Chrome OS Zero brings new features

Hexxeh, of hexxeh.net, has released yet another customized version of Chrome OS. Chrome OS Zero is once again bootable from a a USB drive, but has additional goodies added on by hexxeh. Here is his description of the new release:

• Newer version of ChromiumOS code
• Major speed improvements for many users
• Reduced Broadcom delay
• New artwork for the boot process
• Full extension support
• Reduced download size, clocks in at under 250MB
• Still fits on a 1GB USB drive despite the new features
• Beginnings of multi-language input (requires a little terminal work to add your language as there is no UI yet)
• Quite a lot more!

You can download the new image here: Chrome OS Zero, and can follow my directions to install it here: Install Chrome OS Zero on a USB drive.

Now don't be shy, let us know how your Chrome OS Zero experience goes in the comments below!

Chrome OS Updated (Cherry Version)

Our faithful beast of a hacker, hexxeh, has come through again. And this time, it's you Broadcom wireless users that are in for joy.

Hexxeh announced his new Chromium OS build today, stating that "ChromeOS Cherry released with new Broadcom/Ralink support and many bugfixes! Broadcom WiFi works, but you need to wait about 5 minutes after booting to connect to a network." The new build is deemed "Cherry", apparently following the soda references that the last build (Chrome OS Diet) started.

Pretty cool. Maybe Google should hire this guy for PR? Or even for developing Chrome OS? Well, if you interested in installing "ChromeOS Cherry" you can download the USB image here: Chrome OS Cherry.
And we have some instructions for first time users here: Install Chrome OS to USB
Hexxeh, this better be all-natural cherry, not that artificial flavoring crap. Let us know how this build tastes to you down there in the comments!

First Look at Chrome OS

Word comes from Gdgt.com that they have a virtual machine image of Chrome OS. As you know, Google released the kibbles and bits of the Chrome OS source code yesterday and it looks like a few brave hackers have put it together for an easily digestible virtual operating system install.

I decided to take my hand at installing Chrome OS in VirtualBox to see how the infant of an OS is coming along. The system booted very quickly. This is definitely going to appeal to those using Windows XP (or even Ubuntu) on their netbooks, as it often takes in excess of an entire minute to boot them.

I also thought the feature of logging into Chrome OS with your Google credentials was convenient. This means if I wanted to borrow my friend's Chrome OS device, he could just sign out and let me log on. There would be no issue of his private data being shown to me.

However, Chrome OS (or Chromium OS, as this source code version is called) is still a very rough version. My trackpad actually stopped working after a few minutes into my session. But overall, I really like where Google's Chrome OS is going.

You can download the virtual machine image here: Chrome OS VMware or VirtualBox Image (we recommend VirtualBox, which you can download here: VirtualBox for Windows, Linux or Mac).
Gdgt also has a USB-bootable image ready, but they warn that it might be for the faint of heart (it involves Linux, oh my!). Make sure you download the VMware image, even if you are using VirtualBox. The VirtualBox image would not boot for me.

So even though Google says Chrome OS will not be available for a "download and install to your computer" type opportunity, we know that with source code running in the wild, it's only a matter of time. Soon we'll have an .iso image to install to your favorite test machine, although it might be a bit hardware limited. Oh, the magic of open source software!