Google Chrome OS Gets Detailed On Video

As announced earlier, Google released launch details about the Google Chrome OS platform, though there is no

Virtual Experience:

There are no local application, the OS uses HTML5 based web apps, but Google is working on giving the developers access to some of the system resources – such as GPUs for hardware Flash acceleration, etc. There’ll also be more extensions for the Chrome browser itself. Google will be able to better manage the spread of malware, since everything is installed remotely rather than locally (in fact Chrome OS can’t actually change files on your netbook’s hard-drive, since the boot partition is read-only), and users should be able to log into another Chrome OS system and instantly have their regular work environment. Similarly all the tabs from the previous session are maintained. Google use a “verified boot” system whereby Chrome OS’ cryptographic signature keys are checked to make sure no malware has infected the system; should something still get through, however, there’s an automatic recovery procedure to fix it. The entire OS is designed to automatically update as improvements are developed.

Since Chrome OS will be streamlined to work only with specific hardware components, you won’t be able to just boot the new OS onto your machine. Instead, you’ll need to use a virtual machine for Chrome OS. You have two choices. You can either get Virtual Box here, which has options for Windows, Mac, Solaris, and Linux systems. Or, you can download VMware Player for Windows or VMware Fusion for Mac.

Note:If you choose the VMware Fusion for Mac option, note that you will only get a 30-day trial version. The full version of the software will cost you $79.99.

User Experience:

The UI is still undergoing changes, but will consist of tabs and various app menu panes, together with so-called persistent windows for things like Google Talk. Rather than being able to drag windows pixel-by-pixel, they will either snap against the edges of the screen or each other, be shown in split-screen mode, or in full-screen. Across the top of the display are five pinned application tabs, which currently link to things like Gmail, Facebook and the like. In the top left-hand corner is the primary apps menu, with a search box, the ability to create new tabs, windows and bookmarks, together with the sign in/out functionality. While at present it is a pull down menu, there’s talk of switching it to a full-screen tab or partial-screen overlay.

Plugging in peripherals, meanwhile, such as USB drives, webcams or cameras, opens up a new tab with the contents or functionality of that peripheral. Google are still optimizing the code for even faster boot times (the shipping netbooks using Chrome OS will use solid-state storage for speed gains), as well as producing more webapps; currently there’s Hulu, PicasaWeb, YouTube, a Google music app, Notepad and more. As for the platform itself, Google Chrome OS is expected to come out fully in around a year’s time, with machines from the top OEMs on the market before the 2010 holiday period. As for the hardware itself, it will only use SSD for storage, and in fact Google have produced a reference design for manufacturers, with specific WiFi cards and other components supported. Netbooks will be the first wave, either x86 or ARM based, but Google are not counting out Google Chrome OS powered notebooks and desktops at some point in the future.

Download Chrome OS:

Before you get too far ahead of yourself, you’ll need to download the compiled version of Chrome OS. You can try the version from gadget Website gdgt (registration required) or a torrent from Pirate Bay. In my tests, the gdgt version did not work with Virtual Box, but this situation may change so read through gdgt’s help thread later in the day before giving up on Virtual Box. Some users have also had succes using the VMware Chrome OS file inside Virtual Box. If you download from gdgt, make sure you get the right version of Chrome OS for either Virtual Box or VMware. If you’re a Linux user and you don’t need help installing Chrome OS you can also download a USB-bootable version from gdgt.

TechCrunch has confirmed that this download/install both work. Be warned, though, the torrent version could come with malware or spyware.

Once you’ve downloaded Chrome OS, which could take a while, make sure you unzip the file before proceeding to the next step.