14 DAY TRIAL // Google has released an update to the Chrome stable channel. Google Chrome 5.0.375.126 is a minor patch which updates the bundled Adobe Flash Player plugin to the latest version. At the same time, the first stable build of Google Chrome 6 is getting closer.
“Google Chrome 5.0.375.126 has been released to the Stable channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows. This version contains an updated version of the Flash plugin,” Jason Kersey from the Google Chrome team said in the short announcement.
Chrome stable and beta channel users have been stuck with 5.0.375.x for a few months now during which time several security and stability patches have been released. The latest update doesn’t fix any bugs but comes with the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 plugin, just released.
Thankfully, Google Chrome 6 is fast approaching after having been available in the dev channel for about three months now. The team is in the final stretch and Google Chrome 6.0.472.x is at this moment on ‘lockdown,’ meaning that there will no more new features and very few patches accepted from developers working on the open-source browser.
“Starting today, we are going to start keeping the 472 branch under stricter control. If you have changes you would like to merge, that are not release-block stable bugs, you are likely going to start to get turned away,” Kersey said in a message to developers.
Any fixes and patches must be approved by one of the technical product managers working on Chrome. Also, there is a strong possibility that anything that is not considered critical or important will not be accepted.
The most important part of the message is this: “We have closed out all our release-block beta bugs, and we are on the path to stable.” What it means is that the first Chrome 6 beta release is imminent, there are no more bugs to be fixed, and that the stable release based on the beta is now on its way.
Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here.
Google Chrome for Linux is available for download here.
Google Chrome for Mac is available for download here.