Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook Hacked to Run Ubuntu Linux

Without a doubt, Google's Chrome OS notebook, dubbed Cr-48, has been one of the hottest arrivals of late 2010, as it offered the world a glimpse at what Google's brand-new operating system for notebooks/netbooks would be able to offer, as well as the level of performance we are to expect from these machines.

However, it seems that the portable computing system has also drawn the attention of hackers, since, as GizInChina reports, the Cr-48 has already been hacked in order to run another free, open-source operating system (and perhaps the best-known of them all), namely Ubuntu Linux.

The aforementioned source has managed to come across a video uploaded to a well-known Chinese video sharing site depicting Google's Chrome OS Cr-48 notebook booting Ubuntu Linux, but, unfortunately, very little information on the actual hack is available, so there's no way of knowing whether we're talking about a fully-functional solution or not (you can check out the video at the end of this article in order to see for yourselves the booting process).

As some of you will certainly remember, the Cr-48 is a 12.1-inch notebook, featuring a full size keyboard and somewhat oversized clickpad, but the keyboard does have some peculiarities compared to a standard QWERTY, namely the fact that the function keys have been replaced by a series of Apple-kile action keys, while the Caps Lock key has been removed completely, a Search button taking its place.

Furthermore, the Intel Atom – powered device will apparently provide an impressive battery life (more than 8 hours of active use and up to a whopping 8 days in stand-by), while also coming equipped with the Qualcomm Gobi 3G chip, 802.11n dual-band WiFi, a built-in webcam and flash storage, as well as the built-in USB port and VGA output.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the hack depicted in video is actually fully-working or not, but given the fact that Ubuntu Linux is quite a dev-friendly OS, it's quite likely that the people who've carried out this interesting port might have come up with a fully-functioning implementation.