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As the question title says it all, I read Google support, I read few things here and there, the only thing they say is it's for developers and it is updated at a rapid speed, but how exactly is Chrome Canary different from Google Chrome?
Mr. Alien
Posted 2013-04-13T07:48:41.313
Reputation: 1 153
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Chrome has four release channels – stable, beta, dev and canary. Stable is the regular Chrome most users use. Canary is simply a much newer release that's not as well tested, but has the latest shiny stuff. After a while, the version that was released in the canary channel gets any bugs that are found fixed, then filters downward to dev, and then to the beta and stable releases. Other than the lack of testing, and possibly not having all the bugs fixed, canary is merely Chrome FROM THE FUTURE (except for those features that might get scrapped due to lack of quality).
In short, you get cool stuff, but it might crash horribly. On the other hand, you don't have to use it as a primary browser (in fact, you cannot set it as default). It's mainly useful if you like living dangerously and want to test bleeding edge features.
Journeyman Geek
Posted 2013-04-13T07:48:41.313
Reputation: 119 122
3Once I saw what it was, I understood the name. For those not familiar with the metaphor, coal miners would take a canary (a small bird) with them into a mine. If there were a poisonous gas, like CO, it would kill the bird sooner than it would kill the men, giving the men a chance to escape. So, if an error kills Canary, at least Chrome won't die! – TecBrat – 2016-08-25T18:10:09.190
I had to uninstall Canary because its frequent updates were a burden to Backblaze cloud backups, on a relatively thin internet pipe. – Bob Stein – 2019-10-12T17:18:21.590
1So in short its a browser to test latest stuff like CSS3 properties.. – Mr. Alien – 2013-04-13T09:47:48.850
2Pretty much, or anything else new that's in chrome, if you're too lazy or unable to compile the latest nightlies. – Journeyman Geek – 2013-04-13T09:48:47.253
1Atlast I got some friendly explanation, and it's new, and I guess it's poorly or not at all documented as you said it's new, anyways thanks ;) +1 – Mr. Alien – 2013-04-13T09:50:40.593
Its always 'new' - if you're familiar with debian, its kinda like 'sid', with dev being testing, and release being stable. I've been running canary since its first release I think - about 2010 – Journeyman Geek – 2013-04-13T10:42:43.163
It is being around since 2010 :O I came across just today so was searching that what's up with this version but didn't found any solid reference so thought of asking here, so that many will land up on this question now – Mr. Alien – 2013-04-13T11:27:58.523
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From Get on the bleeding edge of the web:
Google Chrome Canary has the newest of the new Chrome features. Be forewarned: it's designed for developers and early adopters, and can sometimes break down completely.
Canary is a version of the Chrome browser that is released daily, and automatically, for the Mac and Windows platforms. To get an idea of what Canary is, one can take a look at Chrome's assembly line.
Chromium is the source of the four versions of Google Chrome: Canary, dev, beta, and stable. Chromium is being continuously built and checked by an automated process, the BuildBot, which is overseen by human sheriffs, usually developers. (Chromium lacks Chrome's proprietary features.)
According to Chrome Canary for developers, "A new Chrome Canary build is available daily (we cut at 2am PST and take the best of last 40 revisions, to be specific)" and according to Google Chrome: How does the Chrome team ensure the stability of the canary channel?, "Canary Chrome contains the very latest state of our source tree, and is automatically built and shipped to users every day, usually without any human oversight at all."
However, features that appear in one day's Canary may or may not present in the next day's version and may or may not carry forward to the dev version of Google Chrome. Dev, after testing, is promoted to beta which is mostly what the stable version is after some polish. According to the cadence, while Chromium is built continuously, and Canary is built daily from Chromium builds, the dev, beta, and stable have a life of about six weeks (with bug and security fixes).
The important thing to note is that Canary is installed totally separately with its own profile and can coexist with a dev or beta or stable installation. One Chrome developer prefers having Canary and Stable:
I recommend running Chrome Stable and Canary. That’s how most of the Chrome Developer Relations team does it.
1@vishalsharma If you mean by 'diff' is tool to compares files, you might want a hard time. – mr5 – 2015-01-30T13:35:39.437
@mr5 , no i mean because canary is early release (not well tested ), i can use that for newer stuff i want to learn and stable for the applications i am working on... I hope you get my point – Vishal Sharma – 2015-02-01T10:50:10.423
@vishalsharma I haven't done it but have seen both working side by side on a coworkers computer. FYI. – joedragons – 2015-06-29T16:00:41.273
can i run diff. versions ? i mean canary and chrome – Vishal Sharma – 2014-06-03T05:49:43.240
Chrome Canary @ Google, Chrome Canary @ Google Play – Palec – 2017-07-02T17:46:48.257
Some details can be found in Canary channel for Chrome on Android on Chromium blog.
– Palec – 2017-07-02T18:00:05.350