You don't need a Chromebook to try Google's Linux-based Chrome OS. Here's how to give it a try today.

The VirtualBox images are useful if you want to test Chromium OS in a virtualized environment instead of running it natively on hardware. The image is supplied in a VDI file, which is VirtualBox ...

Chrome OS Flex is a free operating system that's designed to run on and help revive old PCs and MacBooks.

There's no reason you can't install (or dual-boot!) Chrome OS on a desktop PC, incidentally. To perform the Chromium OS install process, you'll need a 2GB USB memory stick.

Fortunately, installing Chrome OS to a hard disk drive or solid-state drive is easy. Warning: this will completely wipe the contents of your HDD or SSD, so proceed with caution.