The Face Of Google ChromeOS?

By , Published October 13, 2009

Following my earlier post that Google Chrome OS will be Debian based (just like Ubuntu – tangible link ahoy!) I thought I’d take a peek at the available build of Google Chrome for Google Chrome OS. (Stay with me!)

For anyone not following the whole ChromeOS saga it will essentially be a "web-browser as OS" type affair, blurring the line between OS and Web browser.
Google Chrome for ChromeOS

screenshot_102
The build is available from the Chromium.org servers (Chromium is the development arm of Google Chrome.) and is currently only available in an 32bit .deb. ChromeOS itself will be available for ARM as well as x86 and x86_64.

As long as you’re using a modern Debian distro (Ubuntu!) it will install without a hitch. x64bit users should use the –force-architecture flag if they are curious.

Note: Installing it -will- replace any installed versions of Google-Chrome for Linux, but not Chromium. 

Once you’re bored simply reinstall Google-Chrome from either: -

Sadly the branch now appears to have been pulled from the server. :( but you can download the lastest .deb available at the time from my dropbox @ http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1115768/google-chrome-unstable_4.0.222.6-r28902_i386.deb

Navigation
The top navigation bar is cluttered with all manner of icons, buttons and curious additions that you can’t resist clicking. Let’s see what will do what… (and possibly find out what a clobber is!)

screenshot_104 

Clock
The clock is probably the first thing you noticed, right? Nothing more to add than it’s a clock and clicking on it gives you the date.

screenshot_111

Network
To the far right of the ChromeOS build there is an ‘x’. Clicking this reveals this is where a network icon/manager will sit.

Battery
Next to that sits a ‘?’. Clicking on this reveals it to be a battery indicator icon.

Drop-down Menu
The far right icon houses a drop down menu, rendering the "wrench" and "control" icons currently present on the lower nav bar surplus to requirements..

"Nav Bar"
A curious addition in the menu is the choices available in the ‘Compact Nav bar’ menu…
screenshot_108
‘Open Tabs Clobber’?! What’s a clobber?! Mysteries abound…

Single Sign-In Feature
A heavily rumoured feature of ChromeOS will be a "one cookie" sign in; a feature allowing users to sign into all of their sites and webapps with one click. Perhaps leveraging the OpenID initiative, perhaps an "opera" style ? Who knows.

What we do know is that Google Chrome’s source does reference a "Login Manager". The circle icon on the far left of the 'nav-panel' may very well be the first glimpse of this.

screenshot_109
Clicking on it directs the user to a Google Staff login page… In a curious full screen pop-up.

I’ll round out with probably the closest look we’ll get at how ChromeOS will look.

When in full-screen mode it’s instantly clear that this is it’s natural "mode" as the top-bar rids itself of cruft and shows itself for what it is: a taskbar.  

Thanks to Martini1179, once again.
TechCrunch €œannounced€ this same news 8 hours after us! :)

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. ChromeOS to be based on Debian
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  • Martini1179

    You’re welcome again! ;)

    OK I’m being an ass. This is awesome, though. I’d install it, but I need a functional Chrome browser.

  • b3t0n

    I’ve downloaded the file from the link you posted, but when I run Chrome it doesn’t look like the one in photos? Maybe it was accidental leak from google, and now it redirects to a correct one?

    • b3t0n

      OK, my bad. I should have downloaded from the Chromium servers. :)

  • http://twitter.com/matthewshore Matthew Shore

    looks very cool indeed.

  • gekobla

    Googleblog – (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduc… gOS Cloud – First Hands on Google Chrome OS?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      gOS has nothing to do with Google other than including prisms of google apps.

    • Mike

      gOS isant Googles OS its short for Good OS

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    its ugly but its nice to have it on Ubuntu

  • Mohan

    So can I install Firefox on this ChromeOS? ;)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I guess in theory one could, but why would you want to for any other reason that “because you can”? Chrome (remember still in development) outperforms, out classes and for the most part just out-out’s Firefox and it’s aging Gecko platform.

      Plus if you don’t want to use Chrome you might not want to use ChromeOS. The clue is in the title :P

  • http://sharkbaitbobby.blogspot.com/ sharkbait

    Hmm… I’ve had this for a while and I guess people didn’t care: http://twitter.com/sharkbait_/status/4670252652 (Though I just had screenshots, not .debs)I don’t think you, Download Squad, or Techcrunch noticed this: the options dialog. There’s a screenshot in the page linked from my Tweet.
    Edit: Also, that circle in the top left is called the main menu in the code. I don’t think it’ll be related to the single sign-on feature. The URL which it opens used to have “menu” in it.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      You can always drop a tip to me in future! I’ll be happy to let you write/post it here. =o POn the options dialog score – i did notice it, even screengrabbed it too but i couldn’t quite find out how to slot it in to the article. It doesn’t -really- tell us much other than ChromeOS is being tailored to netbooks/touchpads..

      • http://sharkbaitbobby.blogspot.com/ sharkbait

        Yes, in retrospect I realize I should have notified you, seeing as how you’re such a fan of Chrome :)
        And I guess I just thought the options dialog was more interesting than others did. :/
        As for ChromeOS .debs not being available anymore, it’s still available if you compile it ;)

  • Dominick

    Quite exciting news. Thank you!

  • http://icosidodecahedron.com Michael Kozakewich

    Is this the face of Google Chrome OS??
    :)

    Or this?
    O_O

    Or even this?
    ^.=.^

    They’ve got to decide whether it’ll be a Chrome OS or a Chrome-like OS. They could add an OS toolbar at the top with the same UI style as Chrome, but leave the whole Chrome application more or less alone. Almost like the OS is an extension pack around the browser.

    Especially if people are going to be flipping between a Chrome OS mobile device and Chrome on their computer, it would be good to keep things consistent.

  • che

    its gone,
    the branch is no longer available

  • Anonymous

    Wow that is truly amazing stuff. Well done dude!

    RT
    http://www.true-privacy.net.tc

  • http://pinoypcper.com Solidad Romero

    They should change the menu on the top right. Everybody knows that, that’s a minimize button, a maximize button, and close button. The clock are need to be redone, at least change the symbols. they don’t make a lot of sense.

  • Rhino

    Hey, guys… can we confirm that the branch is pulled? I can’t find it, but I’m not entirely certain what i’m looking for. :)
    What i downloaded from the chromium servers doesn’t seem to be that different from the chromium that i downloaded a month or so ago. (ie – none of the clock and such)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Sadly, yes, it has gone.

      It was in it’s own subdirectory of “Chrome_ChromeOS” or similar, which is no longer there.

  • http://www.crispytech.com EngineerHead

    I must say if there is a Hype for gOS then it is over hyped like ChromeOS. I can’t stop using Firefox. I mean that I don’t want to. Do you? recent launches from Google like Chrome and Wave are over hyped. Can you compare Chrome with Firefox. No, you can’t compare Apple with Banana in my sense. I am getting more critic :).To be fair,gOS has got attention because there is a “g” in it and nothing else

    • Dominick

      I like Chrome because I only use a few add ons, and those are already available for Chrome.

      And you are right, they are entirely different browsers suited for different people. Some people don’t like oranges at all, but other people do.

  • Anonymous

    working again

  • Anonymous

    Here is a torrent of the chrome-linux.zip from chromeos which is both x86 and x64 compatible

    http://torrage.com/torrent/8014BEC15A376B914FCD0911FB10C57A221413BC.torrent

  • Zac

    I am running the Chromium browser (4.0.222.8 Ubuntu build 28958) on my Ubuntu 8.04 is it a very good performing browser and I like using it. The performance in every way is significant over Firefox on my machine.

    Some of the features mentioned above can be implemented in Chromium browser independent of ChromeOS.

  • Dominick

    Washington post has Rapidshare download link.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403031.html

    Testing now. Will respond with confirmation and a Mediafire (for those who dislike Rapidshare) link.

  • Schooled

    google should label there software as a browser not a OS. i checked it out. it is very ok for simple the simple task. thats about it.

    also there is only 2 operating systems. Linux. and microsoft both taking over decade and over billions of lines of codes. and google jumps on the ima OS. make is not a OS either. it uses Linux kernel. its a redistri that publish. An operating system operates the hardware. if this is a os. i guess kde, gnome is a OS also? GOS uses linux kernel or it would not work. OS is not operating software. its Operating system…system being hardware. the feature that resides between the software such as chrome and others that allows it to operate the hardware system is the os.

  • Schooled

    MAC* is not os either. its redistribute that charges using the linux kernel perfectly ok and good. just ignorance is way to much nowdays on the web.

  • http://www.twitter.com/ninjustin ninjustin

    Does look very similar to Ubuntu Netbook Remix or what ever it’s called now.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Is really doesn’t….

  • http://twitter.com/forexnode Forex Node

    let see wht happens next.

  • Name

    Nice ****** ********** ***** icon ;)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Oops!!

  • http://technabob.com/ iatw

    hey man, is that your email address in the last pic? blur that out next time!:D

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Whoops! Thanks for spotting that; i guess it doesn’t matter too much though since i have my e-mail posted on this blog for people to contact me..

  • AndreRK

    Where I can download *amd64.deb package?

  • rena

    it really has a clear look, i like it :)

  • http://twitter.com/openrijal Nitesh Rijal

    checking out @chrome from @google #linux @ubuntu

  • http://twitter.com/openrijal Nitesh Rijal

    checking out @chrome from @google #linux @ubuntu

  • tank

    maybe ReactOS ???

  • tank

    maybe ReactOS ???

  • http://twitter.com/dickiebird84 angela radcliffe

    Definetely interesting news. Single sign on will be very useful for all those that easily forget multiple passwords.

  • Anonymous

    cmon guys, this isnt chrome os, its just the browser part of chrome os!