Monday 20 February 2012

Google Chrome OS Review

For this Google Chrome OS review I used an Advent 4213 Netbook.

Spec
10.2” widescreen
Intel Atom N270 Processor Running at 1.6GHZ
1GB DDR2 RAM
160GB HDD

Integrated
Integrated Graphics Card
Integrated Webcam
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrated Mobile broadband Modem
Integrated 802.11 b/g Wireless

The review
Installation

Once the Chrome OS Disk Image is downloaded and burnt to a CD you boot directly into a Live Google Chrome OS environment with nothing installed onto your Computers HDD, this is ideal if you just want to try Google Chrome OS before committing to Installing it or if you are running on a Netbook with no HDD.

If you decide to Commit to running Google Chrome OS as your main operating system then there is a link on the Chrome Desktop to a rather basic Installer.  The Installer is basic because the only things that are installed are a rthe Gnome Window Manager, Libre Office and the Google Chrome Web Browser and that's all that is part of OS, all other Apps are run inside Google Chrome.

The Home Page in Google Chrome is like a web version of the iPhone app launcher with icon links to some default web apps including GMail, Google Docs, Google Music, Google+, Picassa, Google Calendar and many more.

Conclusion

Chrome OS is a pretty good OS for cloud computing but if you want more of a polished looking OS and don't want to rely on being connected to the Internet 24/7 to work then I'd keep clear of Chrome OS and use something that Allows you the ability to do more Offline, Libre Office makes up for the short fall of having to be online all the time as you've at least got an offline Office Suite but the lack of Offline email & Calendar may be a deal breaker for some people.

Roland


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