An ASP.Net developer's Assesment on Chrome's 1st week

Everyone’s all the rave for the release of Google’s Chrome. At least, in IT circles it is. But here’s my 2 cents for what it’s worth.

1. It’s fast.

I have a 1.4Mb page (in html) with a variety of javascript, textboxes, dropdown controls and many others.
IE – 8 secs
Firefox – 4 secs.
Chrome – 1sec.

However, users of Asp.net websites will most likely see this error a lot.

Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that <machineKey> configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.

It’s rendering the visual elements so fast, users will most likely cause a postback (click a button or link) before the ViewState controls are rendered on the page.

2. Stable. I have yet to see it crash.

3. Aesthetically pleasing.

You would think this is a Microsoft product because of its office 2007 blue theme. There’s also a couple of themes out there. Just google for “Chrome Themes”.

4. Not so many plug-ins yet. Probably a bad thing for Bloggers and Social Bookmarkers.

5. Resource Hog?

At least my friend thinks so when he’s watching something on YouTube. I tested it with this video and it seems to work fine.

Chrome – 12 % CPU, 20MB memory
IE – 1-2% CPU with occasional burst to 45%. 50MB memory
Firefox – 12-15%. 50MB memory

It’s even performing better than firefox. However, try to doing an "inspect element" (right click on any page) and the inspector would use so much CPU.

6. Fonts are horrible.

At least, Firefox fonts are awful too. But if you’ve got ClearType. This solves the problem with both Firefox and Chrome.

7. AJAX does not work 100%.

I can’t make this code work but it does with Firefox and IE. I guess it’s attempting to use an ActiveX control?


function GetXmlHttp()
{
var oXmlHttp=false;

// -----> This method was provided from Jim Ley's website
/*@cc_on @*/
/*@if (@_jscript_version >= 5)
// JScript gives us Conditional compilation, we can cope with old IE versions.
// and security blocked creation of the objects.
try {
oXmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e) {
try {
oXmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
} catch (E) {
oXmlHttp = false;
}
}
/*@end @*/


if (!oXmlHttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest!='undefined')
{
oXmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}

return oXmlHttp;
}


XMLHttpRequest() Object works on this page

AJAX Control Toolkit seems to work as well as other AJAX extensions controls.

If it manages to capture a large chunk of the market, this would force developers to recode. At this point, they have to make us happy. Others are also reporting problems with AJAX on Chrome

8. Not an IE killer. This study says so. And I would agree.

These are crude tests of course. Hopefully, somebody more qualified with more resources can do a more scientific one. At this point, Chrome is the browser I would use for fun but not for work. But then, how many percent of people out there uses the browser for work? I bet they’re the 1.15% that downloaded Chrome this week. So overall, it’s showing a lot of promise. (Sniff) I shall have to recode soon…