you ever noticed how, when using Firefox on Linux, you use fewer motions to scroll a page from bottom to top or vice versa? This is due to a browser engine operation that defines the length of the scroll step.
Some more milestones and releases now:
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Chrome Releases: Chrome Dev for Android Update
Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Dev 111 (111.0.5531.3) for Android. It's now available on Google Play.
You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.
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Chrome Releases: Dev Channel Update for Desktop
The dev channel has been updated to 111.0.5532.2 for Windows, Linux and Mac.
A partial list of changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.
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Chrome Releases: Beta Channel Update for ChromeOS / ChromeOS Flex
The Beta channel is being updated to OS version: 15278.29.0, Browser version: 110.0.5464.32 for most ChromeOS devices.
In ZDNet now, Microsofter promotes Rust:
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Programming languages: Rust is coming to Chromium and here's why | ZDNET
Chromium, the open-source project behind Google Chrome, is enabling new support for Rust in its otherwise C++ codebase, if only in a limited fashion for now.
Chromium, the project underpinning Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, and dozens more browsers, will support the use of third-party Rust libraries from C++. The team is putting in place the tools to enable Rust code in the Chrome binary within the next year, according to Dana Jansens of the Chrome security team.
Later coverage:
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Google polishes Chromium code with a layer of Rust • The Register
Google plans to support the use of third-party Rust libraries in its open source browser project Chromium, a significant endorsement of the programming language and its security characteristics.
In a blog post published on Thursday, Dana Jansens, from the Chrome security team, said Google's software engineers have begun working on a production Rust toolchain to its build system. The hope is to include Rust code in the Chrome binary before the end of the year.
"Our goal in bringing Rust into Chromium is to provide a simpler (no IPC) and safer (less complex C++ overall, no memory safety bugs in a sandbox either) way to satisfy the rule of two, in order to speed up development (less code to write, less design docs, less security review) and improve the security (increasing the number of lines of code without memory safety bugs, decreasing the bug density of code) of Chrome," explained Jansens.
Rust, when not written to be unsafe, can avoid memory safety flaws, which represent 70 percent of the serious security bugs identified in Chromium. The language doesn't guarantee code invulnerability but it can mean many fewer potential flaws.