Microsoft Expression Related Resources
Latest Additons
Google Chrome OS, the EASY way
By Chris Leeds
Why would an author who has focused on web design need or want something like the Google Chrome OS. The answer is simple, but probably not obvious: In the “old days”, which weren’t all that long ago, you could trust the rendering of your work by testing on your local computer using various common browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and so on).
As the discipline has progressed, we’re now working with a lot of interactivity, sometimes the kind of interactivity that requires the cooperation of the visitor’s operating system as well as their browser. Also, browsers running on different operating systems tend to render your work a little differently. Consider Silverlight applications, XBAPs, and even “old-school” applications like my own ContentSeed (http://ContentSeed.com); the need for different computers to test on becomes more and more obvious.
Microsoft Virtual PC
I’ve taken to using Microsoft’s Virtual PC application. I’m currently using it on my primary desktop machine: a 32 bit Windows 7 of fairly common specs. Using Virtual PC I can fire up Ubuntu, Linux Mint, a couple versions of Android (think phone/netbook), and older Windows operating systems for testing purposes.
It’s actually a very useful tool for designers since you can have as many operating systems as you like. They run inside a window on your actual computer but they’re not emulations, they’re real “virtualized” machines almost as if you had a dozen different pieces of hardware each with a different OS installed on it.
<Rant> I’ve yet to be able to get a Mac OS to run in any virtual machine. In other words: I could go to the Apple Store, buy their current OS for about $150.00 (which I’d be glad to pay), take it home and try to install it into a Virtual PC instance. No dice. I think that’s totally bogus. </Rant>
In order to proceed with this exercise you should install it now:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx
The Problem
The other day I decided to try Google’s Chrome Operating System. Don’t confuse this with the Google Chrome browser, which is easily available and installs in a Windows 7 machine nicely.
Google Chrome OS is not a browser but an operating system. You’ll be seeing it on netbooks in a short period of time. Google will most likely leverage their connections in the cell phone industry in order to get subsidized netbooks flowing.
I set about this mission by Googling for an ISO file that I could mount with the virtual machine manager and install the operating system in a new virtual hard drive.
Unfortunately this search provided nothing but bunk links, VHD images for other programs like Sun’s Virtual Box, and a whole lot of nothing.
Finally I found an ISO file that some kind soul compiled on a UNIX machine that worked. I was able to install it into the Microsoft Virtual Machine without too much trouble. I then did a ton of updates and configured it a little bit. (Most notably to get a graphics driver that went up to 1024 X 768)
Nevertheless, if you would like to try this out feel free to download a fully updated Virtual Hard Drive (for Microsoft’s Virtual PC application). This server space and bandwidth for this 700 MB file was provided by Alexander Kent of http://KentDome.com/ who is a fellow Microsoft MVP (Home Server). Check out his awesome products here: http://www.kentdome.com/products
Bit Torrent Link:
http://dnagen.bittorrent.com/bdg/get?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kentdome.com%2Ffiles%2FChromeHardDisk.zip
(Bit Torrent provides the fastest download experience)
Direct Link:
http://kentdome.com/files/ChromeHardDisk.zip
Should you be prompted for a user name or password I’ve rigged up this VM to have the following admin un/pw:
UN= admin
PW= password
I’m toying with the idea of making a screencast illustrating how to open existing VHDs with Virtual PC. If enough people join our Expression Studio User Group http://Expression.Groups.Live.com/ and would like this type of video I’ll gladly create it and post it to the group’s SkyDrive.
