The OS "to go" – Google Chromium OS

We are living in crazy times, we are spending a lot to have the fastest computer, the fastest laptop, the fastest smartphone, and the fastest Internet connection, we are spending most of the time online on the Internet, browsing, reading news, listening music, watching videos, buying stuff, chatting, blogging, playing games, etc…we moved our files and documents on the cloud… but what happens when we don’t have our computer, laptop or smartphone? How can we access our files, our applications, our emails in just a few seconds?

One answer could be the Google Chromium OS…

Chromium OS or Chromium OS Project was born in July 2009 and was announced by Google in the official blog in Nov 2009.

It is an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web. It is based on the Google Chrome web browser.

All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications.

All apps live within the browser and there are significant benefits to security. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Chromium OS verifies the integrity of its code every time you restart your computer. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.

The Google team working on this project is obsessed with speed. They are trying to take out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds.

Because it’s an open source, you can download the source code for free and compile it and make your own distribution or you can download the ISO already compiled by other guys and just install it.

You can download it from here:

http://www.chromiumosforge.com/2012/03/list-of-chromium-os-images-available.html

The most useful and flexible way to use it is the OS to go, so you can install Chromium OS on a USB stick (you need a 4GB USB stick), configure it, and use it wherever you go like a portable computer. Just boot up any computer/laptop from this USB stick and you have you customized Chromium OS with you.

You need a Google email account to personalize your Chromium installation and add apps and extensions to your account, save your files and documents on Google cloud, and all these settings will be saved on the USB stick under your profile. So you have all the apps and files you need always with you without carrying your laptop. Just use any laptop/computer and boot up Chromium OS and everything you need is there for you. Isn’t it amazing?

Of course there are some bad parts to this because not all the hardware components are fully compatible with Chromium OS so you may have issues with the Internet connection because the driver for the Ethernet or wireless card is not compatible…and unfortunately Chromium OS without Internet is like a car without the wheels…

Most of the apps available for iOS or Android are now available for Chromium OS. Check the Google webstore at:

http://chrome.google.com/webstore

So, give it a try and see the difference… and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

You can watch the story of Google Chrome and how it inspired an operating system in this movie produced by Epipheo Studios for Google and posted on youtube.