First, it’s important to understand the distinction between Chrome OS and Chromium OS. That’s a very valid question, and the answer may be a bit confusing.

So, what’s to stop you from downloading Chrome OS and installing it onto your existing netbook or laptop, or purchasing a less expensive machine and loading up Chrome OS on it? In fact, the first Chromebooks to hit the shelves on June 15 will be priced between $350 and $499.įurthermore, as you may have heard, Chrome OS is based on open source software. Ironically, the fact that a Chromebook does less than a laptop running Windows or Ubuntu or OS X doesn’t necessarily make it less expensive. It achieves this by limiting your activity to the web. In fact, if you have Google Chrome Web Store apps, bookmarks and other settings synced with your Google account, they’ll be there waiting for you when you log in to your Chromebook.Īt the end of the day, the Chrome OS notebooks are designed for a simpler, faster computing experience. If you’ve ever used the Google Chrome web browser on your Windows, Mac OS X or Linux computer, you should find the Chrome OS environment very familiar. The benefit of this is that the Chromebook boots incredibly fast-just 10 seconds from startup to login screen-and it also loads web pages and runs web apps fast. Chrome OS is essentially a lightweight version of Linux that only runs one application: the Chrome browser. Rather than running Windows or Mac OS X, Chromebooks are powered by Chrome OS. The Chromebook takes the netbook model to the next level by optimizing the operating system for the web as well. However, on the inside, they still run the same operating system as desktops and laptops.

That is, they are smaller, thinner and lighter, with compact screens and keyboards. Netbooks are subnotebooks that have been optimized for web browsing on the outside. The new Chromebooks are netbooks the way they were meant to be.

Install chrome os on pc