Salix OS is a Slackware-based linux distribution. The released alpha is available in both 32 and 64-bit versions.
Changelog:
* New and improved gtk system tools!
* Better support out of the box for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other languages. Configuring SCIM is now part of the installer
* Fixed missing mkfs.msdos symlink in the 32-bits version.
* Fixed installation of LILO in manual mode in the installer.
* Hopefully fixed rarely (and randomly) occuring bug with fontconfig getting stuck at the end of installation.
* Fixed false detection of vfat and ntfs with no OS installed as windows partitions.
* Fixed properly identifying scsi hard drives and ram disks during installation.
* Fixed missing fonts that caused some screensavers to crash.
* Improved boot times
* Renamed confusingly named buttons when setting up user accounts.
* New artwork. It still needs some tuning though.
* Added salix-man package that provides a manpage with an overview of admininstration commands for Salix. Run “man salix” for more.
* Brasero replaces xfburn. It seems to work better with most people’s hardware.
* Parole replaces Totem
* Viewnior replaces Ristretto
* Added Pitivi non-linear video editor
* Removed splashy, it doesn’t work with KMS.
* All packages upgraded to their version in current

You can get the images for this release from Sourceforge:
32 bit: https://sourceforge.net/projects/salix/files/13.1/salix-13.1alpha1.iso/download
64 bit: https://sourceforge.net/projects/salix/files/13.1/salix64-13.1alpha1.iso/download

Or you can get a stable release from here:
http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php?title=Download

Also visit Salix OS website and forum.

The public debut of Google Chrome OS today has the press abuzz over the potential of the new web-based operating system. And now that it’s open sourced, you have the chance to try it out for yourself. Unfortunately, most people aren’t ready to undertake the daunting task of actually taking Google’s recently open-sourced code and turning that into a bootable computer. So we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to doing this, for free, in around 15 minutes (depending on how long it takes to download the OS itself). No, this won’t get your computer booting Chrome OS natively (and frankly, you probably wouldn’t want to yet anyway). But it will get it up and running in a virtual machine using the free software VirtualBox, which is available for Macs, PCs, and Linux.

First, a few caveats: we didn’t create the Chrome OS build ourselves — it was downloaded from BitTorrent. In theory it could possibly have been tweaked by some malicious hacker to steal your Google account information (this is unlikely, but who knows). There’s an easy fix if you’re worried though: just go make a throwaway Gmail account, and use that to play around with the OS. Also note that because this is running in a virtual machine, you’re probably not going to be seeing great performance (like that 7 second boot time). But it’s more than good enough to get a feel for the OS for yourself.

First, you need to get an image of Chrome OS. You can do that using this torrent. You can also try out the build that GDGT has uploaded, which worked fine in our test as well. If you get the torrent version, you’ll see it’s in a .BZ2 format. You’ll need to extract it. Macs and Linux should be able to do this automatically, but for Windows you may need a tool like Win Rar.

Once that’s done, download a version of VirtualBox for whatever OS you’re running on here and install it. After registering (or declining to) you’ll be met with a screen like this. Click the button that says “New” in the upper left hand corner. We’re going to be making a new virtual machine :

You’ll enter a wizard like this. Hit Next.

Go ahead and title the OS whatever you’d like. For the operating system, choose Linux, with Ubuntu as the version (other setups could potentially work, but this is the only one we’ve gotten working).

Choose how much memory to allocate to this virtual machine. This will be dependent on how much memory you have in your computer. The more, the better, but if you choose too much your real computer will become unstable/very slow.

Here’s the tricky part (fortunately it isn’t very tricky). You don’t want to create a new hard disk, instead, you want to use an existing hard disk. Don’t choose one from the drop down menu either — you’re going to want to hit the folder icon just to the right of that to enter the ‘virtual media manager’.

Hit the ‘Add’ button.

Now you have to find the Chrome OS image you downloaded earlier. This is probably on your desktop or in your downloads folder. Once you’ve found it, hit ‘Open’.

Hit ‘Select’ once you reach this window.

Almost there. Make sure ‘use existing hard disk’ is checked. Hit Next.

Hit ‘Finish’

You’re done! Hit Start. Hopefully the screen will go black, but only for a little while (this could be anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute or so, depending on how fast your computer is).

Once you’re in, you’ll see a splash screen for ‘Chromium’ (which is what Google calls dev builds of Chrome). To login, you’ll need to enter a valid Google Account ID. Your standard Gmail account should work, but as we said before, this build of ChromeOS came from bittorrent, so you may want to use a throw away account like we did in the screenshots below (you can make one here).

You’re in. Now time to explore. To be honest, everything looks quite similar to Google’s Chrome browser, but there are a few key differences. Note the battery life indicator and options menu in the far upper right. Also try playing around with the ‘New Window’ functions — you’ll find that it’s difficult (if not impossible) to navigate between multiple windows. And be wary of the Bookmarks manager. As far as I can tell, there’s no easy way to get out of it — you’ll have to manually create a new bookmark, which will kick you back into the browser mode once you click it. Oh, and good luck finding the ’shut down’ button, because we sure can’t.

You probably won’t need it, but the shared user password for this install (which you’d need for functions like sudo) is ‘chromeos’ according to the torrent’s listing on thepiratebay.

The torrents are also available here: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5353501/Google_Chrome_OS_0.4.22.8_-_Virtual_box_image
and http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5173881/Google_Chrome_OS_0.4.22.8_VMWare .

Enjoy!

Google’s Chrome OS to be ready for 2010 holidays

SAN FRANCISCO — Consumers will have to wait until next year’s holiday shopping season to find out if Google Inc.’s new operating system can deliver on its promise to make low-cost computers run faster.
Google set the late 2010 target date Thursday during its first preview of a much-anticipated operating system that eventually may mount a challenge to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows — the foundation for most personal computers since the 1990s.
The Internet search leader announced plans in July for an operating system named after its Chrome Web browser. At the time, Google said Chrome OS would be ready during the second half of 2010. That left open the possibility that Chrome OS computers could be on sale as early as next summer.
But Google is taking its time so outside programmers can contribute to Chrome OS, which is being developed under an open-source model in which anyone can help with development and share improvements. Google also intends to work closely with computer manufacturers to ensure they meet the Chrome OS’s requirements.
Chrome OS is initially expected to be limited to people looking for inexpensive, lightweight computers designed for Web surfing. None of the so-called “netbooks” running Google’s operating system will have a hard drive, and they will need Internet access to run applications.
That could limit interest among users who need their machines on the go and might find pockets of time without Internet service on planes or trains.

Still, Google views the Chrome OS netbooks as a supplement to fully loaded computers that run applications on a hard drive. Google believes the Chrome OS could get heavy usage, given that most people spend most of their computer time connected to the Internet anyway.

Suggested retail prices for the Chrome OS computers won’t be set until closer to their debut. Google executives, though, indicated the Chrome OS should be in the same $300 to $400 range of other netbooks, even though the company isn’t charging manufacturers to use its system.
The computer manufacturers that have expressed an interest in using the Chrome OS include Acer Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

The Chrome OS also is an important step in Google’s crusade to get people more comfortable with “cloud computing,” the idea of keeping their applications and data on remote computers operated by a third party such as Google.
Underscoring Google’s commitment to cloud computing, the Chrome OS machines won’t even have a hard drive. By leaving out that and other components, Google is promising the Chrome OS machines will seem more like a television than a computer because they will be ready to use within a few seconds of turning on the power button. Even the sleekest of Windows-powered machines typically require 30 seconds to 1 minute before applications can be opened.

Google’s foray into computer operating systems represents one of the most daring challenges yet in its escalating duel with Microsoft.
While Google has been trying to attack Microsoft’s software franchise, Microsoft has been trying to undermine Google’s dominance of the Internet search and advertising market. Neither has made a significant dent so far.
With their low price tags, Chrome OS also could potentially undercut Apple Inc.’s Mac computers. The increasing competition between Google and Apple prompted Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt to resign from Apple’s board just a few weeks after the Chrome OS was announced.