Filed under: OS Updates, Google, Open Source, Beta
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.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bill cant fart said 6:06PM on 9-24-2009
Can't download it, Mininova's doing maintenance.
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bill cant fart said 6:07PM on 9-24-2009
Ah, fixed. Nevermind.
Cam said 6:18PM on 9-24-2009
haha, I could've done this knockoff in 30 minutes. So could a fourth grader.
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motang said 7:30PM on 9-24-2009
LOL!
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edjca said 7:34PM on 9-24-2009
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/
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KeegdnaB said 12:38AM on 9-25-2009
I'm using it to post this comment.
I must say I am just a little amused by it.
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shibathedog said 2:58AM on 9-25-2009
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?!
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Crome TysnomiGnu32 said 7:26AM on 9-25-2009
trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls
Rocketboy said 8:32AM on 9-25-2009
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.
Sam said 11:32AM on 9-25-2009
Sense you make Rocketboy.
Grant Robertson said 3:06PM on 9-25-2009
You must be new here.
Rocketboy said 8:49AM on 9-28-2009
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."
whiskey said 4:27AM on 9-28-2009
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
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santoky001 said 3:50AM on 10-09-2009
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.
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