gdgt

NO NO AND NO, Chrome OS is not even a real OS!

No. Chrome OS will only run web apps, no locally installed apps. That's the whole point. Google docs will work just fine.

Actually, maybe so. Microsoft has announced that the next release of Microsoft Office will include browser-based versions of some of its main office software products - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. See:
www.readwriteweb.com­/archives­/microsoft­_office­_com...

Ok, so...maybe? I'm looking at netbooks because i'm going to buy one next summer to take to college but i'm going to use it along with a desktop so that i don't have to pay $2,000 for a gaming laptop but i can still take a computer with me. I want to run Microsoft Office on it because the apps on google for web processing and graphing aren't as in depth as the MS Office.

ChromeOS is based on Linux, so the short answer is 'No.'

However, since Office will run on Linux with WINE, it is theoretically possible, but it'd take a ton of tinkering: circumventing Chrome to get to a terminal, figuring out if ChromeOS uses any repositories, and then installing WINE from there, plus installing Office, which would require a CD/DVD drive, which most netbooks lack.

That said, ChromeOS should run the Office 2010 webapp just fine.

even then, I've had 0 luck running office under WINE

Hey, I think it's a legitimate question. Unfortunately, like many of Microsoft's applications, they only run on Windows systems with the exception of Office on Mac. Since Google's ChromeOS is running on (BSD) Linux, there is no way to run MS Office natively. This is due to the difference in the operating system architecture. Now, If one was able to get Wine to work on ChromeOS, it is possible. It is easier to run MS Office on a Linux Platform using an emulation software called Crossover Linux, though. I have experimented a little using ChromeOS, and I still have not found a way to get to any type of terminal, which will lower the chances of being able to get these problems on the system.

Since ChromeOS is sort of a "cloud" computing system, Google will most likely try and push Google Documents on you and their other proprietary software. This means they are (un)intentionally forcing you to use what is preinstalled or what is available through the package handler.

I want to be very clear here that, ChromeOS should not be the system to do word processing and office sort of activities. If anything, it is good for note taking, music listening, and browsing the web. It's not the most intuitive system as of now. Things could change-- hell the beta right now isn't really even a beta. It's basically what was done at the time.

Hope this helps.

Microsoft are building a cut-down version of Office for the web and also for Windows Mobile, which allows for 'format-corruption-free' file transport between the web, mobile and desktop.

Chrome OS will run Office 2010 for the web. As for running it locally, you're missing the point of Chrome - and you end up just attempting to make it into a 'real OS' which introduces additional complexity.

Mind you, I don't doubt that many people will be committed enough to running Chrome to do this eventually - even if much less effectively than running a proper Windows machines in the first place. Rather like Boot Camp for the Apples, you might say.

I want chrome because i hate the windows version that's run on netbooks but i want to be able to make word documents and powerpoint with my netbook so I can make it look good when i print it.

This is for a netbook I'm hoping to get this summer when i'm getting a computer for college. I want a netbook that i can take anywhere (for simple applications like word processing, working on projects, or commenting on forums) and a desktop pc i can run games on. I pretty much want the two to work together with word processing and i find the google apps to be horrible at formatting papers and such.