thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

thechromesource Daily: Links for 9/20/10

Posted on 20. Sep, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

A HTML-driven options menu has come to Chromium OS, as shown off on Hexxeh’s blog.

Google is making its Apps product more secure by enabling a two-factor authentication option for administrators.

Computerworld wonders if Chrome OS tablets are even a good idea because they seem to think “it doesn’t run apps”.

Google plans on distributing mobile devices to businesses in an effort to compete with location-based services.

Will Google’s social strategy be worthwhile for anyone other than the company itself?

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble – Jolicloud vs Chrome OS

Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by Julien Cadot. 5 Comments

Making comparisons is always difficult, especially when one tries to compare apples-to-apples something complex like and operating system. But here goes anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, on the left corner, please welcome one of the most anticipated operating systems, the 10 second-to-launch, fully browser operated Google Chrome OS! On the right corner, ladies and gentlemen, the outsider  no one knew before its release except true geeks , the prince who wants to be king before the king has the crown, the black-wallpapered and not-that-clouded Jolicloud!

Everyone should have noticed: we’re dealing with a very much alpha preview version of Chrome OS and a fully functional one in Jolicloud. Unfair to compare? Not really, since I have also alpha tested Jolicloud. I promise, I’ll try to keep that in mind during the comparison.

Which of them will win?

[...]

Hexxeh Releases Chrome OS Vanilla – Straight From Chromium

Posted on 12. Aug, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments

In a blog post last night, Hexxeh announced his release of a new version of his Chrome OS builds called Vanilla. Instead of creating one of his own and auto-updating it, however, he has decided to take builds from the nightly release of Chromium. This simplifies the task of building it yourself – which requires a 64 bit machine to do.

It makes sense for Hexxeh to start offering Chromium as Chrome OS Vanilla. I had been starting to think that separate builds from the UK student were becoming unnecessary since Chrome OS is so close to a release. Now one can easily get a copy for USB booting.

Take note: not all of these builds are going to work, but as they are tested by large numbers of people there will be feedback on those that build and those that do not.

Anyways here is a link to the downloads, and have fun. We’ll be taking a closer look at the build as soon as well polish up this post.

Here is how you boot a USB drive with Chrome OS.

Hey Hexxeh, where’s that touchscreen enabled version of Chrome OS you showed off last month?

Video: O2 Joggler Running Chrome

Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 3 Comments

We posted a video earlier this week of Hexxeh using Chrome OS Flow on a tablet. The tablet in question is called the O2 Joggler, a multimedia tablet that comes at a very low cost – around $80. The system specifications are less than a typical netbook, and it doesn’t come with a battery, so it has to be plugged in all the time.

Here is a more complete video of an O2 Joggler running Ubuntu and Chrome browser with the ChromeTouch extension.

Hexxeh Shows off Touch on a Chrome OS Tablet

Posted on 16. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 8 Comments

A few days ago Hexxeh showed off his newest Chromium project, which is porting his Chrome OS Flow build over to a tablet. Supposedly the device used is an O2 Joggler. Today, he’s posted an early version that is working with touch.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a Chrome OS tablet.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/9/10

Posted on 09. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

The New York Times is running a profile about those who are downloading and using Chrome OS, complete with a bit about our pal Hexxeh.

Some people are concerned that Google is getting too big, like former journalist turned Consumer Watchdog advocate John Simpson.

Is Apple developing their own alternative to Flash?

Although some people don’t like the recent changes that have been made to Google Search, there will be no option to revert to the classic version.

Google has launched the Google Analytics Application Gallery where developers can submit their own tools for Google Analytics.

Where to Download Chrome OS

Posted on 07. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/2/10

Posted on 02. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Hexxeh, the UK student who has released his variation of Chrome OS builds, plans on taking applications to another level with his next release.

The (unofficial) Google Chrome Browser blog has a tutorial on how to disable geolocation within Chrome.

Network World has a write-up remarking about the flurry of security updates that went out for Chrome browser in the month of April.

The Google Code blog has announced the release of Google Web Elements, which integrates some of Google’s services into web pages.

The Difference Between Chrome OS and Chrome OS Flow

Posted on 02. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

I get asked fairly often questions pertaining to Chrome OS. Actually this may surprise you, but I enjoy talking about it. I know for many this whole Chrome OS thing is a bit confusing. So let me take this post to make clear what is going on. One of the big issues I hear about is the difference between Chrome OS and Chrome OS Flow. For those who have not been paying attention here is the real lowdown.

Google is planning on releasing an official Chrome operating system towards the end of 2010. This will be a portable computerof some sort, like a tablet or netbook that is branded as a Google product that comes loaded with Chrome OS. For the time being, all we have is what is known as Google’s open source Chromium OS project. You can visit the official site here, it has documentation and videos discussing ideas and possible specs for both the hardware and software.

Chrome OS Flow was developed by a UK student named Hexxeh. He took the open source Chromium OS code found on the Chromium project resources site and created his own packaged “build” to work with most netbook hardware that you can put on a USB stick or load as a VM image. Flow is a good representation of what the commerical Chrome OS will be like, and that is why there is some talk about it. If you’re interested in trying it out, I suggest you head over to his site.

There are others who have created their own builds, most notably a 64-bit version and one that has been created by the Dell Linux team. But so far Flow appears to be the best representation of what to expect later on this year.

Any other questions? Comment or contact me.

We May See a Chrome OS Netbook Mid-2010, But Not For Sale

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

There has been a lot of speculation that there will be a Chrome OS netbook that will be available from Acer in the middle of this year, which would only be about four months away. I’m not sure where this kind of information is coming from, but I think that this was something that was leaked by an insider to keep Acer’s name in the news about Chrome OS. Ther reality is that yes, we will probably see something from Acer in mid-2010, but it won’t be something that we as consumers will be able to buy yet.

That’s because one of the biggest computer shows, Computex, will be convientley showing off the wares of many manufacturers in early June. Doesn’t that sound like mid-2010 to you? Plus, Computex is held in Taipei, Tawian. That means that major companies such as Asus, MSI and of Acer will be there, and they will probably be showing finished products that run on Chromium builds.

Also, in late May, Google will hold its developer conference, dubbed Google I/O. A look at the sessions that will be held has some Chrome OS topics  scheduled. There may be some news that comes out of the conference, most likely of which will be an announcement of a uniform programming language for use across Google’s platforms to help streamline development when the operating system is actually released. This will most likely be of Google’s own experimental language, called Go.

Look, anyone that has taken a look at the latest builds of Chromium by running Hexxeh’s Flow would know that while the OS is progressing, there is still some development that still needs to be completed before Google is going to give the green light for manufacturers to sell devices with this platform. While I’m sure they want to get something out that competes with Apple’s iPad soon, rushing the development cycle for this is not going to create a lasting impression on users if the product is not ready.

So if you’re in such a hurry, Acer, why don’t you advertise the fact that you have the Windows 7/Android AOD250 netbook on the market? Sure, it’s not a tablet. But it’s probably a more polished product that what Chrome OS can offer consumers over the next six months:

So expect to see some interesting hardware developments by June, but don’t expect to see something that you can actually purchase until the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Review: Chrome OS Flow

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 17 Comments

I’ve finally gotten Chrome OS Flow downloaded, imaged to a USB stick and running on a machine. It took some time, as when I started the download yesterday morning I came back later in the day only to find that less than half of the archive for the build had been downloaded before it petered out. Hexxeh noted this in his Twitter account, so this must be a widespread outage that occurred. Once I finally got the download finished in the wee hours, I couldn’t get it to run on any of my machines – probably because I wasn’t actually awake anymore.

The best part of this new version that I found was that it now can store your wireless settings. That’s helpful, because now you can jump right into whatever you need to do once you get logged in. In the past, you would get some ugly “cannot connect” pages every boot, but once you configure your network from the upper right hand corner for the first time, it is good to go.

For whatever reason, I was only able to use the facepunch/facepunch login to get into Flow. Attempting to use my own Google account would not work. Thanks to a commenter, I found out that a quirk to Flow requires me to login using a wired connection using my account, and then after that it is cached. Still dealing with beta, and that’s how it goes.

Flash is working on this one, and the sound is working too. The power indicator is also functional, although I never really had an issue with it in past builds. I busted out some tunes on Lala, and I was excited. This is starting to look like something I could use on one of my machines on a regular basis. YouTube videos ran fine, and I think Hexxeh had to spend quite a bit of time getting the Nvidia hardware to work correctly for Flow in order to get codecs to run.

I didn’t see any elements of customizable windows for the applications that had been previewed via a screenshot at first just a week ago. Hexxeh tossed a comment on this post saying it does work, by clicking on the Chromium logo in the upper left and it would pop up. It does work now, and you can get access to many web apps that are already out there. I had some problems moving icons around, but I’m still happy with the fact that these pseudo-bookmarks work to get me to places like Facebook, Google Docs and status updates for Flow.

There are added network preferences in the options menu, among a few other tidbits that have been changed. However, I don’t want to write too much, as this is still an early release and these things are subject to change. I know Hexxeh spent a lot of time trying to get this working, and he is planning on using his new auto-update system to work out any bugs and system changes that there may be. So go ahead and download this, try it out. The resources are on Hexxeh’s site, and include a bug tracker, so check it out right here.

UPDATE: I have modified this article based on the comments below. Feel free to offer your own. I have also found that Extensions do not work.

2ND UPDATE: Extensions do work, you have to hit Enter through the menus when asked if you want to install the extension instead of using your mouse. Its kind of quirky, but at least they are working.

Chrome OS Flow Brings Apps to the Forefront

Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

Since the first release of the Chromium Project’s source code to the public back in November, a UK student who goes by the name Hexxeh has been steadily releasing custom builds. Unlike the Chromium code updates that are regularly put out by Google, this is a better packaged version for public consumption. The builds are small enough to pop onto a USB drive, boot up on whatever computing device that is laying around, and is quick to start up and utilize. It’s been the best early look users have had to see what Chrome OS will be able to do once it reaches a commercial stage later this year.

Recently, Hexxeh has been posting some hints that his newest version, Chrome OS Flow, could be the best release yet for mainstream purposes. The focus on this time, now that a lot of hardware has been tested and is supported in his builds, is to focus on the application side of the operating system. And that’s not a bad idea since many wonder if Chrome OS will be able to function as a regular personal computing replacement, or just another gadget that is stacked up for our personal information disposal.

A new way of constructing the builds, which Hexxeh has dubbed ReFlow, will also be introduced. This will allow for more time to be spent on actually testing and updating Flow as opposed to using up a lot of time creating the build itself.

Here is a screenshot Hexxeh posted on Twitter recently that shows Flow’s focus towards making web applications easy to use in Chrome with a configurable Javascript menu:

Expect Flow to require a 2 GB USB Stick, have auto-update for patches and updates as well as is expected to be released on February 12.

Some other new features include user interface changes in addition to the aforementioned applications menus that are customizable and fixes for issues that plagued last release (Chrome OS Zero) for sound, Flash and Bookmark Sync. Also, if you have an application that you want to have included in the Flow directory, you can find more about submitting it to Hexxeh right here.

Update: Apparently there has been problems for Hexxeh getting Flow released, as the Chromium project has changed some features. We’ll be posting when Flow comes out.