Chrome 149 Release

Google has published the release of the web browser Chrome 149. At the same time, a stable release of the free project Chromium, which serves as the basis of Chrome, is available. The Chrome browser differs from Chromium in the use of Google logos, the presence of a system for sending notifications in case of a crash, modules for playing copy-protected video content (DRM), an automatic update installation system, the constant inclusion of Sandbox isolation, supplying keys to the Google API and passing RLZ parameters during searches. For those who need more time to update, the Extended Stable branch is separately supported, followed by 8 weeks. The next release of Chrome 150 is scheduled for June 30.

Major changes in Chrome 149 (1, 2,3, 4):

• Added settings to control the loading and use of AI models running on the user’s device. For example, you can completely disable the use of such models and delete previously downloaded models.
• In June, the publication of official builds of Chrome 149 for Linux systems based on the ARM64 architecture, supplied in deb and rpm packages, will begin. Previously, official builds of Chrome for Linux were published only for the x86_64 architecture, and for the ARM64 architecture only third-party Chromium builds offered by distributions were available.
• In Service Workers, the ability to load data in the background is limited using the API Background Fetch.
• In CSS implemented support for customizing the design of separators between elements in grid and flexbox containers. Added CSS properties column-rule-inset and row-rule-inset to shorten or lengthen dividers, as well as column-rule-visibility-items and row-rule-visibility-items to control the visibility of dividers (only between filled elements or across all grid spaces). Width, color and padding can be animated using transition effects, activated, for example, by hovering the cursor.
• Removed the influence of active WebSocket connections on saving the page in the forward cache (BFCache – Back-forward cache), which provides instant navigation when using the “Back” and “Forward” buttons or when navigating through already viewed pages of the current site. Previously, the presence of a WebSocket connection did not allow the page to be placed in the cache and led to the need to completely reload it when the “Back” or “Forward” buttons were pressed.
• The CSS property shape-outside