Download Chrome OS for Free With VMWare

By Jane McEntegart
published

Who wants to wait until 2010 to get a look at the Chrome OS?

You've read all about the Chrome OS and are really interested in taking the software for a test drive. Unfortunately, Google is sticking with its vague release date of "before the end of 2010" which means you're not going to get your hands on the operating system anytime soon, right? Wrong. The Chrome OS is available to download right now and with the help of VMWare, you can try the software right now.

When Google announced Chrome yesterday morning the company also released the code for the OS, explaining that development will be done in the open from this week on. The Chromium OS project includes Google's current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development.

As soon as it was released, GDGT engineer Jon Ursenbach got to work compiling the code, trying to see if he could get an instance of Chromium OS running in a virtual machine. And, lucky for us, he did!

You can download a copy of the virtual machine to use in VMware, VirtualBox, and on a USB drive here (300MB compressed / 700MB uncompressed): http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/

Exciting stuff. Let us know if you download Chrome OS and how it works out for you.

Jane McEntegart
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • webbwbb
    Getting it now. I will try to post some information later.
    Reply
  • djcoolmasterx
    Also grabbing a copy.
    Reply
  • djcoolmasterx
    Great download speed.
    Reply
  • kyeana
    :D
    Reply
  • sunflier
    Download Chrome OS for Free With VMWare

    Of course i'm downloading it via Windows.
    Reply
  • fuser
    Let's see. I download an OS bundled in a VM that will allow me to ... browse the web. That's exciting ;-)
    Reply
  • webbwbb
    I'm using virtualbox and so far am unable to get it to work. Last time I tried using VMware it corrupted my OS and caused me too much trouble to be worth it so I am not going to try that again. I'll post later if I am able to figure out anything.
    Reply
  • henrystrawn
    You all can have at it. For all of you flocking to social networks and cloud computing, giving up control of you personal info, I wish you the best. Personally I think that a safe amount of paranoia is a good thing. I prefer to keep as much control locally as I can.
    Reply
  • ksenter
    Downloaded the vmware copy (I have vmware workstation), setup a VM, added the vmdk, booted up instantly (literally 1 second or less), logged in using my gmail account and it opens a chrome looking browser that says mail.google.com's security certificate has been revoked.. oh well
    Reply
  • CoryInJapan
    henrystrawnYou all can have at it. For all of you flocking to social networks and cloud computing, giving up control of you personal info, I wish you the best. Personally I think that a safe amount of paranoia is a good thing. I prefer to keep as much control locally as I can. Hmm some one gave you thumbs down...Well I thumbs up to get rid of it because I agree...And think this guy has the right idea.
    Reply