[spoil=Description]Google announced Chrome OS just couple days ago. It is time to try it out for yourself. By the looks, it is a linux kernel with a Chrome browser on top of it (I didn’t really read all that much about it). The idea behind the OS is that nothing gets stored on the computer locally but all the date goes on the web services. This is probably ideal for netbooks and people who do nothing more than browse the internet. There are loads of them! It would make a lightweight netbook with nothing more than motherboard, screen, keyboard and a touchpad. Chrome OS could even go on your touch screen kitchen computer. Now that YouTube supports 1080p videos it could even make some sort of DVR/streamer device. Google Docs catching up to Microsoft Office (as announced by Google).
Description: Google Chrome OS is a project by Google Inc. to develop a lightweight computer operating system devoted to using the World Wide Web. Announced on July 7, 2009, it is set to have a publicly available stable release during the second half of 2010. The Linux-based operating system will sport a graphical user interface based on Google’s Chrome web browser and will run on systems with either x86 or ARM processors. Chrome OS is designed for netbooks and is thus separate from the Android operating system, which was designed primarily for use on smartphones, with support for conventional applications running on the device. The Chrome OS user interface will take a minimalist approach, much like the company’s Chrome web browser, and will rely solely on cloud computing, with all applications residing on remote servers, rather than on the device itself. Hence Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on the Internet.[/spoil]
Looks interesting to say the least.
Description: Google Chrome OS is a project by Google Inc. to develop a lightweight computer operating system devoted to using the World Wide Web. Announced on July 7, 2009, it is set to have a publicly available stable release during the second half of 2010. The Linux-based operating system will sport a graphical user interface based on Google’s Chrome web browser and will run on systems with either x86 or ARM processors. Chrome OS is designed for netbooks and is thus separate from the Android operating system, which was designed primarily for use on smartphones, with support for conventional applications running on the device. The Chrome OS user interface will take a minimalist approach, much like the company’s Chrome web browser, and will rely solely on cloud computing, with all applications residing on remote servers, rather than on the device itself. Hence Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on the Internet.[/spoil]
After Google announced the availability of the Chrome OS / Chromium OS source code, one of our engineers (Jon Ursenbach), immediately got to work on compiling the code, trying to see if he could get an instance of Chromium OS running in a virtual machine.
He was finally able to do it! You can download a copy of the virtual machine to use in VMware, VirtualBox, and on a USB drive here (300MB compressed / 700MB uncompressed):
http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/
Helpful tips, if you download it:
1.) To use the vmdk file, open VMware and create a new virtual machine. One of the options will be to use an "existing virtual disk." (In VMware Fusion, this is the last option below, "use operating system disk" and "use OS disc image file.")
2.) Make sure your VM is set to use bridged networking, rather than NAT.
2.) The username and password to login to Chrome OS / Chromium OS is your google account!
Alternatively, if you don't have VMware, some users have had luck getting this image to run using VirtualBox, which is a free cross-platform (Windows / Mac / Linux) virtual machine created by Sun Microsystem. You can download VirtualBox here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/
Anyway, get downloading and try out Chrome OS! And definitely share your impressions.
Update: we now have downloads for VMWare, VirtualBox, and USB-install! (Watch out for the USB one, you need Linux and it's a bit tricky.) Stay tuned for more details, but share your tips, tricks, and notes!
Update 2: Paul Miller from Engadget made a video walk-thru:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/20/how-to-run-chrome-os-
as-a-virtual-machine/
He was finally able to do it! You can download a copy of the virtual machine to use in VMware, VirtualBox, and on a USB drive here (300MB compressed / 700MB uncompressed):
http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/
Helpful tips, if you download it:
1.) To use the vmdk file, open VMware and create a new virtual machine. One of the options will be to use an "existing virtual disk." (In VMware Fusion, this is the last option below, "use operating system disk" and "use OS disc image file.")
2.) Make sure your VM is set to use bridged networking, rather than NAT.
2.) The username and password to login to Chrome OS / Chromium OS is your google account!
Alternatively, if you don't have VMware, some users have had luck getting this image to run using VirtualBox, which is a free cross-platform (Windows / Mac / Linux) virtual machine created by Sun Microsystem. You can download VirtualBox here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/
Anyway, get downloading and try out Chrome OS! And definitely share your impressions.
Update: we now have downloads for VMWare, VirtualBox, and USB-install! (Watch out for the USB one, you need Linux and it's a bit tricky.) Stay tuned for more details, but share your tips, tricks, and notes!
Update 2: Paul Miller from Engadget made a video walk-thru:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/20/how-to-run-chrome-os-
as-a-virtual-machine/
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