In a nutshell, Google Chrome OS is a glorified web browser that will support applications that reside not on the machine itself, but on remote servers accessible via the World Wide Web. So essentially, the browser is the operating system. For this reason, Chrome OS is a lightweight system that will initially be targeted at netbooks, as netbooks are known to have low-end specifications.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects going into the Google Chrome OS project and one of the most interesting things to note is the speed at which you can turn your computer on and be browsing the web, a mere 7 seconds. Compare that to the traditional 45+ seconds and you can see why Chrome OS might well make a huge impact. One other thing to think about: Will viruses affect Chrome OS, since supposedly nothing is stored on the computer? I suppose only time will tell.

And while there’s still another year to go until Chrome OS is actually released. Google has made the code open source, which means that people can go download and compile the source to see what it’s really all about.

Want to give Chrome OS a try?

• Download VirtualBox
• Download Google Chrome OS .vmdk file

Then follow these steps:

1. Install the latest version of VirtualBox
2. Start VirtualBox and click on “New” button. This will start a wizard that will help you create a new VM in VirtualBox.
3. Name your VM “Chrome OS” and select “Linux” from Operating System dropdown menu, and “Other Linux” from Version dropdown menu.
4. Assign your VM some RAM.
5. Now Select “use existing hard disk” option and select the .vmdk file of Chrome OS that you downloaded.
6. Click Next and finish the wizard.

And you’re done. Simply click on the green start button and wait for about 7 seconds for Chrome OS to boot up. You must use your Google ID to log into the operating system. What are your impressions of the new OS?

The list is compiled from the CNET Top 5 Free Software video.

#5 – GIMP

GIMP running in Windows XP

GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool, as well as offering freeform drawing and retouching tools, GIMP can accomplish essential image workflow steps such as resizing, editing, and cropping photos, combining multiple images, and converting between different image formats.

GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in the GIF format. At present GIMP is entirely suitable for amateur or professional work with images intended for viewing on monitors and printing on inkjet printers.

Download: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

#4 -HandBrake

HandBrake 0.9.3 in Windows

HandBrake is a free open-source program designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into a MPEG-4 video file in .mp4, .avi, .ogm, or .mkv containers. The program is used by many people to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be viewed on iPods, iPhones and with the Mac QuickTime Player.

Originally developed for BeOS, HandBrake is now cross-platform, and available for Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Solaris. As it is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, HandBrake is free software.

Download: http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

#3 – Firefox

Firefox 3.5 in Vista

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. A Net Applications survey put Firefox at 24.07% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of October 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Latest Firefox features include tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing (aka “geolocation”) based exclusively on a Google service and an integrated search system that uses Google by default in most localizations. Functions can be added through add-ons, created by third-party developers, of which there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many of Firefox’s users.

Download: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

#2 – OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org Writer in XP

OpenOffice.org (OO.o or OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is an office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It is distributed as free software and written using its own GUI toolkit. It supports the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office formats among others. As of November 2009, OpenOffice supports over 110 languages.

Download: http://download.openoffice.org/

And finally… #1 – VLC Media Player

VLC in the new Windows 7

VLC media player is an open source, free software media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLANproject.

VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. VLC used to stand for VideoLAN Client, but that meaning is nowdeprecated.

It is one of the most platform-independent players available, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux,BeOS, Syllable, BSD, MorphOS, Solaris and Sharp Zaurus, and is widely used with over 324,609,909 downloads for all versions as of 07 November 2009.

Download: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

At this time 6.4-RELEASE is expected to be the last of the 6-STABLE releases. Some of the highlights:

• New and much-improved NFS Lock Manager (NLM) client
• Support for the Camellia cipher
• boot loader changes allow, among other things, booting from USB devices and booting from GPT-labeled devices with GPT-enabled BIOSes
• DVD install ISO images for amd64/i386
• KDE updated to 3.5.10, GNOME updated to 2.22.3
• Updates for BIND, sendmail, OpenPAM, and others

PC-BSD is a free operating system with ease of use in mind. Like any modern system, you can listen to your favorite music, watch your movies, work with office documents and install your favorite applications with a setup wizard at a click.

View The Entire FreeBSD 6.4 Release Announcement.

This release marks a milestone for PC-BSD, by moving to the latest FreeBSD 7-Stable and also incorporating the KDE 4.1.1 desktop. Users will immediately notice the improved visual interface that KDE 4.1.1 offers, as well as a large improvement in hardware support and speed from the update to FreeBSD 7-Stable. PC-BSD 7 also offers a large and growing library of self-contained PBI files available for installation, and improvments for other locales on our PBI Directory website. This release also offers new methods of installation, including a DVD, USB and Internet / Network install.

PC-BSD is a free operating system with ease of use in mind. Like any modern system, you can listen to your favorite music, watch your movies, work with office documents and install your favorite applications with a setup wizard at a click.

You might also want to check out the PC-BSD Guide. I’m currently downloading the DVD iso image to install it on a test PC. I may put up a post on how well that goes sometime later this week.