Google chrome OS

twodogs62

Has anyone looked at this very much?

Anyone a beta tester?

Is there any place to download Google chrome OS for a test drive?

I saw demo and are intrigued about concept....

tiersten

Install the Chrome browser. Uninstall everything else. That is pretty much it for the Chrome OS "experience" except for the fast booting.

Somebody was making third party builds of Chrome OS for x86 at one point. No idea if they're still doing it now. Google won't be doing official builds as it isn't an aftermarket product. You're only supposed to get Chrome OS installed on official Chrome OS hardware.

hypnotoad

Rumor has it they are dumping Chrome OS and android will be the OS for everything google.

twodogs62

Download Chrome OS Linux RC & beta

Here is link I found. I don't think this is the real thing, but seems to be a way to test drive.

Does this site sound legit?

twodogs62

Chromium OS FAQ - The Chromium Projects

Also found this link which seems to give overview.

tiersten

twodogs62 wrote: »

Download Chrome OS Linux RC & beta

Here is link I found. I don't think this is the real thing, but seems to be a way to test drive.

Does this site sound legit?

No. "Chrome OS Linux" is nothing to do with Google. Its just somebody trying to hitch a ride off the name by calling their Linux distribution "Chrome OS Linux" instead of the real "Chrome OS". It does include the Chrome browser but also has a bunch of other applications and doesn't appear to be based on any of the Chromium OS code base. It isn't the first to pretend to be a Google product. Yet another distribution that pretended to be a Google product at some point.

tiersten

Chrome OS is literally the Chrome browser and enough of a Linux distribution to start up the browser as quickly as possible. Nothing else is in there at all and you're not supposed to do anything else except via the browser.

There aren't any apps that are exclusive to Chrome OS that won't run under the regular Chrome browser as they're all web apps and the majority of them are just the regular Google websites anyway. The latest version of the Chrome browser even has its own app store.

Chrome OS is a non-event. As hypnotoad mentioned, the rumour is that Chrome OS is dead anyway as Google appears to just be concentrating on Android. The Google TV devices all run Android. The tablets are all going to run Android.

If Chrome OS does appear then IMO its most likely going to be something like the quick boot BIOS flash resident copies of Linux that are in some systems. Good enough for basic stuff like web and email but if you want anything else then you're going to boot into your real OS.

twodogs62

Chromium OS builds by Hexxeh

Chromium os Discussion group mentioned this as link.

Just looking for feedback to determine of I am looking in correct places as I am interested in this and wanting to "test drive" this.

tiersten

twodogs62 wrote: »

Chromium OS builds by Hexxeh

Yes. Thats what I was thinking of. Its a build of the open source Chromium code by a third party developer. The images linked on that site are all really old. The developer seems to be mostly messing around with a Cr-48 netbook which is a limited edition developer Chrome OS device that Google gave out a while back.

twodogs62

Laptop for beta testers. I recently saw demo of chrome OS with laptop and it was interesting. This person had applied and been accepted as a google chrome OS laptop beta tester. My understanding is google has opened up applications for more beta testers.

Pilot Program - Chrome OS

tiersten

twodogs62 wrote: »

Laptop for beta testers

Huh. Didn't know that the Cr-48 didn't have a capslock key. I GUESS IT WOULD STOP MY MOTHER FROM WRITING EMAILS LIKE THIS BECAUSE SHE JUST LEAVES IT ON CAPSLOCK ALL THE TIME.

If you're really interested in Chrome OS then you're going to have to get a Cr-48. The third party builds are great and all but its still not quite the same.

twodogs62

Not 100% sure but it seemed to be running on ubuntu. This is the laptop I saw demo'd which appears to a beta tester laptop. Only saw laptop briefly, but these are some details I noticed, but didn't get to confirm. I was hoping to get more in site to this since things are rapidly changing and cloud seems to be way things are going. People want to be more mobile... Cloud does this and google apps makes sense.

twodogs62

Where do I get a cr-48? Anyone else experimenting with this?

tiersten

twodogs62 wrote: »

Not 100% sure but it seemed to be running on ubuntu.

Canonical who make Ubuntu has/had been helping Google with Chrome OS so there are probably some underlying components which are from Ubuntu but you're never supposed to see or use any of that.

twodogs62 wrote: »

I was hoping to get more in site to this since things are rapidly changing and cloud seems to be way things are going. People want to be more mobile... Cloud does this and google apps makes sense.

Unless you can get a Cr-48, you might as well just use the Chrome browser and use Google Apps like normal. Chrome OS doesn't give you anything extra currently that your existing system can't do if you ignore the fast starting part.

I wouldn't throw away the traditional systems just yet. There have been many major disasters involving "cloud systems" so trust is at an all time low. The other problem is that until everybody gets guaranteed 100% uptime extremely high speed internet with low costs + no caps which is everywhere then its not a suitable replacement for the vast majority of situations.

One area which is getting some interest from several companies is remote server based gaming. The audio/video is streamed to you over your internet connection and your mouse/keyboard/joypad inputs are sent back to their end. Its an interesting concept since you just need a small plugin or app to play along with no need to download or install large quantities of data. Piracy is reduced to minimal levels since the end user never actually has the game data. The killer however is the internet connecton issue again. Not everybody has a sufficiently fast or low latency internet connection to sustain the streaming connection.

tiersten

twodogs62 wrote: »

Where do I get a cr-48?

You apply to that Chrome OS pilot program you linked to. I've no idea what the status of the pilot program is at the moment and how many if any people are being admitted.

twodogs62 wrote: »

Anyone else experimenting with this?

I've tried it before on a few occasions. The first time was when I downloaded and built Chromium OS. I only tried it in a VM as I didn't have a spare machine handy to run it directly. The second time was just messing around with my friend's Cr-48.

If you live in your browser and never run anything else then a Chrome OS device will be ideal for you. If you need or want to do anything else then pass on the Chrome OS device and find something else like an iPad or laptop depending on your requirements.

phonetic.man

tiersten wrote: »

You apply to that Chrome OS pilot program you linked to. I've no idea what the status of the pilot program is at the moment and how many if any people are being admitted.

If you live in your browser and never run anything else then a Chrome OS device will be ideal for you. If you need or want to do anything else then pass on the Chrome OS device and find something else like an iPad or laptop depending on your requirements.

Based on Google's original press announcement the application window for the pilot passed a while ago (though if the application is still online it couldn't hurt to take the two minuets to fill it out).

I signed up and got one of their CR-48s. For basic tasks, I really like it. I especially like the idea that clueless users can avoid a lot of the basic pitfalls that they normally fall into (no more late night support calls from family that cant figure out where they saved files or why installing every sketchy program and toolbar is a bad idea). Save for my work account, I use my google account exclusively as I really like all of the features they offer and that it ties in with my Android phone (and CR-4 so effortlessly. Most of the time when I am looking something up or just farting around online I am on the CR-48. If I need a full computer for something, like labing for the CCNA, then I break out my HP (part of the agreement when registering said that you would use the CR-48 as your main computer).

I have also read a couple of interviews with Android and Chrome OS devs and they have acknowledged that somewhere down the line projects are likely to merge, but for now their goals are not quite similar enough to combine the projects.

exampasser

tiersten wrote: »

I wouldn't throw away the traditional systems just yet. There have been many major disasters involving "cloud systems" so trust is at an all time low. The other problem is that until everybody gets guaranteed 100% uptime extremely high speed internet with low costs + no caps which is everywhere then its not a suitable replacement for the vast majority of situations.

That's what I thought of when I started hearing about Chrome OS. Considering that most home users don't have very fast upload speeds as most residential connections are asymmetric in nature, doing something like saving larger files such as pictures to a remote server would be painfully slow.