Nexus 7 gets demoed running native Chromium OS
Anyone remember ChromeOS? While technically still being developed and promoted by Google (there’s even a Chromebook on the Google Play devices page), the cloud-based lightweight OS has mostly fallen by the wayside. Still, as an owner of the original CR-48 Chromebook, I’ve been following a developer named Hexxeh, who makes custom builds of the open source Chromium OS for the CR-48 and other non-Google devices. Just a few days ago, he posted on his blog a video of ChromeOS running on some more modern, although thoroughly unexpected, hardware: The Nexus 7.
As you can see in the video above, Chromium OS actually appears to work quite well on the Nexus 7, as does touch response, YouTube, and even a 3D rendering of an aquarium. The build of Chromium also has the new Aura interface, which gives the OS more of a desktop feel than just the original browser.
So, what use does this have? Truthfully, not much. While Ubuntu on the Nexus 7 does have at least some potential advantages, Chromium OS has almost none. Nearly the same thing could be achieved simply in Chrome for Android, and Android actually runs many more apps than are available in the Chrome web store. However, I still think that this install is quite cool, and between this, Ubuntu, and all the other development going on around the Nexus, I know I’m going to be keeping my tablet for quite a while.
[Hexxeh’s Blog]
