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Cr-48's Chrome OS Easter egg: Blue screen of snark

Brad Wells has found the little joke Google programmers hid in the prototype laptop for Chrome OS, the company's browser-based operating system.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
Brad Wells found the Cr-48's Easter egg.
Brad Wells has found the Cr-48's Easter egg. Brad Wells

A couple of months after Easter itself came and went, the Easter egg Google shipped with its Chrome OS prototype laptops has finally been discovered.

Brad Wells found the Easter egg. Aided by a little Google searching, he found out how to activate a fake blue screen of death--one of the "legacy" leftovers from the PC era Google hopes to banish with its browser-based operating system. Then, with an ASCII code converter, he found a parody of the legalese that causes me a lot more heartburn these days than BSODs.

Wells dug up the egg after Chrome OS programmer Bill Richardson needled mailing list readers that the Easter egg had been unknown for six months.

The short version of how to see the Easter egg: enable the Cr-48's developer mode and type "xyzzy" during the boot process.

Before you do, though, be warned: Cape does not enable wearer to fly.