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How not to fake Google Chrome OS
What the hell, I'll bite. I followed the link.
The first thing I noticed is that the link doesn't point to a Google Code project. That's kind of odd, since all of Google's other open source goodies are hosted there - like Chromium, for example. I'll play along anyway. I clicked through and downloaded the torrent from Mininova.
What's provided is a tarballed VMWare machine image. Built with SUSE studio. ORLY?
Upon loading the machine, I'm given a pretty standard (though Chrome-themed) Grub loader. The failsafe entry made me chuckle, because it's safe to assume that this thing is fail. Moving on!
Now the desktop has loaded, and I'm prompted to set Chrome as the default browser. Ok, so I'm to assume that Google has - for some reason - chosen not to pre-set this? I'll suspend my disbelief again for the time being. Also, the online help shortcut points to help.opensuse.org, which doesn't have anything to do with Google. I'm willing to bet Google would at least link to a blank placeholder page on one of their own domains.
Let's go one step further.
Let's go one step further.
Now the cheese has slid completely off the cracker. Evolution and Openoffice.Org are installed. Why? There's no possible way Google is going to ship either of those when they have their own alternatives to push.
To top it all off, the Google apps you'd expect to see front-and-center on Chrome OS are buried in the "more application" menu.
Now, I'm all for enthusiasts who want to blue-sky their vision of what Chrome OS might look like. If your goal is convincing people, however, you're going to have to be a little bit stealthier than this attempt was.
I will say this much - the virtual machine is nice and zippy and Chrome works pretty well (Flash included). If you haven't played with Chrome on Linux before, you might actually want to download this thing and try it out.
To top it all off, the Google apps you'd expect to see front-and-center on Chrome OS are buried in the "more application" menu.
Now, I'm all for enthusiasts who want to blue-sky their vision of what Chrome OS might look like. If your goal is convincing people, however, you're going to have to be a little bit stealthier than this attempt was.
I will say this much - the virtual machine is nice and zippy and Chrome works pretty well (Flash included). If you haven't played with Chrome on Linux before, you might actually want to download this thing and try it out.
Comments
14
Subscribe to commentsbill cant fartSep 24th 2009 6:06PM
Can't download it, Mininova's doing maintenance.
bill cant fartSep 24th 2009 6:07PM
Ah, fixed. Nevermind.
CamSep 24th 2009 6:18PM
haha, I could've done this knockoff in 30 minutes. So could a fourth grader.
motangSep 24th 2009 7:30PM
LOL!
edjcaSep 24th 2009 7:34PM
If you really want a Chrome OS- like distro, there's a web kiosk debian based distro called Webconverger. Boots right into Firefox and nothing else.
http://webconverger.com/
KeegdnaBSep 25th 2009 12:38AM
I'm using it to post this comment.
I must say I am just a little amused by it.
shibathedogSep 25th 2009 2:58AM
Did that guy strike a nerve or something? You just wrote a whole article about some guys smug remark in the comments. I think it was pretty obvious it was fake. He was probably trying to piss you off on purpose and you fell for the trap. One might say you have made a fool of yourself if that is the case.
I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm actually interested to know. This is the most acknowledgment given to a comment on here almost ever. An entire article!? Why!? How do I get an article?!
Crome TysnomiGnu32Sep 25th 2009 7:26AM
trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls
RocketboySep 25th 2009 8:32AM
Who pissed in your cornflakes... or maybe more correctly, who didn't piss in your cornflakes?
You are trying to be a jerk, because you're pissed off nobody paid you none attention before.
SamSep 25th 2009 11:32AM
Sense you make Rocketboy.
Grant RobertsonSep 25th 2009 3:06PM
You must be new here.
RocketboySep 28th 2009 8:49AM
Grant.. and who's the troll?
It's sad when you troll on the very blog you work on.
Was I talking about you in any way shape or form, responding to anything that you wrote, or was I actually defending Lee's article, and DownloadSquad's posting of it?
To quote you... "Seriously, good luck with whatever it is that's so deeply and disturbingly wrong with you."
whiskeySep 28th 2009 4:27AM
Maybe shave a few of those precious downloading minutes and get chromium for your distro instead of downloading a whole new one.
It works on ubuntu and you may get it easily through ubuntu-tweak :D
santoky001Oct 9th 2009 3:50AM
hey. this os is maden by openSUSE Studio and some developers.
And the developer team says,
"Chrome OS is not related to Google. Service provided by SUSE Studio. See the license."
plz see the license.