M150 Beta Release!

(This release is intended only to reach and notify more users; it does not contain a new version!!!)

Hello everyone, I’m gz83, a collaborator on the Thorium browser project. Since Alex is currently unable to find the time to update Thorium, I have temporarily taken over and completed the initial upgrade from M144 to M150. The code is available here:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/tree/M150-LTS

After publishing BETA builds for the different supported platforms, I will submit my M150-LTS branch to Alex as a pull request for review and discuss the update with him further.

If you would like to try the BETA version, please download it from the following repository:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/releases/tag/M150.0.7871.47

M150 Beta V1 Release!

(This release is intended only to reach and notify more users; it does not contain a new version!!!)

Hello everyone, I’m gz83, a collaborator on the Thorium browser project. Since Alex is currently unable to find the time to update Thorium, I have temporarily taken over and completed the initial upgrade from M144 to M150. The code is available here:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/tree/M150-LTS

After publishing BETA builds for the different supported platforms, I will submit my M150-LTS branch to Alex as a pull request for review and discuss the update with him further.

If you would like to try the BETA version, please download it from the following repository:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/releases/tag/M150.0.7871.101

M144 Beta Release!

### (This release is intended only to reach and notify more users; it does not contain a new version!!!)

Hello everyone, I’m gz83, a collaborator on the Thorium browser project. Since Alex is currently unable to find the time to update Thorium, I have temporarily taken over and completed the initial upgrade from M138 to M144. The code is available here:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/tree/M144-LTS

Thorium has now been experimentally updated to M144.0.7559.254. This is a BETA release. Please report any issues you encounter in the main Thorium repository. For changes between M138 LTS and M144 LTS, please refer to Google’s release notes:

https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium/issues

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/12239814

After publishing BETA builds for the different supported platforms, I will submit my M144-LTS branch to Alex as a pull request for review and discuss the update with him further.

If you would like to try the BETA version, please download it from the following repository:

https://github.com/gz83/thorium/releases/tag/M144.0.7559.254

M138.0.7204.303 - 65th Release

M138 R2

• Includes security fixes from upstream for latest M138 LTS version: DIFF
• Corrected issue where "Open in Current Tab" was placed where "Open in New tab" used to be in the webpage right click menu, which ruined muscle memory and annoyed many users (including me). #1110
• Colored icons corrected.
• Fixed the download shelf not showing tooltips on hover. fac9b6d
• Fixed crash in profile selector #1115 & #1137
• Fix misc. crashes that should have been fixed upstream, but weren't > #1145
• Fix crash when "Remove Tab Search Button" flag is enabled #1111
• WebRTC should now work, for example Zoom calls, Discord, etc. #1113
• Easter eggs page (chrome://eggs) now works again (favicon needs fixing) bbdf320
• RPM dependencies are fixed, the .rpm should now install on any .RPM distro without complaint! 0d8132a
• New GUI installer with progress bar and confirmation on Windows. > af404cd

Known Issues:

• Top bar window dragging space (above the tabs) when Window is unmaximized is (still) too large on Windows and Linux.

UPDATED: The "i386" builds are special 32 bit, SSE2 builds for old Linux computers.

M138.0.7204.300 - 64th Release

Happy New Year Release!

Whoo 😅 It took a long while to get here. Many months without updates.
However, going forward, Thorium will be based on the latest LTS (Long Term Support) Chromium revision, which changes twice a year. This will let me focus on features, bug fixes, and keeping Thorium secure, instead of always having to do the long, tedious work of rebasing to a new major Chromium revision. With my new job, I simply don't have as much free time. M138 is the current one, M144 is going to be the new LTS in 2 months. In between, I can make minor updates to Thorium to address security concerns and major bugs.

• Th24 now 98% complete, good enough for a release, Ill fix minor stuff in a future build.
• Restored ability to install MV2 extensions from the web store (previously you would have to sideload a .crx, or keep MV2 extensions you already had installed in that user profile).
• Fixed the Download Shelf crash, so chrome://flags/#download-shelf works again for people like me who hate the new download bubble. (bug in prev. beta release)
• Fixed Notification settings crash that plagued the last release. (bug in prev. beta release)
• Fixed Google sync not working and fixed translate not showing on some sites (bug in prev. beta release)
• Added HEVC patches (bug in prev. beta release)
• Windows Installer now has a dialog asking if you want to install (use --silentcommandline switch to revert to old silent behaviour)

Also, thanks to @gz83 work, the FTP patch is restored and working! Since Supermium removed the FTP patch, this makes Thorium the only browser left on earth that still supports FTP. FTP users, continue as you were 😁

Known Issues:

1. Top bar window dragging space (above the tabs) when Window is unmaximized is too large on Windows and GTK3 (Linux)
2. Some colored icons are missing in WebUI (people who hate my colored icons will rejoice 😆 )
3. RPM might have wrong dependencies it thinks it needs, you might have to force install it
4. Ask.com was removed as a search engine.
5. Easter eggs page isn't working (need to find out why, patches are in there)

Windows build Here > https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases/tag/138.0.7204.300

JAN. 5 EDIT: Corrected issue where "Open in Current Tab" was placed where "Open in New tab" used to be, which ruined muscle memory.

JAN. 8 EDIT: Uploaded .AppImages of the builds.

M138 Beta Release! [DONT DOWNLOAD ANYMORE]

1st M138 Beta build for the masses, after 9 months of no updates!

EDIT: NON-BETA RELEASE BUILDS ARE HERE: https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium/releases/tag/M138.0.7204.300

M138.0.7204.193

• This is a raw beta build. Expect things to possibly not work properly.

• Only SSE3 builds, don't want to compile all the builds just for a beta

• Manifest V2 support restored!

• It is missing the FTP patches and HEVC software decoding patches, but otherwise, all of Thorium is there.

I will be adding some more patches, fixing 2 flags, and reviewing all my commits over the last month before making final public builds for all the platforms. So, I'm not going to write the full release notes with all the changes and fixes until then.

Known Issues:

1. Th24 has some minor layout irregularities, but it's 90% working properly.
2. Restore Download Shelf (i.e. remove Download Bubble) flag is not working, and causes crash.
3. Setting notification permission prompts ( chrome://settings/content/notifications ) to anything than what I set it to (quiet and unobtrusive) will cause renderer processes crash. The app will appear normal, but in the background, hundreds of processes are spawned and crash immediately. Suggestion: DONT mess with notification settings until I fix it.
4. Opening settings page can sometimes cause crash. I know what this is, other things just are taking priority over fixing that right now.

😸 Thank you everyone, that is all, wait for full release with full release notes before end of year!

Windows build here > https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases/tag/M138Beta1

      – Alex313031

M130.0.6723.174 - 62nd Release

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. UPDATE: Good news, I finally fixed the Windows crash, and MacOS builds are working again! So get ready for M130 for all the other platforms within the next day!

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. In addition, the "Customize Thorium" side panel now has the old color options on top of the existing new ones. 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).
• Bookmarks bar overflow button and "All Bookmarks" button alignment fixed.
• Omnibox left-hand-side separator is restored, as well as the color of the icon.
• Original new tab button and tab search button icons restored
• Unmaximized window frame grab handle height fixed in Th24
• Menu arrows restored to pre-Cr23 icons.

---

• 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.
• When the chrome://flags#rectangular-tabs I added in M128 is enabled, now the new tab button and tab search button will also have a rectangular appearance as well.
• New command line flag --reader-mode to 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
• Hardware acceleration issues with AMD GPUs on Linux fixed by reverting a status flag I had modified back to the way upstream Chromium had it.
• Bookmark bar separator colors fixed.
• Bug where the disable-thorium-icons flag was not working for the home button is fixed.
• 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.
• Text contrast increased for better readability in dark mode.
• Side panel grab handle size reduced because it's simply too big.
• Building for a given SIMD level is much easier now, for example an AVX2 or AVX512 or custom build. I did a major code refactor for the compiler optimizations of Thorium, and it can now be controlled through build args rather than source code. See Here for more info. (Only of interest to those building it for themselves).
• New debugging tool for USERS (not just devs). Backstory: Chromium/Thorium can be built with is_debug = true, but these builds are large, very slow, and not suitable for public release. They are normally only used internally by me and the builders @midzer and @gz83 , but they have one thing I wished I had by default: Verbose Logging. Well, now we do, even in non-debug builds! Set the new environment variable THORIUM_DEBUG=1 (or THORIUM_DEBUG=true) (for info on how to set an environment variables, see Here), and when running Thorium from the command line, it will respect them, and cause it to log to console with the same verbosity as a debug build normally would. This means it will show verbose info, non fatal errors and warnings (normally only fatal errors and certain warnings are shown). It will also show any output from the devtools console of the current tab, even if devtools isn't open! Basically this will let you gather a verbose log to send to me in a GitHub issue if I ask for it or if you already know that it's relevant to the bug at hand. It could also be useful for web devs since they can view the devtools console output without it being open.
• Security on Linux improved slightly by disallowing loading .so libraries from anywhere outside the directory the thorium binary resides in, or system library directories.
• Downloads bubble menu width increased to allow long filenames to be read easier.
• Close confirmation flag fixed.

I have also added a new flag to the Chrome Labs i.e. Thorium Experiments button (as well as the chrome://flags page of course), that controls a new feature that may become default in a later release. I am particularly proud of this new feature code-wise, as it was not easy to implement like one would think. Anyway, it is a new top bar button! Enabling chrome://flags#restore-tab-button will add a new little separator and button to the left side of the top bar, beside the home button (or reload button, if you have the home button turned off). Clicking it simply opens the last closed tab or window. Successive presses will open the 2nd last closed tab/window, etc. similar to Ctrl + Shift + T, just with a button instead of a keyboard shortcut for people who like to use their mouse.

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

Note 2: If you have any extensions that use /etc/chromium/native-messaging-hosts or similar, you will need to copy them over to /etc/thorium/native-messaging-hosts. Technically, Thorium should have been using this the whole time, just like how Chrome uses /etc/opt/chrome/native-messaging-hosts and Brave uses /etc/brave/native-messaging-hosts. This was a bugfix, but means people who have gotten their extensions to work by just putting them in the Chromium native-messaging-hosts folder will now have to do it for Thorium too. But...

M128.0.6613.189 - 61st Release

M128
Thorium 2024 UI "Th24" is complete. Please see the past 3 beta releases if you aren't up to speed about it. On top of those, we now:

• Have the restored bookmarks folder icon used in the bookmarks ui and bookmarks bar
• Fixed spacing of the new tab button
• Added 180px as an option to the new custom-tab-width chrome flag
• Tab separators are 2px again after I had temporarily reverted back to 1px
• More WebUI stuff is reverted to its pre-Chrome 2023 appearance.
• I am writing a full write-up/explainer on what Cr23 is, what Th24 is, and why I made it. It will have pictures to illustrate as well. It isn't finished yet but you can find it Here.

---

Now, other stuff:

• New flag chrome://flags#classic-omnibox "classic omnibox". When enabled, the omnibox (i.e. url bar) takes on a more squareish shape similar to classic versions of Chromium/Chrome. It was adapted from the same flag in Supermium, but I adjusted the radius, and I fixed an issue with stuff not showing up quite right when the omnibox is focused, i.e. when the results are all showing up. Might make a pull request upstream.
• The Thorium 2024 flag was added to "Chrome Labs" to make it easier to enable than going to chrome://flags. Just click the "beaker" icon (actually an Erlenmeyer flask lol) in the top bar, and you can enable it there.
• New flag chrome://flags/#remove-tabsearch-button to remove the tab search button from the tab strip.
• The bug on Linux where me setting it to the classic theme by default was causing crashes is now fixed.
• I finally added some background music to the Chrome Dino game. You can hear it on chrome://dino
• Added a new WebUI page chrome://eggs that has images from the easter egg contest on it.
• I enabled the Customize Toolbar feature ahead of schedule (the official stable enabled by default release was in M129). This lets you add a bunch of stuff to the toolbar.
• The size of the main menu button (aka the "hamburger menu" or "three dots menu") has been corrected to be smaller
• Better compiler tuning on MacOS
• "About Thorium" item in the main menu is now in a better place and doesn't have a blue "i" icon on it anymore.
• New flag chrome://flags#transparent-tabs, which makes tabs semi-transparent (Windows only)
• Limits of MV3 were removed. A MV3 extension like UBlock Origin Lite, if it were coded to take advantage of Thorium, now has limits on declarativeNetRequest that are similar to MV2. Thorium still intends to restore MV2 code when the time comes, but I thought this would be an interesting experiment. I might try to fork Ublock, so if you're interested in this, watch my GitHub account for a new repo.

Includes a build of Thorium UI Debug Shell (AVX only)
TODO: Fix alignment of tab search button, fix FTP link clicking.

TEST build. Chromium + Th24 M128.0.6613.170

M128.0.6613.170

• More Th24 fixes, this is the final version that will ship in the M128 release.
• Made this just as a test build for Th24, and figured I would release it while I'm working on the other M128 stuff.
• This is just regular Chromium, but with Th24 and Thorium's build args
• This release is going to count on my Patreon as this months Linux release, since I need some money lol. When M128 it released the first week of october, there will be a link in my patreon, but It wont be a paid link.

BETA 2 "Th24" build - M126.0.6478.251

IMPORTANT: Please see release notes of previous beta (Beta 1) release, otherwise you will be lost with these notes.

(FYI, when I say "restored", I mean restored to the pre-CR23 UI state).

• Downloads page "X" button fixed
• Minor sizing issues fixed
• Added a new item to the tabstrip right click menu: "New tab to the left" to compliment the default which is "New tab to the right". IDK why they didn't do this upstream, it makes sense, because sometimes you may want to open a tab to the left.
• Number of bookmarks you can open before it prompts "Are you sure you want to open XXX tabs?" was upped from 15 to 50. (Personal pet peeve of mine)
• Theme is "Classic" by default, instead of "Mica" (On Windows), or GTK/QT on Linux. This is to provide a consistent experience as well as prevent an issue where tab separators would be practically invisible. Of course you can still change it to one of those others, and if you have a theme installed, it will not overwrite that.
• Bookmarks bar size adjusted
• InfoBar size restored
• Dialog box/find box/page info box radius restored
• Bug where one could not select a tab if you were not "centered" on the tab, i.e. if you just moved your cursor to the top of the screen above the tab you were trying to select, was fixed after a long debugging session and FaceTime call with @midzer lol. Fixes #804, and partially fixes #640
• Button radius restored (but only for non-WebUI layers, i.e. "native" buttons, so for example, the buttons on the settings page are still bad, while ones on a dialog box for an OS function like printing is restored)
• Volume icon corrected
• Added thorium_2024.h header file to the .patch file so that it would actually work for people wanting to build it for themselves.
• Minor revision updated to .251, which has two security fixes for WebAssembly

TODO: Fix menu padding on Windows, bookmarks bar underline, and folder icons (Note to self: Use .png of 128x128 instead of .icon vector format)

M127 coming soon, which will have a mostly final version of Th24.