Google Chrome Needs More Desktop Testing

Google Chrome is barely a day into beta, so I don’t expect it to be perfect. I do, however, expect it to run.

I’m sure Chrome runs Web apps like lightning, with its process isolation and V8 JavaScript engine. Google seems to have forgotten, however, that while Chrome runs Web apps, it still runs on the desktop. They may have used their index to test Chrome on thousands upon thousands of the world’s most popular sites, but they apparently didn’t test it on as many desktop configurations.

First off is the lack of a full offline installer. Enterprises won’t enjoy downloading the same installer again and again and again for each and every workstation.

Second off is lack of compatibility in certain desktop environments — one of which is my own. No matter how many resident programs I unload, no matter how many possible conflicts I eliminate, no matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall, I cannot get Google Chrome to run on my machine. Heck, I can’t even get the uninstaller to run; I need to use an uninstallation utility.

I’ve wasted a whole morning just trying to get the thing to work. I know Windows is a mishmash environment, and I know programs sometimes conflict with each other, but I’m not running anything crazy here.

I was really pumped to try this, but now I guess I’ll have to wait for the next version. If you manage to get this thing working, let me know how it goes for you. Google Chrome may mark a milestone in the race to cloud computing, but it needs to plant its feet firmly on the desktop before reaching for the cloud.

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