The Chromium OS for Dell Mini 10v netbooks: Do you want it?

After the news that a Dell employee tinkered to the code of Chromium OS and enable it to run on a Dell Mini 10v netbook, Dell announced that it is offering a “customized downloadable” version of Google Chromium OS for Dell Mini 10V netbook on November 27, 2009. The Chromium OS is the open source version of Chrome OS which Google released on November 21, 2009.

The Google Chrome OS is a Linux-based Web operating system Google built to run on netbooks and the best thing about this operating system is that it takes less time to start up and it is very simple. A machine with Chrome OS takes only few seconds to boot up. eWeek reports:

With boot speed a major calling card for Chrome OS, things bode well for the nascent software, according to Dell Technology Strategist Doug Anson.

"Without a network connection, ChromiumOS is not very interesting," Anson wrote on a Dell community blog Nov. 25. "With a network connection, ChromiumOS shines. The Chromium browser is extremely fast and makes for a great Web-centric browsing experience. Boot time appears quick too - about 12 seconds from hitting the power button.

This is a good news from Chrome OS but analysts believe that it would take another five to ten years for Google Chrome OS being widely adopted as an OS. Security is still a major issue in case of cloud computing.

If you are interested to run the Chromium OS on your Dell Mini 10v netbook then you need a flash drive with a minimum space of 8GB on it. Once you download it, you would have to move an image "ChromiumOS_Mini10v_Nov25.img" onto the flash drive and plug it into you netbook. Here is the link to the image:

http://linux.dell.com/files/cto.

There is a downside of this whole thing. In order to enjoy the Chromium OS's full potential, you need an Internet connection. The built-in Broadcom Wi-Fi in Dell Mini 10v is functional but unstable. It might take up 5-10 minutes for the Chromium OS network connection manager to pin-point the Wi-Fi access points. Last but not the least, the key is minimally tested so you would have to use it on your own risk.