Martin has posted his concerns about Chrome OS in his insightful “Google Chrome OS: My concerns“. I am in full accord with Martins’ take on cloud computing. But instead of discussing my feelings on the cloud or why we need another OS, I thought it would be beneficial to take a look at a running instance of the Google Chrome OS. I will preface this by saying the OS is in the very early stages of development. But even with the early stages it is quite obvious where this fledgling operating system is heading.

Getting and “installing”

In case you are interested in trying Chrome OS out you can with the help of either VirtualBox or VMware. Since we’ve covered VirtualBox here on Ghacks (read my article “Install VirtualBox with USB Support” to learn how to install VirtualBox) I will show you how to get Chrome running with that application.

After you have VirtualBox up and running you will need to download an image file to use. I have tried both the Chrome OS VirtualBox image and the VMware image on VirtualBox. The results of the VirtualBox image was a black screen that wouldn’t boot. The VMware image, however, was able to successfully boot. So it is my recommendation that you hop over to the Google Chrome page on Gdgt and download the VMware image. You will have to register on the site in order to get to the downloads page.

The download is just over 300 MB and will come in zip form. After you unzip the file you will have a vmdk file ready to use. What you will need to do is move that file to your VirtualBox hard disk directory with the command:

mv *vmdk ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/

When that file is properly located you can then create a new virtual machine using that image as your hard disk.

What you get

Figure 1

When Chrome OS boots (and it does so fairly quickly) you will be at a login prompt. It shouldn’t surprise you to find out the login/password is your GMail username/password credentials. As you can see, in Figure 1, your Google Chrome OS experience will very closely resemble the experience you have in Google Chrome – the browser.

But what else can you do? So far not much. I have read about application panels, but it seems as if you have to have a google.com login to experience them. I am, sadly enough, only the holder of a gmail.com login so I can not witness, first hand, some of the other features of the OS. Without having that login there is so little to the OS, in its current state, that it seems nothing more than a web browser running without an apparent operating system (which I believe is the point).

One of the few features of the OS I have managed to find is the ability to pin a page to a tab. What this effectively does is allow you to create a tab dedicated to a page (or Google application). For example: If you use Calendar, Mail, and Documents frequently you could pin each of these tools to their own tabs so that, in order to use a tool, you only have to click that that tools’ tab.

It should be pretty obvious what the intention of the Google Chrome OS is – a foolproof, web-based, single minded operating system who’s experience will only be as good as the applications available to it. This type of operating system seems as if it wants to take the metaphor of the mobile OS and put it square in the middle of your desktop. But with the way the web experience is growing vs. the computing habits of the average user – it makes perfect sense. You have a stripped down OS that can do everything you need to do without having anything on the periphery to confuse or confound the user.

“Features”

Figure 2

After playing around with the OS I have found a few features in place that are usable. You can add a compact navigation bar (see Figure 2). By default this bar (text area to the left in Figure 2) is not there. You have to click on the Options menu and select “Compact Nav Bar” for this to appear. But where is the Options menu? Take a look in Figure 2. The downward-pointing arrow in the far right corner is clicked in order to reveal the Options. You will be surprised to see that this menu is very similar to the Google Chrome Options menu.

As I mentioned earlier, you can pin a page to a tab. Say you use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Documents frequently. Instead of creating bookmarks for these pages, all you need to do is open that page up, right click the tab, and select Pin Tab. This will create a tab for that page (or App if you will). Now, as Google Chrome OS is very much in the early stages, these pinned tabs will disappear upon reboot.

Final thoughts

It’s only a start, but the Google Chrome OS has all of the underpinnings of something that could have remarkable impact on a very specific application. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest using this early release, but when it hits beta, it will certainly be worth a try.

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These five features add mouse gestures, super drag, IE tabs, download tool support in context menus and double-click functionality to close pages to the web browser.

All options are accessible from the Chrome option’s page that has been expanded and is now offering access to Chrome Plus options in an extra tab.

Super Drag is an interesting new option to open links by dragging them. These links can either be opened in the foreground or background.

Mouse gestures and double-clicking tabs to close them are pretty self-explanatory. Available mouse gestures include navigating back and forward, switching to tabs, closing tabs or launching a page up or down command. Holding the right-mouse button and dragging the mouse in available directions will trigger the commands.

Custom builds often offer improvements in performance or functionality. Their main downside on the other hand is the time it takes to “follow” the builds of the official developers. It usually takes additional time to react on the latest builds that are provided by the Chrome developers which can sometimes be problematic (e.g. when security updates are issues).

Chrome Plus (via Download Squad) can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

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A flaw in the V8 Javascript engine might allow specially-crafted Javascript on a web page to read unauthorized memory, bypassing security checks. It is possible that this could lead to disclosing unauthorized data to an attacker or allow an attacker to run arbitrary code.

The second security vulnerability can also allow an attacker to run arbitrary code in the Google sandboxed environment. A malicious XML payload may be able to trigger the condition.

Pages using XML can cause a Google Chrome tab process to crash. A malicious XML payload may be able to trigger a use-after-free condition. Other tabs are unaffected.

The security fix finally treat SSL sites who use MD2 or MD4 hashes to sign certificates as invalid as the algorithms are considered weak and can allow attackers to spoof the https site.

Google Chrome no longer connects to HTTPS (SSL) sites whose certificates are signed using MD2 or MD4 hashing algorithms. These algorithms are considered weak and might allow an attacker to spoof an invalid site as a valid HTTPS site.

Users can check for updates from within the web browser or download the latest version from the Google Chrome website.

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Probably the most important bug fixes in this version are that it is now possible to import passwords when importing from Firefox 3.1 or higher, the memory footprint reduction and several web browser cash fixes.

Users who are interested in the full release notes can visit the revisions log over at the Chromium website which is listing all changes to that version of the Google browser. A quick overview is available at the Google Chrome dev blog which is listing the most important changes.

Google Chrome 4.0.202.0 finally can be downloaded from the dev channel website at the Chromium website. Especially the crash fixes make it a recommended update for all dev channel users.

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The latest dev version of Google Chrome is now offering jumplist support in Windows 7. The jumplist can be opened by right-clicking the Google Chrome icon in the Windows taskbar. The Google Chrome jumplist is divided into four areas of which three are always visible and one only if the user has added at least one item to it.

The Google Browser will display the most visited websites, the recently closed websites and tasks in the jumplist. The most visited and recent websites are directly taken from the web browser’s history while the task allow the user to open a new window (either normal or in incognito mode).

The fourth group only becomes available if the user pins an element in the jumplist. This is for example excellent for quickly accessing favorite websites from the Windows 7 jumplist. The latest developer build of Google Chrome can be downloaded from the dev channel page. It is interesting to see that the Google Chrome development team has added jumplist support while the Mozilla Firefox team has not shown any signs that they intend to support that feature in the near future.

source IThinkDiff

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The second important addition is about theme support in the web browser. The developers have again turned the rather complex process of installing new Google Chrome themes into a much simpler process. Users who wanted to install themes in the web browser had to replace a file in the Google Chrome directory. The problem with this approach was that it would overwrite the default theme which could cause all kinds of troubles especially for users without backup.

Theme support has now been added officially to the Google browser which means that themes can be directly installed from within the web browser. A basic theme manager is available in the Google Chrome options allowing users to revert back to the default theme after installing a new theme. There is unfortunately no way of displaying the installed themes right now which is something that the developers surely plan to add in a later development stage.

A get themes button is also available in the same menu. This button opens a website that is currently unavailable but is most likely the address of the official Google Chrome theme repository. Two test themes have been created by the Google Chrome developers which can be accessed at the Chromium website. Camo and Snowflake are currently not accessible as well but were earlier on.

Webupd8 have posted screenshots of the Camo theme and the prompt that appears when pointing the Chrome browser to a theme location.

The two changes to the extension engine and theme support are definitely important steps for the Google browser. It is now much easier to work with extensions and themes in the web browser. Future builds will surely continue to improve on that and provide access to a theme manager and working websites where the themes can be downloaded.

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One of the most interesting additions in this new web browser release is the availability of the new tab page which is not included in release Google Chrome versions. The new tab page can only be launched with the command line argument –new-new-tab-page.

The new tab page now includes links to recent activities which lists downloads and recently opened tabs but also a tips and suggestions section which has not been filled with content yet. It is now also possible to move the eight website thumbnails around and pin them in the tab so that they are always accessible there (which resembles Opera’s Speed Dial then). Previously the most visited pages where shown when a new tab was opened according to their hits.

The new version of Google Chrome 3 can be downloaded from the dev channel download page.

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I ignored the warning. I’m glad I did.

Let me preface all of this by saying I have been using Firefox since the alpha days. So I guess you’d consider me a Firefox Fanboy. I’ve tried all of the other Linux browsers and none of them have even so much as tempted me to give them continued use. That is, until Chrome. Chrome is a different story all together, one that just might have me using this browser for all of my browsing needs – when it is finalized. Until then I’ll just play with it. And you should to. Here’s how.

First and foremost this will only install on a Ubuntu or Debian-based distribution. I have heard tell that even the Ubuntu installation doesn’t load CSS well. I can say, with absolute certainty that my Elive+Compize distribution handles Chrome very well. So how did I install it? You won’t believe how easily.

• Go to the Linux dev channel.
• Click on either the 32 bit or the 64 bit version (which ever will match your architecture.)
• Accept the terms of service.
• Go to the directory the file was downloaded into.
• Issue the command sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-unstable*

Once the installation command has finished you are ready to run the browser. For Elive+Compiz a menu entry was created in the Internet subdirectory of the main menu. If you can’t find this entry you can open up a terminal window and issue the command:

google-chrome

When you first run the browser you will be asked if it can send crash reports to the developers. I checked “yes” so to help them out as much as possible. I installed Chrome Friday evening and have been using it quite a bit (I am writing this article with it) and have yet to have one crash.

That’s it. If you’re lucky you’ll have the same luck and get a working Google Chrome browser on Linux. And when you do you’ll be glad you bothered to install it. Why? If this developer release is any indication on how Chrome is going to work on Linux I am amazed. There are a few shortcomings (it can’t detect flash that is installed and some formatting isn’t correct), but as for speed – Firefox and Opera can’t touch it.

Final thoughts

I haven’t really bothered to get in deep with some of the niftier features of Chrome yet. What I really wanted to do is see if it would install and work. It did and it does – and does beautifully. If you’re wanting to see what the future of Linux web browsing is like, or you just need more speed than you can eek out of Firefox, ignore the developer warnings and install Chrome on your Ubuntu or Debian box.

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The first thing you might notice about this new beta is the speed improvement, but you’ll also find additional browsing tools, such as basic form autofill, full page zoom, support for autoscroll, and a new way to drag tabs into side-by-side view.

That side-by-side view looks pretty good, although I don’t think it will be of any serious use unless you have a big monitor. I usually work on a 1650×1200 monitor, and I still find websites side-by-side distracting. That being said, this feature can be put to good use when researching. You can have same functionality in Firefox using Tab Splitter

Again, I have to say I like where Google is going. I still don’t believe Chrome is solid enough to use full time and I don’t like to use multiple similar applications, but it is getting there. What are those features which prevent you from using Chrome?

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ChromPass can be started from any location including removable drives which makes it an excellent password recovery tool. It will automatically fetch the information upon startup and display them in a list. Included in these information are the username, password, url and even the time the entry has been created.

The login details can be exported in various formats including html, csv or xml file.

The password recovery tool comes with an additional option to load the passwords from another user of the local computer, the logon password has to be supplied though to make this possible. One of the greatest security weaknesses is the lack of a master password. It would be impossible to use a tool like ChromePass if a master password would have been set.

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The pre-beta release adds several requested features to the web browser. Among the form auto-completion, full page zooms, a middle-click auto scrolling feature, user profiles and Greasemonkey support. The later still has to be activated by launching the Google Chrome browser with the -enable-user-scripts parameters. This is best done using a shortcut.

The release notes for this release contain all changes including interesting ones like the force SSL mode which will only load https sites in the browser. That’s a pretty clever method of getting rid of most phishing related dangers on the Internet.

Check out the instructions on how to download early release versions of the Google Chrome web browser.

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The suspected causes for this were either a previous installation of Google Chrome that interfered with the installation of the new version or the use of programs that would remove information from the web browser that could be used to track the user of the system.

The fix for “Installer fails with error 4″ was related to a previous install of Google Chrome. After deleting the \Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application directory on the test system the Google Chrome installation went through without problems.

The error is listed as issue 165 on the Google Chromium website. Several users reported that they received this error on a clean install which obviously means that this fix will not help them at all. There is currently no fix available for these users.

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Let’s talk about Google Chrome. Why not? Everyone else is.

I would be willing to bet anyone reading this article has already downloaded the Windows beta and is probably using it right now so I’m not going to go through the feature list or anything like that, besides, Martin’s already taken a look at that side of Chrome.

I downloaded it this morning as well… and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Personally when I saw the screenshots yesterday my first thoughts where; ‘it looks like Opera 9’ and then, ‘it looks ugly’. I find that the Google minimalist style works great on the web, but in conventional software it simply looks tacky.

However I was wrong. Trying out the product in reality and it’s actually really nice in terms of user interface, visual effects and functionality. The typical Google design ‘quirks’ which look out of place in a screenshot make perfect sense when you actually use the product.

Essentially it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but brings together what are the best features of each other major browser. I think some of this is unintentional, the similarity of Chrome’s feature list to Internet Explorer 8 isn’t something they would have planned.

On one hand, a unique new browser seems a little superfluous, that makes Internet Explorer (5, 6, 7 + 8), Firefox (2 + 3), Opera and Safari. On the other hand Google has every right to try its hand in this space, especially considering the very premise of the company.

What people seem to be wondering about is wether or not Google Chrome will favour its own applications and services over the rest of the web. Personally I hope they do… I’m happy to think of Chrome less as a browser aimed at taking on the Firefox/IE market, and instead a Google Application which makes accessing Google services from the desktop that much easier. So I like this release, but not because I will use it to replace my other main browser, but because I will use it to access Google services.

Most of Chrome is present in some form in other browsers, but Google has a couple unique killer features such as download management, which is seriously amazing and the Task Manager. Other benefits are the sleak design, performance and rapid javascript loading.

Oh, and this beta release of Chrome feels more stable than the final release of Firefox 3.

In essence I guess I would say this about Google Chrome; “nothing new, but done just right”. What’s your thoughts?

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