LABS GALLERY: Chrome OS Developer Edition Looks and Feels Just Like Chrome Browser

Google recently released a developer version of its much-talked-about Chrome OS. While this is an extremely bare-bones release, even for a developer version, it does provide an interesting look into an operating system that assumes nearly everything will take place on the Web and in a browser. This release includes a couple of unique Chrome OS features, such as an Applications screen, but, for the most part, the user experience is identical to using the Chrome Web browser.

Upon launching Chrome OS, users are presented with a login screen. Any existing Gmail account will work to launch the Chrome OS.

Not surprisingly, the main application within Chrome OS is Gmail.

One thing that is unique in Chrome OS is the Applications tab. From here, users can launch many Web-based applications.

If you’ve used the Google Chrome Web browser, then you’ve already seen about 90 percent of the Chrome OS interface.

One of the only native apps currently on Chrome OS is this basic calculator.

While most applications in Chrome OS appear in browser tabs, the calculator displays as a lower-right box when minimized.

In Chrome OS, the Create Application shortcut gives users the option to add any Web application to the Chrome OS Applications menu. However, in my tests of the developer version, I was unable to successfully do this.

A pop-up window in the upper right-hand window of Chrome OS provides information on system battery life.

Another upper right-hand pop-up menu lets users configure network connections.

The third pop-up menu in the upper right-hand corner launches a menu that is currently identical to the Tools menu in the Chrome Web browser.

Within the Options menu item is the Chromium OS tab, which provides very basic system settings options.

The other Options menu items are the same as those in the Chrome Web browser. Here, you can change the search engine to Bing or Yahoo, but you can’t change the browser. (Right now, it looks like Chrome will be the only browser available for Chrome OS.)