NW.js v0.20.1 Released with Node.js v7.5.0 and Chromium 56 Stable Update

2017/02/02

NW.js 0.20.1 is here with Chromium 56 stable update and Node.js v7.5.0. It added a command line switch to fix single process mode under windows.

Chromium 56 contains under-the-hood performance and stability tweaks, and some cool new features to explore like CSS position: sticky and Web Bluetooth. See the upstream announcement for more information. NW20 also features V8 5.6, which delivers a number of key improvements in memory and performance footprint, as well as Ignition and TurboFan pipeline for ES.next. This version is going to ship the WebAssembly browser preview, which is a new runtime and compilation target for the web. Please refer to the dedicated upstream blog post for further information.

Chromium 56 introduces an optimization to save CPU when tabs are in the background. It's done by throttling background tabs' timers. See this blog post for more information. If you don't want this in your NW.js application, you can use the --disable-raf-throttling switch to disable it.

We've made the 0.20 branch ready soon after Chromium beta bumps to 56. Thanks to the testers for their valuable feedback.

We've been working on 3 branches simultaneously: a released branch on current Chromium stable, a beta branch on Chromium beta and a 0.14 branch for legacy OS support.

For more information on the new milestone 0.13 and later versions, please see our blog "What's New in 0.13" for a better introduction.

ChangeLog

Update Chromium to 56.0.2924.87
Update Node.js to v7.5.0
Support disabling crash handler for single process mode with `--disable-crash-handler=true' (#5624)
[docs] Added documentation for `disable-crash-handler' switch

Full ChangeLog: https://github.com/nwjs/nw.js/blob/nw20/CHANGELOG.md

Download

SDK build:

Binary for other platforms: https://dl.nwjs.io/v0.20.1/

There are 2 builds for each platform - normal build, and SDK build. Normal build doesn't have devtools, only SDK build does. lt can be opened by pressing F12 (Cmd-Alt-I on OSX). SDK packages also have more development tools to be exposed in the following releases, as well as the NaCl support.

Our build infrastructure enables live binary build from git tip so you can access to the latest binary from https://dl.nwjs.io/live-build/

Known issues

http://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Migration/From%200.12%20to%200.13/#known-issues

Discussion

See our mailing list to discuss on this release: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/nwjs-general/qdw0ZDMvfqw/dl2r5t3IBwAJ