M130
This release took a long time (3+ months!) to get out because of a new full time job, and the fact that Windows builds are still crashing. Windows builds are still delayed until I can figure it out. Might need to procure the help of some upstream Chromium devs that are nice enough to help me for free. Me and @midzer decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and release the Linux builds, which are working perfectly, even though we can't release for other platforms yet.
This is one of the complaints from the community that has always been valid, I am one man doing 95% of the coding work, so I can't keep it as up to date as a whole team or corporation can (@gz83 and @midzer occasionally help with coding, but mostly just make Windows and MacOS builds, and help with maintenance tasks).
If you are very concerned about Thorium not always being on the latest Chromium, then perhaps use another browser, or only use Thorium for specific tasks like JPEG-XL or viewing FTP sites. I use it all day, everyday, for work and pleasure, on all my various computers/old phones, since 2021 when I started the project. I've never gotten hacked, or gotten malware. That isn't to say that some zero-day, that they may have patched in a minor revision that Thorium hasn't been updated to yet, couldn't leave Thorium more vulnerable than Google Chrome for instance. It is just that usually, it would have to be a targeted attack, and running this build based on Chromium M130, rather than M132 (the latest), isn't going to turn your computer into some sort of virus magnet all of a sudden. Basically all I am saying is that the complaints and reasoning are very valid, but perhaps some of ya'll are getting a little too afraid and/or heated about it. (People getting mad at me on Reddit, or spamming my email with links to new zero days that have been found in Chromium).
New explainer document (with pictures!) about Cr23 and Th24 UI stuff: >> TH24.md
More Th24 fixes/updates include:
- More Chrome Labs items like "Middle Click Scroll"
- Tab Search button alignment is fixed. On Linux/MacOS it is also restored to the original rounded shape. On Windows, it is restored to the old style of being a window control button, like the minimize/maximize/close buttons.
- Colors are Restored! I originally didn't want to do this, but it turned out to be relatively easy. The old, non Cr23 colors had more contrast, and were more neutral so they blended better with different OSes styling. See explainer document for pictures.
- Top bar icon sizes were slightly increased, to make them look better with the old UI.
- Omnibox suggestion row button radius was fixed
- Downloads page (chrome://downloads/) duplicate close button on previously downloaded items was fixed.
- Toggle button styling were restored. See explainer document for pictures.
- Dialog box sizing was restored. See explainer document for pictures.
- Sharing hub button was restored on the right side of the omnibox, where the bookmark button is, along with the original icon.
- Bookmarks folder icon restored for Linux now too (originally I just restored the Windows one).
- Global Privacy Control patch added! This makes Thorium one of the few Chromium based browsers to have it. Cromite and Brave have it, but I'm not aware of any others. You can test that it is working in Thorium by visiting https://global-privacy-control.glitch.me/. The setting is a toggle right below the "Do Not Track" toggle. Both are enabled by default in Thorium for the obvious privacy benefits. You can read more about it and toggle it on and off at
chrome://settings/cookies. - New special environment variable that Thorium respects.
THORIUM_DEBUG=1orTHORIUM_DEBUG=trueas an environment variable on any OS, will cause it to spit out as much debug logging information as a debug build, except that it works in a release build like the ones you guys get. - New command line flag
--reader-modeto start Thorium with reader mode turned on for all sites. - Menu show delay time for menus and items was turned down to 0 milliseconds for all platforms. I hate artificial delays added to the UI of applications just to make it match the OS. Heck, I don't like it on the OS either, so I tweak the registry on Windows, or make a GNOME config on Ubuntu to do the same thing but for the whole OS.
- New file handler icons for Windows/MacOS. I might add some for Linux next release too.
- New menu items when right clicking a video
- Fixed fullscreen mode of the Dino game (called "Arcade Mode") at
chrome://dino/. This is actually an upstream bug, so it is broken in Chrome/Chromium still as well! I also made a pull request upstream with the fix, but noone has looked at it yet. So for now Thorium is the only Chromium based browser with a working Arcade Mode of the dino game. So make sure when you are slacking off at work, you choose Thorium for jumping over stuff with a T-Rex! When my fix is (hopefully) accepted upstream, I will let ya'll know lol. The commit that broke it is Here for anyone interested.
Note: If you have turned on the "Disable Download Bubble" flag, you will need to turn it on again because the name and internal variable (which is why you have to set it again) has been changed to "Restore Download Shelf" & chrome://flags#download-shelf