London, Dec 07 (PRINTWORDS NEWS)-
Ever since Google announced the development of its Cloud centric Chrome OS the tech industry is abuzz with rumors and speculations over its chance of putting an end to Windows dominance. The excitement reached a crescendo after Google presented a sneak preview in to the first developer version of Chrome OS. Google has already tasted success with its web browser having the same name and according to the company spokespersons the OS also shares the same core with the browser.
However, the OS will not be made available to end users till the Christmas of 2010. The OS is designed specifically for the netbooks and internet tablets. The preview version of the OS takes around 21 seconds to boot which is way faster than the boot time of Windows 7 or Vista. There is no splash screen as such and Google has tried to make it as fast as possible. You can log in the OS using your existing Gmail account. Once you log on you would not feel you are using an OS. The interface of the OS looks identical to the Chrome Browser. At the left corner of the initial tab of the interface lies the the Apps button. However, the OS is still under development and the User interface of the final version may look very different from what it looks now.
As one can expect, the Apps fall in the category of web applications. You will find the icons for Yahoo Mail and Hotmail along with twitter. As of now, the applications are aimed at wooing the US users. However, it may have links to Hulu and Pandora in future. There is a tab that is used for indicating the battery level of your netbook. It is also possible to turn wireless connectivity on or off. The Chrome OS is also available in a version that can boot directly from a USB flash drive.
A 4GB USB drive is required for this purpose. You can find a list of compatible hardware from Google site. The torrent can be found in the web and it needs to be used with a utility named Win32DiskImager. After downloading the torrent you have to unzip the contents and launch the Win32DiskImager application to burn the image to the flash drive. However, itis important to configure your PC or netbook to boot directly from USB drives.
It is too early to say if the Chrome OS will change computing forever or not. Google is loved by million of web users for its innovative applications and search engine but Microsoft‘s dominance is difficult to overcome for any entity. As of now, the Chrome OS resembles a browser more than a dedicated OS. Google also needs to come up with robust hardware and driver supporrt in future if it wants Chrome OS to succeed. However, the Google fans are keeping their fingers crossed. It will be a year later when the consumer version of Chrome will hit the stores and the increasing popularity of netbooks may bolster its prospects.
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