Run Google Chrome OS within Mac OS X
The last few days the tech world has been blazing about Google’s latest creation, Chrome OS, which is a lightweight and free Linux-based operating system intended to run on Netbooks and, eventually, Desktops. It’s basically just the Chrome web browser with some other features unique to the OS itself, which makes it very fast and able to run without much of a strain on hardware.
OK so talk is all fine and dandy, but how about we run this thing within Mac OS X! It’s actually pretty easy to do, you’ll just need to download the Chrome OS image (via torrent) as well as the free virtual machine software known as VirtualBox. The torrent is provided by PirateBay and has tons of seeders so you should be able to pick up the image file very quickly, again the OS is free so there’s no piracy issues here.
If you’re familiar with running VM’s, you likely won’t need a walkthrough guide, you just select the image and boot it. If you’re new to virtual machines or would just like a little more guidance, TechCrunch posted a great and easy to follow walkthrough on installing Google Chrome OS within VirtualBox on top of Windows, Linux, and of course Mac OS X (the walkthrough uses Mac OS X screenshots, like the one below).
TechCrunch: Try Google Chrome OS with a Virtual Machine
I ran Chrome OS for about two minutes and got bored, it’s basically just a web browser running in a VM. It’s obviously still under development and has work to be done before it is a really usable operating system, but with how easy it is to install in a virtual machine it’s a fun way to geek out and try something new. At the very least I think it’s a glimpse into the future of OS’s, with more and more of our lives and data being found, shared, and accessed online.
[…] If you’re not interested in this approach, you can also run Chrome OS in a virtual machine for free by downloading VirtualBox and a Chrome OS image (Hexxah has those too). […]
I have to agree with Dhiraj. Google should stop trying to take over everything, or at the very least stick to your search engine and forget the OS PLS
this is wonderfull
Apple could use with a little more competition.
Keeps them on their toes.
lol, I have to agree with Dhiraj. Google should stop trying to take over everything, or at the very least stick to your search engine and forget the OS PLS!
[…] of the Google Tablet itself, the above image is nothing but a speculative mockup. You can run Chrome OS in Mac OS X, but the current version floating around really isn’t that exciting, it’s basically the […]
Google..Stay in your shoes with search engine. Happy with Snow Leopard
While the OS is very basic and really, nothing more than a web browser, I can see how it could be useful on a mobile phone or really powerless machine…
With all the tools out there accessible via the tubes, there is actual work that can be done on it.
It’s easy to see though that even if every developper in the world started to roll their php skillz out, there would still be a myriad little things that can’t be done – starting with running a… php server on it…
[…] showing):Chrome OS Virtual Machine Build Ready for Your Testing – chrome os – Lifehacker Run Google Chrome OS within Mac OS X – OS X Daily Want To Try Out Google Chrome OS For Yourself? Here’s How. It took me a little futzing to get it […]
Easy to get bored when one has no access to the apps page via a google.com account.. haven’t seen much mention of this yet, but it’s early days after all :)
Thank you for the last paragraph there. I was wondering why would I want to run Chrome OS on my Mac? It’s nothing but a glorified bootable web browser, and will never have the power of OS X, which, if you don’t load up a bunch of crapware on, is pretty darn fast itself.