Download and Test ChromeOS

The other day, I noticed someone on Friendfeed posted a link to a live USB image of Google’s ChromeOS. I was a bit skeptical at first, as we’ve seen many fake builds of ChromeOS over the last year or so. However, after doing a bit of research, it appears that this is the real thing.

Basically, a guy named Hexxeh has apparently just taken the source code for Chromium OS offered by Google and built it for us, so that we don’t have to do any of the tough stuff. He’s then packaged it together in a simple image file that can be put on a 2 gigabyte USB memory stick. Once you load the image on your USB stick, you can simply restart your computer and boot Chromium OS to test it out.

The image itself has not been modified since Feb. 15, but Hexxeh mentions in the FAQ that there is an auto-updater built into the system now, so the build date is not extremely relevant anymore.

I have downloaded the image file, but I don’t have a 2 gig stick available at the moment, so I’ve not tested it yet. If anyone else gets a chance to give it a try (especially on a netbook), please let us know what you think.