Install Google Chrome OS on Your Asus Eee PC

Okay, I’ve said time and again that I am not impressed with Google’s Chrome OS, but I guess I need to try it out hands-on before I pass my final judgment on the new Linux distro.

Fortunately, TechCrunch has created a guide to install Google Chrome OS on your Eee PC. Well, actually, it’s not a real installation because it requires a virtual machine. I don’t think there’s actually a way to run and install the OS like any other traditional Linux distro, and because of the cloud nature of Chrome OS, I don’t even think we should even attempt installing it.

Anyway, to try out Google Chrome OS on your Eee PC, you need to download the .ISO file first via this torrent. Or you can even download it directly here. It’s archived in .BZ2 format, so you probably need 7-Zip if your OS can’t handle it natively.

There’s a caveat, though. TechCrunch warns that they didn’t make the .ISO themselves, and it’s possible that this particular build may have been modified to send a hacker your Google account information. However, it’s unlikely.

Then it’s time to download and install VirtualBox. Once you get VirtualBox running, click the button that says “New” in the upper left hand corner. Go through the New Virtual Machine Wizard. You can title the OS whatever name you’d like. For the operating system, choose Linux, with Ubuntu as the version.

Just finish up the wizard, load the Chrome OS ISO into your virtual machine, and you’d be able to run Chrome OS beautifully (well, not exactly since we’re talking about a virtual machine here).

I’m going to try this out soon on my Eee PC, so stay tuned, sports fans!

[via]