ChromeOS is just spyware that’s eye candy.
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.
There is a common understanding of what a Linux Desktop look like.
Whether you run Gnome, KDE or XFCE, you can install the same software and when you open a terminal you can do more or less the same thing.
ChromeOS however have a completely different user space. A bit like Android, yes it uses the Linux kernel but it’s not what people think about when they talk about a Linux Desktop.
[Insert GNU/Linux interjection copypasta]
[Drama arises between intergnulactic forces]
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?
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.
Chromebooks use some custom tailored coreboot variant, right? Not surprising that they’ve locked it down while they were at it.
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.
deleted by creator
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.
Why would you not be able to? Isn’t a chromebook just a laptop with garbage specs?
There are actually Chromebooks with very solid specs, but no, it isn’t that simple. They have custom firmware and components that often don’t play well with Linux, or Windows for that matter.
Okay, thanks for clearing this up. Chromebooks have turned me off since their inception, I just assumed since they are made by regular laptop companies that they are plain old low-spec machines running a lightweight OS with minimal functionality.
Not always, I have one with an amd chipset that I can’t get Linux on (last time I checked).
You have to open them up and remove a screw then install different firmware.
The dell Chromebook 11 I got from eBay for under £20 was easy to get it working on though.
The absolute last thing I’m going to do is use a Google product.
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
And not spy me across the OS, which it probably will.
there are forks of chromium OS like thoriumOS, I could see an “Ungoogled chromiumOS” being a viable path to go down
IMO you’re just better off using Debian with their DE directly, then. ChromeOS doesn’t provide anything extra, just a different DE.
chromeOS provides a LOT. its very easy to use and quite reliable, and its super easy computer illiterate people to get into.
I have tried most distros, pretty much every single one that claims to be user friendly. not a single one holds a candle to chrome/chromiumOS.
for a lot of people chromeOS is genuinely a good experience that Linux simply cannot replicate. the polish is very much beyond what other distros provide.
When I tried it, it seemed like mostly just Debian with another DE, but maybe I/you haven’t tried it recently enough…
Also,
for a lot of people chromeOS is genuinely a good experience that Linux simply cannot replicate.
It’s literally Linux.
traditional linux distros, sorry thought the implication was obvious.
but the user experience really is different, its been great since my family and old customer base love it and need a lot less help with it
Does anyone actually buy Chromebooks apart from schools?
So sad and unfortunate that we’re indoctrinating children to be spied on.
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.
Some adobe products are way ahead of the competition (patenting useful stuff) and they integrate nicely with each other. I don’t use them out of principle but that’s why people use them.
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’m wondering the same thing. Chromebooks cost way too much for what they are.
Unless you go with “high spec” one they are all basically under £350 and generally way cheaper than that.
Is that not cheap?
That is cheap, but if you go to Google’s own page about Chromebooks, the options you see there are all in regular laptop pricing territory. Does anyone actually buy Pixelbooks or gaming Chromebooks?
yes but no. the pixelbook was by far and away the nicest build quality of any laptop I’ve owned, and the Linux containers has basically made it a normal laptop other than requiring chrome. with that said, I bought it second hand for ~$200 would never have even considered it for its original $1000 or whatever it listed at.
ChromeOS is also the most secure desktop focused os you can get so I usually use it for banking and stuff like that.
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.
Yep, my parents have a few. Way easier than dealing with them installing windows malware constantly or having to maintain Linux for them.
My parents, for whom the internet is the only worthwhile thing a computer can be used for, love their Chromebook
They’d probably love a Linux system not by Google just as much.
You could try Mint, it’s pretty friendly in my experience, the GUI installer (with the full apt and flathub repos) helps, and Mint can support auto updates which will help the non-tech savvy a lot!
You over estimate how tech savvy my folks are. Dad doesn’t even know how to fully shut down the computer
“The button on the computer that also turns it on”
Also, this is exactly why the OS should auto update for people like them, rather than them having to use the updater and fill in their password and whatnot
I bought one used as a Couch PC and replaced ChromeOS with a proper linux install.
Now more than ever, ChromeOS is Linux with
Google’s desktop environmentGoogle spyware and nothing elseYou need another ~ at the beginning and end to get
strikeout.
Hilarious title. Can you install Firefox?
Can you uninstall Chrome?
But that would turn them into books.
Mission accomplished.
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.
That is actually Unity. It’s a mildly modified version used in Ubuntu Unity. Also, Xfce was also misspelled as XCFe.
Unity is GNOME, but it’s the official name of Ubuntu’s customized GNOME.
Unity Is a separate desktop, see Ubuntu Unity
No it’s not, Unity is a separate project that Ubuntu retired, but fans have kept it alive.
It’s “technically” both. Ubuntu called their themeing Unity because that’s the desktop it’s supposed to emulate the style of.
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
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
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”.
And yet an onscreen keyboard for linux apps is still “on the roadmap”…
With wayland this also happens in the rest of linux.
