First off, I did expect chrome OS to be nothing but a browser ... Chrome browser, that is. So the first thing I did to my FF installation was to "Chromify" it. I started by adding Omnibar for Firefox (If there was great idea in Chrome, its the Omnibar). I then removed all toolbars except the menu and navigation bar (yes, including bookmarks, which I never actually learned to use :s). Next I added the "Hide Menubar" extension, which is a superb extension that lets you show/hide the menu bar using the Alt key (I knew this feature from IE and I don't know if it originated there or what). Finally I installed one of those great safari themes :D. Dosn't sound right, I know, but I only needed a minimalist theme, and I don't like Chrome's look :D. Finally I merged the stop and reload buttons using "Stop or reload button".
Thats for the browser part. Before I continue with the heavy stuff, here is what FF looks at my computer (click to actually see something):
I tried to make it look as much as possible like an operating system. Firstly, I expected Chrome to run all apps in the browser. I did NOT expect it to ONLY run web apps though. That is, I expected the user not to be able to tell the difference between a browser tab and a normal window. As that is a little too much to ask of an FF extension, I just moved the tabs to the bottom!! To do that I used the " Tree Style Tab", and yes, I only downloaded it to move the tabs to the bottom, as I wasn't sure what it does exactly!! Its real function is one that is in chrome also, to group related tabs (so when you right click, open in new tab, the tab opens next to the group of tabs related to the current tab).
The next two things you may have noticed are the cover flow tab navigation and the preview (the mouse cursor is over the wikipedia tab). Those 2 are the Foxtab and Tab Scope respectively. I should say that Foxtab is slow and that tab scope removes the focus from the FF window on Ubuntu (at least thats my experience).
One of my greatest guesses was the mini tabs. I used the Faviconize extension for those. I even tried to make these tabs permanent by using the Permatab extension, but my experience was not very pleasant :( ... One final thing I did was tried to get rid of the status bar by using Fission (which merges the status and address bar in a little confusing way, but saves space :P). That was done a few days back , and all I need now is somewhere to put that echofon icon (which I use EXTENSIVELY for twittering), and I will not need that status bar (some may have many more icons there, so I was actually looking for an extension that can show status bar icons next to tabs, classic OS tray style).
So thats basically it :D. I don't want to go as far as saying that I think my FF now is more of an OS that Chrome OS (which I haven't tried yet, to be honest), but it sure is cool to see some of the ideas I was able to guess. I am still trying to run Chrome OS on VirtualBox but getting that nasty "Network not connected". Its probably a VirtualBox thing as I have already tried many images, so any help is appreciated (and then I will be able to write a post about the ACTUAL Chrome OS :P).
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