Chromium OS builds by Hexxeh i New

While it didn't land in time for the release of Chrome OS Zero, Hexxeh has now made a script available which bolts on an automatic update feature.

The updater is currently in open beta, and installing it requires a little bit of tinkering via terminal (ctrl + alt + t starts a terminal session on Chromium OS). Follow Hexxeh's instructions, reboot your system or VM, and watch the magic! If you're not totally up-to-date, you'll see a window like the one above.

One of the most welcome fixes is listed at update 2: no more Broadcom delay. If you've been testing Chromium OS on a netbook or laptop running one of their wireless adapters, this is fantastic news!

One note: for the final step of the process, Hexxeh's instructions say to type reboot [enter] in terminal. That didn't work for me -- but sudo reboot did.

Hexxeh's Chromium OS build is one of my favorite independent projects so far this year, and it just keeps getting better. If you've used it, share your thoughts in the comments!

While the official release of Google Chrome OS won’t be arriving for a few more months, Hexxehcontinues plugging away at his Chromium remix — and his latest release is better than ever.

Codenamed Flow (I’ll assume because of the epic Vanilla Ice line “Flow like a harpoon, daily and nightly“), the new version adds loads of new functionality. The automatic update feature which was recently beta tested is now baked-in, more hardware is supported (including full NVidia ION acceleration), battery life is improved, webcams are now supported, and numerous bugs have been squashed.

Perhaps the biggest addition is the customizable menu, where you can now add, delete, and organize your favorite web-based applications. It’s a significant step toward making theChromium OS feel like a real desktop replacement.

Right now, Flow is only available as an image file for writing to a physical drive (the download link is at the bottom of this page).

If you want to test it in VMWare, give Hexxeh a few more days — he’ll no doubt have a prepackaged VM you can play with very soon.