The Google Chrome OS is kind of a mystery to many people, including me. So what really is it and why would I want to use it? Perhaps, regurgitating this tidbit of information from the official Google Blog will help "We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome - the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."
In case you haven't seen the news lately, the Chrome OS will target netbooks. The reason being is that netbooks are meant to be devices made specifically for browsing, checking email and catching up on the news. Sound familiar? The poster child for the Chrome OS is the Chrome browser. I personally have been using the Chrome Browser for the last two weeks. Surprisingly, to my own amazement, I really have grown to like it. It is simplistic, easy to use and it is fast. It does what a browser should do, which is simply just render the HTML. This notion is exactly the same for the Chrome OS. People are tired of all the bloat that is evident in today's major operating systems. For example, when you install Windows you immediately inherit years of bloat. There are hundred of drivers on your machine that you will probably never use but need to be there for legacy support.
Keeping on track with my story... On November 19th, Sundar Pichai, the vice president of product management for Google announced the availability of the source code for the Chrome OS. As soon as the source was released, developers started downloading the code so they could test it out. Fortunately for us, the engineers at gdgt.com downloaded the code, complied it and posted a VMWare version of the Chrome OS image for everyone to try. If you are interested in getting your own copy then visit the following URL: http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/
The picture above, proves that the VMWare image works. I got it running on my Windows 7 x64 laptop without any problems at all. However, before you try running the VM please review these tips, and if for some reason you get stuck there is also a video walk-through.
- 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.")
- If you experience problems logging in then try bridged networking instead of NAT.
- The username and password to login to Chrome OS / Chromium OS is your Google account!
