Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download (update: first impressions)
By Vlad Savov 
posted Nov 20th 2009 1:44AM
posted Nov 20th 2009 1:44AM
Seriously, how awesome have the past few hours been? Engadget turns the design stakes up to 11, Google finally dishes the dirt on Chrome OS, and now you can even download the forthcoming software to have a fiddle with yourself. It's completely free, though you'll need VMWare running atop a Windows, Linux or OS X installation to make the magic happen. Naturally, we've been considerate enough to provide download links for everything you'll require at the source below, so get those fingers clicking. We've already successfully installed the browser-based OS and will soon be sharing our own hands-on thoughts, but if you beat us to it, spill your insight in the comments below. We do read 'em, you know.Update: Join us after the break to see what we thought of our first run through the new OS.
Well, we've had a chance to have a quick and dirty snoop around Chrome OS and our early conclusions are rather predictable. This really is a browser with an OS attached rather than vice versa. You get your tab-based navigation up top, and the focus is of course on the internet, with minimal option buttons on the far right and app launchers at the top left. Unfortunately, in order to access the more interesting apps, one requires a Google.com login which we do not have, so we were stuck gazing at only the Gmail and Calendar applications. They act and function much like their online counterparts, but for the significant lag and choppiness that may be attributed to the still very early stage of development or the fact it's running on a virtual machine.
Rest assured we'll be doing our utmost to get access to the full, albeit still skeletal, Chrome OS experience, and as soon as we can take a look at the rest of the apps on offer, we'll do a more in-depth analysis. Stay tuned.
ZOMG
Maybe I just wasn't reading the news close enough, but I wasn't expecting a Chrome OS download anytime soon.
@tankgunk
Is that you Hokan?
@%UsernameHTML% screw u google
...why not?
so uh... where are those download links?
@Daniel
See the link "More Coverage"? Yes, I know, its not obvious....
http://discuss.gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/general/download-chrome-os-vmware-image/
@Daniel you have to go to read link, and signup on that site
@Daniel Check it!
The link is right in the source:
http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/
@Daniel It's up on TPB as well, I'm uploading at almost 7 MB/s from my seedbox. Dang.
http://yit.me/3wz6ss
I have to admit, that the new layout does not clearly point out any further reading. it's way too small and I kinda missed a direct link in the article itself.
(not to mention, that the UI itself of the new *e is brilliant)
They can put two "sources" on a story, one called "via" and one called "source". See the recent IE story for an example:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/20/internet-explorer-9-to-sport-gpu-acceleration-and-html5-support/
It probably would have been better if the "source" for this story had been the download page and the "via" had been gdgt.
fake Donald Melanson says: I'd like to see a full review with this running on netbooks. Get to it Engadget!
@o rly Check out this review by Mark Brown of Editors Keys: http://www.editorskeys.com/Blog/google-chrome-os-should-we-care.html
I've sent them a USB bootable version: http://bit.ly/5ZxEtx
download it NOW.
SLOW :(
The "More Coverage" button needs to be bigger or a different colour or something. I completely missed it on my first read through, and had to check the comments :)
gdgt as the source? Come on Engadget, you don't got to lie to kick it. If you want more visitors to gdgt, just put a permalink on the sidebar
@unverified What are you talking about? gdgt is the source for the story.
@Joshua Topolsky
Maybe he thinks that cause Ryan Block runs gdgt, you're linking to gdgt and not the dl links. I'm not really sure.
@EGOvoruhk Gdgt really actually *is* the source on this one. Plain and simple.
It was just a joke guys, calm down. At least some of you picked up on it :-D
@EGOvoruhk While we're chatting -- even though you see this @ name here, you are an unregistered user, which means we'll be putting that account on "delete" list soon unless you grab your username. All you have to do is log out, then log back in and you'll be prompted to pick a permanent name. I'll have a post up on this later. Thanks!
cool i want to try it to my old computer
I'm already trying it out, is very rough around the edges, if you think Wave is buggy and slow, you haven't seen nothing yet, but I'm pretty excited about it, they might have a winner on their hands
vmware doesnt have a version for Mac OSX?
@Ethan It does. It's called VMWare Fusion and it can run up to Windows 7.
@Ethan yeah, but it will cost you $$$
@Dary
No one buys software anymore.
@Ethan It will run up to Windows 7, but not beyond, so you can throw away that "Genuine_Windows_8_with_Crack_XrIPaVeNGEr.ISO" DVD you spent all night downloading from TPB.
@Ethan There is a virtualbox image on the GDGT site as well. Virtualbox is free opensource and runs on OSX :-)
wow talk about a great surprise cant wait to install it
just downloaded it. Will try it out tomorrow morning.
guys, i'm transloading to my server. 5 Minutes please.
the links will be here :D
@iPhoneMessenger
http://tiny.cc/chromeos534
Wait for 5 minutes guys. it will be ready. :D
@iPhoneMessenger beautiful my good friend
@iPhoneMessenger Good job man, awesome stuff. :)
@iPhoneMessenger
Thanks!
@iPhoneMessenger
Thanks.
thanks man!
Well that was fast.
Awesome stuff
Tried it out in VirtualBox already, I could've sworn I saw an "Application Menu" of sorts that had links to Google Docs, Gmail, etc., but couldn't find it in this.
Anyway, it's about as limited as I expected.
That is, thought I saw it in the demo video, and couldn't find it in actual use.
You can try VirtualBox if you're on OS X and don't have VMWare (http://www.virtualbox.org/).
There's a thread here in ubuntuforums with screenshots and download links. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1331975
its somewhere short of amazing! :D a browser as an os, thats all u can expect for right?
what version of VMware do i download for mac.