Ubuntu Tutorials

This evening I got to thinking about web browsers and privacy. Privacy is, of course, a regular concern for many of us and there are many different “solutions” out there. Recently web browsers have been adding privacy modes, which allow us to browse the web without storing a lot of cookies, history, etc. Google Chrome (or Chromium) provide the “Incognito” mode, which allows for private browsing. This mode can be launched using the key combination “shift-ctrl-n” or selecting “New Incognito Window” from the menu. The only missing piece is until recently there hasn’t been a way to launch this mode by default.

In this article I will outline how to update your system to launch Google Chrome’s Incognito mode by default. This includes launching it from the Applications menu as well as making it the default when opening new links.

Step 1:

Edit your Application menu entry for Google Chrome (or Chromium) using the ‘alacarte’ application. You can launch this command directly or right-click on the Applications menu and “Edit Menu”. Navigate to “Internet” section and select the Google Chrome (or Chromium) entry.

Once selected, simply double-click the item to open its properties and update the command, description or title.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the addition you’ll want to make is the “--incognito” between the existing chromium and %U. This will update the Applications menu, essentially setting Incognito mode as the default when launching this application new.

Step 2:

In addition, if you want links to be opened in Incognito mode you’ll also need to update your Preferred Applications configuration. This is done in the Preferences > Preferred Applications. This is assuming that Google Chrome (or Chromium) is set as your default. In the screenshot below, you’ll see that we’ll essentially make the same change as we did above.

Conclusion

These two simple steps will configure your browser to perpetual private mode. From my searching, I couldn’t find any documentation specific to Linux, so here it is. I hope you find it helpful!

I don’t think I’ve blogged much about it here, but I have become a huge fan of Google Chrome (or Chromium) on Linux. Anytime I’ve found the need to use Firefox of late it feels *dog* slow and clunky. Chrome is absolutely faster and I have really enjoyed using it.

You’ve probably heard by now that Google has released a Beta version for Linux as well as Mac, both of which are available on the download site. For the longest time I had been using the PPA or manual builds of Chromium, but now I’m using the Beta and life has become simpler.

Installing Chrome Beta

For those that haven’t tried Chrome yet, I’d invite you to give the Beta a shot. This version has support for user scripts (such as Adblock) as well as bookmark sync. To install the Beta version, visit http://google.com/chrome.

Click on the “Get Google Chrome (Beta)” in the upper-right.

Select the 32bit or 64bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu)

Click “Accept and Install”

This will download the .deb package, which you should be able to install without requiring any additional dependencies, using the GtkDebi installer (this should be the default “Open With…” application.

Keeping Updated

In doing some research the other day I found that installing the package above automagically installs the Google repository as well. This will ensure that your package stays updated as Google releases new version of the Beta, and eventually final browser. You don’t need to do anything else to remain updated, simply apply updates as you are prompted and this will also include the Google Chrome Beta browser!

I just got word that Google has released a Developer Preview for their browser, Google Chrome. I have not had time to test it on my Linux machine yet, but I have installed in on OS X and it is working great so far! There are bugs, of course. The limitations are mentioned at the download page, but overall it has been working like a champ.

I love that Google released a browser, and not just any browser, but a browser that redefines how browsers should work from the bottom up. I also love that Google doesn’t limit this offering to a single operating system, but shares it with everyone. Granted it has been a while since the Windows-only release, but this really shows that they *have* been working on it, and now have something to offer us.

If you’d like to see some basic screenshots (again, I have not tested this on my Linux machine, only OS X) you can visit my other blog. In the meantime, here is a link to the dirty details and downloads.

Early Access Release Channels: Chromium (Google Chrome Downloads)

Enjoy!