14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome is beginning to look a lot more fleshed out than it was when it launched, though it's by no means perfect or even complete. But one year after the Windows version was released, public Linux and Mac builds still haven't been launched. There is some progress, official builds for the two operating systems are available in the developer channel, and the launch of versions for the regular users, at least in beta form, could be close, as hinted by a recent change in Chrome's privacy policy.
As Read Write Web noticed, the Google Chrome Privacy Policy got a little updated a few days ago. The bulk of the policy hasn't changed, in fact the updates didn't involve any of the actual legal aspects of the document, but were more 'cosmetic' in nature.
“The Privacy Policy below applies only to Google Chrome for Windows. For the Developer channel releases on other platforms see the privacy policies for Mac OS X and Linux,” the old policy read. The new one changed to, “The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services.”
“On Google Chrome for Windows, You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here. Google Chrome for Mac and Google Chrome for Linux currently do not allow this level of configuration,” was also added.
This, of course, could be just an unrelated update, maybe to make the policy clearer, or just doing a little housekeeping. But it could mean that Google is making the necessary changes in anticipation of a public release of the two versions of its open source browser. Still, even if the changes are related to the future release of a Linux and Mac version, it doesn't necessarily mean an impending launch.
Builds of Google's web browsers for Linux and Mac have been available for developers for a few months now, but haven't been anywhere ready for a public release, even in beta form. Still, development is coming along at a steady pace, and the new versions could bump up Chrome's market share, which has hovered at the lower end, anywhere between two and five percent. Considering it took Firefox five years to get to over 20 percent, the numbers may not actually be that small.