M150 Beta Release!

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

Here are the release notes for this release:

Highlights

• Updated Thorium to Chromium 150.0.7871.47.
• Migrated Thorium overlays into an ordered patch series under patch_scripts/series/.
• Added tooling for applying/refreshing patch series and rebasing GRD/XTB strings.
• Refreshed Thorium patches for M150-LTS across media, UI, privacy, extensions, branding, installer, and build-system areas.

New & Updated Features

• Added/refreshed Thorium flags for tab and navigation behavior:
  • Keep the browser window open when the last tab is closed.
  • Switch tabs with mouse-wheel scrolling over the tab strip.
  • Close tabs with right-click, while Shift + right-click still opens the tab context menu.
  • Activate tabs after hovering over them, with selectable delay values.
  • Open bookmark clicks in a foreground or background new tab.
  • Open address bar navigations in a foreground or background new tab.
  • Set a custom New Tab Page URL, including internal, external, or local pages.
  • Replace tab hover cards with classic tooltips or disable them.
• Added/refreshed privacy and cleanup flags:
  • Clear browsing history, downloads, cache, site data, passwords, form data, and content settings on exit.
  • Keep all local browsing history instead of expiring older entries.
• Added/refreshed UI customization flags:
  • Force-disable tab outline strokes.
  • Disable Thorium’s custom colored top bar icons and restore Chromium’s default grey icons.
  • Enable GTK auto dark mode on Linux based on the system GTK theme.

Build & Packaging

• Updated GN args and PGO profile paths for M150.
• Added centralized SIMD/build configuration patches.
• Refreshed Linux installer packaging and desktop integration patches.
• Updated Windows installer patches and fixed AVX2 mini_installer build failures caused by fast-math / fp-contract flag conflicts.
• Updated Windows cross-build flow to use newer Visual Studio artifacts.

Cleanup

• Removed legacy overlays, stale backup files, obsolete scripts, bundled depot_tools overlay, old Windows 7 files, and legacy Hangouts extension support.
• Removed outdated JPEG XL feature references from documentation.
• Reworked PATCHES.md to document the current patch inventory and patch application order.