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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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ChromeOS is Linux with Google’s desktop environment
Always has been. One does not "use Linux" they use an operating system built on top of Linux.
Chrome is not Linux, but Xfce also is not Linux. Gnome is not Linux. KDE is not Linux. Linux is Linux.
Originally, ChromeOS was the Chrome browser with just enough code to boot to and take care of other essential OS functions. Like, the system settings and browser settings were practically merged.
The author is alluding to more recent efforts to untangle and separate ChromeOS from the Chrome browser. I believe the goal is for the Chrome browser on ChromeOS to be essentially the same as other Linux browser builds.
So these days ChromeOS is structured more like other Linux distros, with a huge difference being how locked down it is.
I don't understand the point of this article. It said all that it had to say with the headline alone. Everything else is filler.
"ChromeOS is Linux in disguise. But people already knew this." Ok. And?
literally, all Chrome OS / chromium OS needs to do for me to actually embrace it. is native out of box flatpack support
one issue I might see them having with flatpack, is the permissions right now are handled kind of stupidly IMO. but if those get solved I think flatpack would be a great addition to chromium os ecosystem
While this would definitely be useful and make linux software more accessible, I'm worried about something similar to Android's Google Play Services eventually happening where almost every piece of software, despite being for an open source operating system, depends on proprietary google software
As long as you have a Crostini-capable ChromeOS device, you can run flatpacks. This is actually the preferred way to run Firefox (via the Linux Flatpack).
crostini is still in a vm (albiet crosvm is really good) I would really prefer real native
Now more than ever, ChromeOS is Linux with ~~Google’s desktop environment~~ Google spyware and nothing else
You need another ~ at the beginning and end to get ~~strikeout~~.
ChromeOS is just spyware that's eye candy.
I would definitely get a Chromebook, but only once you can change the default browser from Chrome without needing to do any weird workarounds like Android apps
As someone who has owned a Chromebook for several years, I can tell you that you shouldn't. Hardware wise it's hard to beat Chromebooks at their price points, but the complete lack of control over the system is a deal breaker. I don't have time to list all of the issues I've had. In many cases what would have been trivial fixes on a normal Linux system required full reinstalls on chromeOS. Like the time I accidentally filled up the fairly modest system storage. The system refused to allow me to delete anything, requiring a reset just to get local file management abilities back.
I ultimately ended up installing full Linux on it, which ended up being a whole other ordeal due to all of Google's "security" features.
Do you have to jailbreak the hardware to install another OS or is it supported?
It kinda crazy you can't do this, wasn't Microsoft forced to let you change default browsers in an antitrust suit?
Its okay, once Microsoft introduces EdgeOS, they can claim that Edge is an integral part of the OS, and therefore cannot be removed.
..oh wait, that's just Windows 10 onwards
Does anyone actually buy Chromebooks apart from schools?
Does anyone use Adobe apart from schools? Yes, because the students who used it at school went to work and wanted to use it there.
So sad and unfortunate that we're indoctrinating children to be spied on.
I love my chromebook, 90% of the time when I'm lazing around nothing I need uses more than a browser, although it also runs a debian variant and can run android apps, which is useful occasionally. It's light, doesn't get remotely hot, has no fan noise and the battery lasts ages.
My mother has one because she doesn't need the complexity of windows breaking everything.. she only needs gmail and facebook.
I mean, it was for on campus use, but I bought one in college to have a cheap note taker and basic homework machine for on campus that wouldn't set me back too far if it got stolen or broken. I had a gaming desktop at home and was in a non-technical major, so it worked out great.
My girlfriend bought a really cheap one from Lenovo. Besides watching movies and browsing the web there's not much you can do because ChromeOS is extremely limiting. Wouldn't ever recommend anyone to buy anything with ChromeOS on it.
Sounds like the perfect device for my parents and many many other people I know.
Does this mean I can reasonably expect to buy a Chromebook and install vanilla Linux without huge headaches?
There’s always been Linux distros that targeted Mac hardware. There’s got to be something like that for chromebooks, right?
The issue is that Google locks down the bootloader. Nothing prevents the compute and display hardware from running a traditional Linux distribution, but that "trusted" bootloader does.
You can install vanilla Linux, but huge headaches are involved.
I did it, and it worked, but I had to open is and remove a foil (equivalent to a jumper), go to developer mode, then flash a new bootloader by running a script from GitHub.
Think flashing a ROM on a pretty locked down Android device.
The upside is that when the process is done, you have a regular PC and no need to do any cumbersome process again.
Not even remotely. It requires custom firmware which often requires physical disassembly to install. From there you can install any distro, but you will continue to have many small issues and inconveniences often due to the nonstandard keyboard.
There was a Chromebook targeted Linux distro called eupnea that could be installed without custom firmware via depthboot, but it's dead now and the original repo got deleted after the Dev got hacked, so the build scripts don't work anymore.
No, this isn't something you can expect.
There used to be a distro called Gallium OS, but it's been dead for a couple years now.
ChromeOS is a totally locked down distro of Linux. I prefer Debian Linux with an XFCE desktop thank you.
Maybe I'm mistaken on this, but I'm fairly certain the screenshot they describe as "Unity" is just a heavily themed GNOME. Also, I've never seen Xfce stylized as "XFCe." I realize that's not the point of the article, but just something that stood out to me.
It always was.
And yet an onscreen keyboard for linux apps is still "on the roadmap"...
Quite possibly one of the most misleading statements ive ever read.
This article is a bit strange
Even though you can install Linux desktop applications for that container, you can’t use it to modify the Linux code (huh?) that runs ChromeOS
Unless he's on Gentoo (he's not, he is on PopOS) to modify and recompile his kernel every time, I don't see what he's trying to say here.
The title feels accurate, but misleading, like yeah it is Linux, with another desktop environment, but when they say this
While most Linux distributions come with a default desktop environment, users can install and choose from many others. You can’t do that on ChromeOS, which is why I say ChromeOS uses Google’s desktop environment. Choice would be nice here but I really do like the new Material You interface.
I'm like, no shit ChromeOS uses Google’s desktop environment? And what changed from the past versions that it is so "now more than ever"? On the contrary, from what I'm reading, there was even an effort in the Chromium OS development to decouple the browser from the window manager to make them standalone components (it seems to have succeeded in fact: mus+ash), now I'm not sure if it's actually possible to Frankenstein a "real" desktop environment to replace or exist alongside Aura shell, but the point still doesn't make much sense.
When I use ChromeOS, I am limited. By Google
Meh, you're limited by the product's features, if GNOME allowed as little customization (wink wink) you'd say the same, now that's not to say that Google doesn't force its vision on the user and that Chromium isn't an open source project that is more or less closed in on itself, but it could always adopt some features inspired from other projects, some will never be there of course, namely extensions or "applets".
The bit about modifying the Linux code is to say you can't run a a built-from-source version of the kernel or DE, like you could do with Fedora or Ubuntu or Arch or distro.
The bit about "now more than ever" is because by separating the browser and OS (Lacros) it's no longer the browser-based OS we've always known it to be. Now it's Google Linux with Chrome browser (Linux And Chrome OS).
Okay, aboutchromebooks.com