Google hopes that its Dart programming language will one day supplant the ever-ubiquitous JavaScript in the world of web development. It's now taken another small step towards that goal by releasing a "technical preview" of the Chromium web browser with the Dart virtual machine built right in. Nicknamed "Dartium," the app allows developers to run Dart code directly within the browser, avoiding an additional compilation stage. It's currently available for Mac and Linux computers, though a Windows version is promised soon.

Part of Google's strategy with Dart has been to make it a theoretical one-stop shop for developers. A provided Dart-to-JavaScript compiler allows Dart code to run on legacy browsers, while modern applications that support the language could run the code natively, with all of the related performance benefits. The open-source Chromium is itself the foundation of Google's Chrome — which continues to gobble up browser marketshare — and while the Dart VM integration is still in its early stages, the company obviously plans to bring the feature to their marquee browser as well. Dartium is available for download now, but browsers beware: Google cautions that this is an early test version only, and is not suited for daily use.