Google Android Development Agency SASS

Monday 23 November 2009

Google Chrome OS Beta first install

No posts for a few months, mainly due to the lack of mobile development action over here!

Just downloaded the first build of Google Chrome-OS and installed it on a VMWare virtual machine.

First impressions: Booted up very very quickly. I can definitely see the use for it in low-cost netbooks and for couch surfing. However, there are a couple of things which I can foresee might scupper it: No iTunes/Media playing and no image editing. All very well sticking your photos on Picasa or Flickr, but how are you supposed to get them off your device and edit them without any means of installing desktop editing software, or without provision for storing files locally?

I currently use a Macbook for surfing on the couch and for dragging photos off my cameras and onto Flickr. I would have considered Chrome-OS an alternative for this (farewell Apple at last...) but without just a few more niceties I can't make that switch.

Anyway, here's some screenshots of the login screen and the first screens you'll see.






All those apps you see above are of course just links to websites, although Google have mentioned in their design documents that they are hoping to use popups for sub-tasks, like the one shown below.



If you want to try it yourself, head over to http://discuss.gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/general/download-chrome-os-vmware-image/ and grab the VMWare image. (If you have trouble logging into the virtual machine, try the username "chronos" without a password).

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