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 data 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) I can see how Google is bringing all their services together. In my opinion, there are quite a few uses for Chrome OS. Read more for screenshots, download links to VMware hard drive image and how to run it on your computer.

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.

What is Chrome OS?

Best described by Youtube video – watch it here.

Instructions for running on VMware

1. Create a new Virtual Machine.
2. Select OS Linux/Ubuntu.
3. Create a blank hard drive (doesn’t matter what size since it is gonna be removed).
4. Extract the *.vmdk file to a folder.
5. Go to virtual machine properties and remove the hard drive created by the VMware wizard.
6. Add vmdk file as a new hard drive (in advanced options it should be IDE 0:0).
7. Boot

Download: GDGT
You can get Chrome OS version build by GDGT at the link above. You will need to create an account on their website in order to download VMware image. This build will require to login with your Google account credentials.

Download: The Pirate Bay
A torrent file of Chrome OS built on 11/19/2009. I recommend downloading this one since it has a local user account “mark” enabled (no password). All it does is allow you to login without a Google account. This is described in the build documentation. Shared user password (for sudo, etc is ‘chromeos’).

Links: Homepage, Chrome Blog, Google Blog, Wikipedia