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Blimey, the rumours were true! Google have released an early version of their netbook system Chrome OS into the wild.

You could try compiling it yourself, but there’s pre-compiled VMWare disk images available already (they work fine in Virtualbox too, btw) If you want step-by-step instructions you can check out Techcrunch. Otherwise proceed straight to the downloads:

Torrent (280MB)

http://rapidshare.com/files/309484345/chromiumOS-1.tar
http://rapidshare.com/files/309485808/chromiumOS-2.tar
http://rapidshare.com/files/309487192/chromiumOS-3.tar
http://rapidshare.com/files/309488963/chromiumOS-4.tar
~720MB total.

The interface is built around the familiar Chrome web browser

To log in, use your Google account (or better yet, a fake one you’ve made just for this).

As expected, Chrome OS turns out to be a totally browser-based experience. It’s totally about using Google’s web services, with no locally installed software available, although Gears means you should be able to keep using the system even when you’re offline. This should keep the overall size of the system down to a miniscule size, and Google have said they’re keen for all Chrome OS netbooks to use solid state drives. The small system footprint should keep this affordable, and performance will doubtless be through the roof. The system may lack a lot of features you’d get in Windows 7 or Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but it’ll be blazing fast!

Lots more info, including some details of what’s under the hood, can be found on the Ubuntu forums. Enjoy!

Sneak peek of Chrome OS available soon? Maybe?

Ludicrously unreliable internet rumours, gotta love ‘em!

But this one’s a doozy: the Washington Post’s technology bods have a “reliable source” that says Google will be releasing an early version of their Chrome Operating System into the wild within a week.

This could be a complete load of rubbish, or we could be getting a super-buggy dev build of it on a limited release. Or we might get a reasonably usable system on public beta. Who knows? Well, we will in a week’s time I guess.

In the meantime, have some screenshots of parts of the system that people have nicked off some servers that Google “accidentally” had facing the internet. Needless to say, it’s just the same familar browser with some interface bits for OS functions cobbled on.

Hopefully, more on this in a few days…

Why watch those downloads on your PC, when you can watch them from the comfort of the sofa?

The plan:

Watch video and photos and listen to mp3 music stored on our home network through the normal TV and stereo in the living room.

Issues:

1. Must have low power consumption
2. Must be quiet
3. Must boot fast
4. Must be stable and low-maintenance
5. Cheap is good!

What:

Mini-ITX based PC with a decent processor and onboard graphics, squeezed into a tiny wee case.

Why:

For a while now most of us have had two cool things in our homes: a home entertainment system and a network. But how can we get all our great digital content onto that nice big TV and hifi in the living room? The answer is a media centre PC.

How:

Hardware:

• Jetway JNC-62K Motherboard with onboard Nvidia 8200 graphics card
• AMD Athlon X2 e4850 high efficiency CPU
• Silverstone NT07-AM2 low-profile heatsink/fan.
• 1GB RAM
• 80GB SATA hard drive
• Terratec Aureon PCI sound card with S/PDIF
• Jou Jye NU-528i-B case with internal 73W power supply.
• Wireless keyboard with built-in trackpad
• TOSlink optical cable to get shiny digital sound to the hifi

Software:

• XBMC media centre software
• Ubuntu 64-bit, stripped down custom version. See Ubuntu Minimal: Build an ultra-lightweight custom OS

How much?

Grand total was £269 (+P&P), sourced from mini-ITX.com, Advance Technologies, and dabs.com.

>>> Enough talk, show me how it’s done! >>>

One of the main problems with Google Wave so far is that there’s no way to know if someone has replied to your wave, making the whole real-time aspect of it a bit pointless.

Looks like that’s about to change, check out these notification extensions for Firefox and Chrome:

Google Wave Add-on for Firefox

Google Wave Extension for Chrome

(To use the Chrome plugin, you’ll have to be using a version of Chrome which supports extensions. That means a fairly recent version of the developer’s branch of Chrome/Chromium)