Not So Shiny?

My personal victory over both Microsoft and Skype at the weekend diverted my attention from my laptops. On my return, I find that, on the DELL Inspiron 6400, Chromium crashes immediately it is started - couldn't do a thing with it.

There is a fair bit of chatter on the Internet about this problem and several solutions are offered, including turning off hardware acceleration via Firefox: however, I chose to replace Chromium (from the repository) with Google Chrome (a direct download). I've outlined the process here for two reasons:

1. The linked instructions aren't absolutely clear.
2. The download link in the original instructions directs to the French download page.

Instructions to Replace Chromium:

• Install Google Chrome using the package manager: Download Page. Select the appropriate package and then click the Accept & Install button. When the download is complete, the Package Installer will start automatically - click Install.
• Uninstall Chromium using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Whilst this option is a quick and dirty method for replacing the browser in the repository with Google's version (and adding Google's ppa to your software sources at the same time), you can also repair Chromium by copying the libgcflashplayer.so file from Google's browser to Ubuntu's browser.

Instructions to Repair Chromium

• Install Google Chrome using the package manager: Download Page. Select the appropriate package and then click the Accept & Install button. When the download is complete, the Package Installer will start automatically - click Install.
• When the installation is complete, open a terminal and copy & paste the following into the command line:
  
  sudo cp /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins

  
  Press the return key and enter your sudo password at the prompt.
• Copy and paste the following into the command line
  
  sudo chmod ugo+x /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins/libgcflashplayer.so

  
  Press the return key.
• Uninstall Chrome by searching for google-chrome-stable in Synaptic Package Manager and marking the package for removal

Sources & References:
Ask Ubuntu How Can I fix Crashing Flash on Chromium?
Chrome Download (English)