
All Chromebooks will also be Linux laptops going forward - CrankyBear
https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-chromebooks-will-also-be-linux-laptops-going-forward/
======
p1mrx
There's a still a big catch: normally, when a computer "runs Linux", you can
keep installing new Linux distros until the hardware dies, which could be
decades in the future.

Chromebooks reach "end of life" after a few (edit: ≤ 6.5) years, effectively
becoming software-defined garbage:
[https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366](https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366)

You can install Linux on _some_ Chromebooks, but it's often a lot of work to
disable the "press Space to erase your operating system" prompt. It would be
better if all EoL Chromebooks received an update to disable secure boot,
because secure boot stops being secure when it boots you to an unpatchable OS.

~~~
somerandomness
Macs considered obsolete after 7 years [https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT201624](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624)

~~~
ilikehurdles
Those vintage macbook pros are still getting OS and software updates. Hardly
"software-defined garbage". I have a 2012 retina that's still chugging along
perfectly. Battery life is down from when I bought it, sure, but there's still
enough juice for a few hours of unplugged work.

~~~
igreulich
I use a mid 2009 Core 2 Duo. I replaced the battery on it ~6 months ago. I
also installed Mojave on it, and with the exception of a weird quirk where
apps that do not live in the Dock do not disappear from it when you close the
app, it runs fine.

It is essentially a Hackintosh, albeit a legal one, as the hardware is Apple
hardware.

I do dev work on it, though it is ruby and/or javascript, not a lot of true
compiling happening. But it works well.

I'd love it to be officially supported, but I mean you have to draw the line
somewhere.

Edit: I forgot to mention the SSD I put in it, or the RAM I maxed out. ( _I_
did the upgrade work, I was not about to pay the premium for Apple to do it.)

~~~
sersnth
> I replaced the battery on it ~6 months ago.

Where did you purchase the battery from, and how is the performance, if you do
not mind me asking?

I also use a mid 2009 Core 2 duo, but lately I have struggled to find a source
for a battery that will last more that 1.5 hours in typical usage. I assume
the issue is that any authentic Apple battery must have been manufactured so
long ago that its capacity is severely degraded after having been stored (at
non-ideal temperature) for so long, and it seems like even many third party
batteries available are old and had inferior capacity to begin with.

~~~
igreulich
I assumed the same.

I bought the battery from iFixit[1], and I am back to the original of
4ish-5ish hours.

[1] [https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-
Unibody...](https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-
Mid-2009-Mid-2010-Replacement-Battery/IF161-105?o=4)

------
i_am_proteus
> A Chromebook with all three operating systems running at once is also darn
> useful for an ordinary Jane or Joe. For example, I can edit images using
> Linux GIMP and write with LibreOffice Writer while looking at pictures using
> Android Pinterest and simultaneously check my Gmail in Chrome OS. It's all
> good.

For example, I can edit images using Linux GIMP and write with LibreOffice
Writer while looking at pictures using Firefox on Linux and simultaneously
check my Gmail in Firefox on Linux. It's all good.

~~~
jklinger410
ChromeOS adding almost zero value here.

Faster Gapps? Kinda. The explorer is better for drive files, for sure. Can
unlock with my Android phone. Cool, I guess?

Can't think of any other reason to boot to ChromeOS.

~~~
Osiris
No local state. You can do a full wipe then login and all your settings, apps,
data are there (because they are in the cloud, not the device). Wipe your
Linux partition and tell me how long until you have your computer back to how
you had it.

Also, I love Chrome OS for my kids laptops because I don't have to worry about
viruses or malware. In the case, I purposefully want a less feature rich OS.

~~~
fenwick67
The first paragraph sounds like you are describing using Firefox sync or
chrome with a Google login.

~~~
jethro_tell
Not really, because you can factory reset, cross a border and log back in in
10 minutes and everything is up to speedish.

It's not your threat model but it's someone's threat model and a chromebook
does that better than anyone else, and your mom can do it.

~~~
redwards510
Does that really appease border guards? If you present a blank laptop they
would probably get very suspicious, since you are obviously trying to hide
something. They would probably make you log in and sync before they let you
enter the country. The whole point is to search your online life, if you don't
let them do that, you don't get in.

~~~
komali2
> Does that really appease border guards?

Doesn't matter, you've protected your clients, that's what matters.

The worst case scenario is they seize it and prevent entry, which can happen
with a blank or non-blank machine. Better it happens with a blank one.

> They would probably make you log in and sync before they let you enter the
> country.

This would be where you just don't enter the country. In the other scenario,
you don't get in and they get to keep the machine anyway.

~~~
solarkraft
That assumes the laws regarding this are humane and border guards follow them,
which are both untrue of lots of countries, including the USA.

~~~
jethro_tell
you don't have to sync to your main account? You guys are way over thinking
this.

------
carlosdp
I think a lot of people underestimate how cool this actually is. I use a
Pixelbook now as a main dev device (used to use a Mac like everyone else in
the valley).

With Linux in ChromeOS, this thing now runs basically 3 OSs (Chrome/Web PWAs,
Android, Linux) in one environment. What this means is that I open my app
drawer, and I see app icons I can launch. I don't know or care what actual OS
those apps are running on! It could be a PWA or an android app or a linux app
and it works and runs the same as any of the other apps. All without
compromising on the security isolation benefits of ChromeOS.

~~~
millstone
Do you actually not know what OS those apps are running on? Aren't there
extremely stark and obvious differences between the three classes of apps?

~~~
wffurr
Sometimes only if you look for small details. The ChromeOS launcher mixes
Chrome Apps, bookmarks, PWAs, and Android apps with only a small badge to
differentiate if you have multiple of the same app (e.g. Keep Chrome app and
Keep for Android).

~~~
millstone
But once they're running, don't they look and behave very differently? The
last time I tried Android Firefox on ChromeOS, it had to quit to resize its
window.

~~~
samuraiseoul
They don't really behave or look all that different. When was the last time
you ran an Android app on ChromeOs? The original attempt that ChromeOs made at
getting Android apps on ChromeOs back in 2015 or whatever was scrapped because
it was buggy and had the sort of problems you describe.

------
umvi
My $150 (Acer) chromebook has lasted me 5 years (and counting) and is still
just as fast as the day I bought it.

My $1500 macbook pro that I bought at the same time got noticeably more
sluggish over the years by comparison, and I've had to bring it in for repairs
twice for hardware failures (once for hard drive cable, once for HDD itself) -
I sold the MBP last year and bought a Lenovo.

Truly amazing. With this change, I could probably even get rid of the Lenovo
and just have a single Chromebook for all my needs since all I really used the
MBP for was the unixy CLI.

~~~
rockostrich
>once for hard drive cable, once for HDD itself

Considering that the Acer Chromebook probably has flash memory, I don't see
how this is a fair comparison. I have a 2012 Macbook Air and Macbook Pro that
have had no issues. The Macbook Air is my general around the house laptop and
the MBP is used as a Plex box. Still do everything I need them to do and the
only issue is the battery life of the Macbook Air since it's gone through way
too many charge cycles.

~~~
umvi
So why is that Acer is able to afford an SSD in a $150 computer, but Apple
can't afford an SSD in a $1500 computer? Heck, Apple _still_ doesn't have SSDs
in their latest gen (2019) iMacs...

~~~
rockostrich
The Acer is probably flash memory, not an SSD. The $1500 iMac has a "1 TB
fusion drive" which is apparently a hybrid of flash memory and an HDD (and all
iMacs have the option to be configured with an SSD). I have no idea why they
don't have it by default. They probably have a bunch of data that shows that
the main consumers of iMacs don't know the difference or don't care. I'm just
pointing out that your comparison was not genuine because you compared a
problem with a component on one laptop that the other doesn't have.

~~~
umvi
I as a consumer don't care if the comparison is apples to apples at a
component level.

I am doing a high level comparison between laptop computers. One has been fast
and reliable, the other has not. One was 10x more expensive than the other.

I don't care if the MBP had a quantum drive from the year 3000. If my user
experience with it is worse than a Chromebook, I'm not buying another one.

------
3xblah
This is arguably a deceptive title. Why not something more clear such as, "All
Chromebooks will now support containers." Chromebooks are already running a
modified Gentoo Linux kernel. They are already "Linux" laptops.

Chromebook users currently employ chroots to run non-Chromium userlands from
Debian, Arch, etc. Ideally, they would like to run their own kernel, usually
one they get in binary form from those public distributions such Debian, Arch,
etc., but also kernels they compile themselves.

It is possible (=good) but still a pain to install one's own kernel on a
Chromebook. The Google Corporation could, but is not, making that any easier.

Instead, what is happening here is that they are adding support for
containers. Chromebook is still running Google's modified kernel.

Pure coincidence I am sure, but looking at how Microsoft is marketing using
the term "Linux" we see the same thing. They like to use the word "Linux", but
the user is still running a proprietary kernel. In that case, it is the
Windows kernel.

Linux is a kernel. If you cannot compile it yourself and easily install it on
your laptop, then whose "Linux laptop" is it, really? The issue is one of
control.

~~~
hedora
This is definitely a deceptive title.

It implies Google is working to make sure third party Linux distros work
reasonably, presumably by backporting their fixes and mandating OSS drivers,
and easy dev mode support.

From what I can tell, none of those things are true.

------
wanderfowl
One thing to remember is that as of a month or so ago, there are serious
limitations on the functionality of Linux apps. For instance, accessing your
Google Drive files with Linux isn't straightforwardly possible, and another
big one for me being that Linux apps cannot record audio. Additionally,
backing up the Linux partition wasn't straightforward and wasn't a part of the
normal 'Powerwash it and it restores' backup element of ChromeOS.

I tried to use this to reduce my dependence on a MBP, but found a number of
these little gaps that just couldn't quite be filled. I'm hoping these get
improved with time, but as of right now, it's promising, but not delivered.

~~~
andrewmutz
It is rapidly improving. Relating to two of the items you mentioned: In just
the last few months they added cloud backups for linux containers, and linux
access for your google drive.

I switched from the mac for my full-time machine a few months ago and have
been blown away.

It does two things really well and securely: web browsers and linux. These are
the two things I need to do my job.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
Completely agree. I switched full time to a Pixelbook from Mac after getting
frustrated with the new Macbooks (hate the touchbar, and a Macbook with a
stuck key is basically an unusable computer).

One more thing to add is that they just added the ability for Linux apps to
output audio in the latest stable release, so don't think recording would be
too far away, although that has greater security issues of course.

------
mattlondon
I've been doing this for a little while on a cheapo chromebook.

It works, but it is brutally slow and clunky (this is on a 2018 entry-level
intel celeron n3350 + 4gb ram chromebook) to run something like firefox. It is
usable, but you'll get frustrated fairly fast.

Unfortunately the same can be said about the chromebook in general - have more
than one browser tab open on a javascript heavy page (e.g. large google doc +
gmail + calendar) and its really slow there too anyway so I guess I cant hope
for much.

I feel like web apps have got significantly more complex, while the compute in
the entry level chromebooks has more or less stagnated over the past few
years. Just doesn't feel like there is enough power to make things comfortable
and seamless to use. I've used a couple of intel i5/i7 chromebooks and they've
been lovely to use with snappy performance, but the price for that performance
is approaching/exceeding that of a "real" laptop (sometimes wildly exceeding
the price of a normal windows laptop, or even a mac for the case of Google's
chromebooks) so it kinda defeats the point in my mind.

I used to recommend chromebooks to all non-tech savvy people who asked me
(parents, relatives, friends etc), now I hesitate to do so because the
performance is just not there unless you really pay huge sums.

~~~
omgwtfbyobbq
The script heavy stuff in general is a pain in my experience. I have a 2995U +
4gb ram chromebook that just runs Arch, and gmail/drive/etc are crazy slow.
Even scrolling through the newest stuff on thingiverse for an hour with
however many loaded images is faster than some of google's pages/apps. On the
plus side, Firefox seems to handle 50-100+ loaded tabs well as long as there
isn't too much stuff going on with them.

~~~
sosodev
What's your Arch setup? You might want to fiddle with some of the settings in
Firefox to try and get more hardware acceleration.

~~~
omgwtfbyobbq
Thanks for the heads up! I enabled layout.display-list.retain (two other
options related to HW acceleration were already enabled), and it might be
faster, but I'm not sure about that.

------
ufo
One thing I never quite understood is why is it so hard to install a regular
GNU/Linux distro on a chromebook. Why is it not possible to just put a liveUSB
in the USB port and install it like you would on any personal computer?

~~~
kevsprk
Chromebooks use Coreboot firmware with a specialized payload called
Depthcharge. This bootloader is customized for ChromiumOS and doesn't boot
Linux/Windows.

To install Linux/Windows on a Chromebook, you have to flash this firmware,
usually replacing it with Coreboot with the Tianocore payload, which is a
bootloader capable of booting other OS's. (MrChromeBox supplies this custom
firmware for lots of devices)

~~~
djsumdog
Yea I feel like this article is pretty misleading. It would be better if
Google officially supported removing the entire ChromeOS and doing a full
install of any Linux distro you want. This isn't really running Linux on your
Chromebook. It's running a chroot of another distro under their Linux
kernel/GUI layer. It's pretty different.

~~~
seabrookmx
It's not even a chroot. That's how crouton works. Crostini, the google
provided solution, actually runs all the "containers" under a KVM virtual
machine. So it's even more abstracted.

------
addicted
I haven’t really used Chromebooks, so this is a genuine question, and not
meant to be rhetorical.

In a 3 OS ChromeBook, what does ChromeOS bring to the table that Linux and
Android don’t already cover?

~~~
tpush
Hardware acceleration for video so the battery doesn't die a quick and noisy
death (like with Chrome or Firefox on a normal Linux distribution).

~~~
jzymbaluk
This has been the big difference for me of using a Chromebook+Crostini vs
installing Linux on a typical PC. The battery life on the chromebook just
lasts forever and is buttery smooth out of the box while the laptops with
linux installed have always had markedly worse battery life than when running
their intended OS in my experience.

~~~
notimetorelax
Same contrast between a very powerful Windows laptop and a chrome book.
Windows still feels choppy compared to the chrome book.

------
cameronbrown
This might be good news for Linux-on-the-desktop (indirectly). People have
said for years the thing needed most is app support for high-end workloads
like gaming and creative (think Adobe suite). I can't think of any use case
beyond these, 90% of other stuff can be done in a web browser, and I'd say
legacy software is the only exception.

There's developer mindshare, but I'm not convinced there's much of a business
case. I'd say the intersection of high-end Chromebooks and users who'd do
gaming/video editing/etc.. on one, is asymptotically small.

~~~
sneak
Premiere/FCPX, After Effects, and Photoshop are not “legacy software” - but
you covered those.

There are also lots of CAD/CAM tools that do not, and likely will never, run
in browser.

I’d love a web-based version of IDA.

We’re still a ways off; 90% there is still a half day of work each week that I
simply can’t do on iOS/browser/ChromeOS. For that stuff I need a “real
computer”, and will for the foreseeable future.

It would be nice if iOS got a yellowbox, for example - running a desktop os x
sandbox on my iPad Pro for the stuff that won’t ever switch would be really
useful.

ChromeOS adding Linux in a VM was a brilliant move.

~~~
cameronbrown
CAD tools are a fair point, but those seem much more niche than video games
and creative. I'd assume that industry uses high end workstations anyway, and
not laptops?

I'm definitely excited to see how this goes.

~~~
sneak
I truly don’t mean this as snark, but pretty much everyone who builds anything
physical uses CAD.

They are as “niche” as image editors, or compilers, which is to say: not at
all. Pretty much every object in your current field of view was likely
designed with CAD, unless you live in an old house or have vintage furniture.

------
jt2190
Video of the talk:

Linux for Chromebooks, (A.K.A Crostini): Secure Development

presented by Sudha Broslawsky, Tom Buckley, and Dylan Reid at Google I/O 2019

[https://youtu.be/pRlh8LX4kQI](https://youtu.be/pRlh8LX4kQI)

Some technical details:

* Container: Crostini (default is Debian 9)

* Guest: Termina VM: LXD [1], Linux Kernel

* Host: CrOS: crosvm, Linux Kernel

Drivers are run in "minijails" to minimize exposure.

Files are shared from container to OS via 9P [2]. Google is calling theirs
"9S"

Edit: I think this in-depth document may be up to date: "Running Custom
Containers Under Chrome OS"
[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/c...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/containers_and_vms.md)

[1] from Canonical, see
[https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/](https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9P_(protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9P_\(protocol\))

------
bArray
If I understand this correctly it's just running Debian in a VM/container? I
quite like the Chromebook hardware but I don't want to run ChromeOS (and
whatever data collection crap-ware they run), when can we just install any OS
we want?

~~~
acolumb
IIRC Chromium OS doesn't collect the data the way the closed-source Chrome OS
does. It's a great OS for getting work done (on Gapps, of course.)

Debian (and all other userspace-run operating systems) are in a container.

------
xiii1408
This is great news! Chromebooks are dirt cheap and for the most part have
amazing build quality and keyboards for the price point. I just can't stand
the flimsy plastics and hinges of most "normal" laptops at that price.

I used Arch Linux on a Toshiba Chromebook 2 as a primary laptop for about two
years, but eventually moved away from it because my bootloader got un-blessed
due to the battery zero'ing out, and I didn't want to deal with it.

I guess Chromebooks are back on my radar!

~~~
toast0
If you're not planning to run Chrome OS, I'd definitely recommend making the
effort to flash a 3rd party bootrom from
[https://mrchromebox.tech/](https://mrchromebox.tech/) or the no longer
updating [https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-
download...](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/)

I had better luck with booting FreeBSD on an Acer C720; but I think Mr.
Chromebox's bioses keep getting better and better.

~~~
xiii1408
Thanks for the rec!

I unfortunately decided to install RW_LEGACY years ago when I set it up. It's
now in a weird state where it has SeaBIOS installed but legacy boot is
disabled. From what I've read, I need to boot into a Chrome OS recovery to
enable legacy boot, which should allow everything to work. But I haven't been
able to find a simple Chrome OS recovery shell image for me to boot into, so
I'm kind of stuck rn.

~~~
toast0
From this state, I would try a full Chrome OS recovery [1], which I believe
will put the firmware back to stock (especially if write protect is disabled),
and then start again with the 3rd party scripts. Alternatively, I think I've
seen instructions [2] for reflashing the bios using a different device, but I
haven't screwed things up that much yet :D

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-
recover...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-
utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai) instructions here:
[https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en](https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en)

[2]
[https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking](https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking)

------
sandworm101
Incorrect title. A "linux latop" is a laptop running linux as its OS. These
are chromebooks that allow the user to also run linux, but they are still
chromebooks. Their definitive feature, the bit that cannot be removed, is that
they run as chromebooks.

Title should read "All Chromebooks will also run linux on demand". They aren't
linux laptops.

~~~
jdietrich
ChromeOS is a Linux distro. If you're going to be pedantic, the title should
read "Chromebooks have always been Linux laptops, but now they also run a
sandboxed version of Debian".

------
dontbenebby
Why not just... run linux... instead of running linux in a VM on Chrome OS?

(Or if you like having separate VMs for separate stuff, support Qubes?)

This is cool and a step in the right direction but I'd still prefer to Just
Run Linux

~~~
aeroevan
You can (and I do), but it requires disabling the verified boot process that
makes Cromebook security so nice.

~~~
dontbenebby
> You can (and I do), but it requires disabling the verified boot process that
> makes Cromebook security so nice.

Thanks I did not consider this point. Being able to trust your device is
important.

I'd love to read more if you know of any resources - evil maids remain the
chink in the armor for even the most privacy conscious :)

~~~
aeroevan
Sorry for the late reply, but
[https://mrchromebox.tech/](https://mrchromebox.tech/) has most of the
information. That and /r/chrultrabook/ and maybe a few other subreddits.

~~~
dontbenebby
Thanks, looks interesting!

------
jasonhansel
Can we now say that open source OS kernels have, officially, beaten
proprietary ones? Even Windows has a Linux compatibility layer. This would
have been unimaginable 10 years ago, when Linux desktops were far from
mainstream.

~~~
freehunter
That heavily depends on the definition of "beaten", and also what "open source
kernels" actually means in context. A compatibility layer means little,
considering Linux has had a Windows compatibility layer far longer than vice
versa. And does an open source kernel matter much when the userland is closed
source and proprietary? Or when the apps are closed source and proprietary? Or
when computing shifts to a closed source and proprietary Internet environment?

------
beat
It's been working on older Chromebooks, too. I have a crappy three year old
ARM-based Samsung that has followed along with the OS upgrades, as Chromebooks
do. I now do a fair bit of development in its terminal (and more by ssh into a
DigitalOcean VM).

I often think of getting a more muscular Intel-based Chromebook as a general-
purpose development box.

------
TelmoMenezes
I apologize in advance for going a bit off-topic, but I would like to point
out the following:

It is never necessary, and always inelegant, to write or say "going forward".
Also, it stinks of corporate-speak.

The English language already has a future tense, and this bit of redundancy
makes sentences sound more contrived and clunky. Simple rule of style for
writing: if you can remove something and keep the meaning intact, remove it.
No regrets. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication".

~~~
freehunter
What would you use in its place? If you just said "All Chromebooks will also
be Linux laptops", it's reasonable to expect that existing Chromebooks will be
made Linux-ready as well. That's what the word "all" means, it means "all".
But that's not the case. Only devices "launched this year" are guaranteed to
be Linux-ready according to the article.

"Going forward" means "from now on, but not including the past". Going forward
is a much easier way of saying "from now on, but not including the past". I'm
willing to accept that there is a better way, but I'd like to hear what that
is. And it can't just be dropping the words "going forward", for the reason
I've already explained.

~~~
TelmoMenezes
> If you just said "All Chromebooks will also be Linux laptops", it's
> reasonable to expect that existing Chromebooks will be made Linux-ready as
> well.

Adding "going forward" does not remove this ambiguity. You just happen to know
the correct answer. I still assumed that existing ones would also be Linux-
ready, until I read your comment.

> "Going forward" means "from now on, but not including the past".

No, it just means "from now on". It has the exact same meaning as the future
tense.

Your comment confirms something I suspected: unnecessary linguistic mannerisms
and corporate clichés are a symptom of confused thinking.

Going forward, I will add this to my list of arguments. But not in my past
discussions.

------
linuxftw
Running linux in a vm is not running linux. It's still locked down hardware
with proprietary drivers. Google can forget about my support.

EDIT: s/container/vm/

------
jammygit
> Linux on Chromebook laptops is not a dual-boot operation. You're running
> both operating systems simultaneously. That means, for example, you can do
> things like clicking on a document file via the Chrome OS file manager and
> open it with LibreOffice -- without even starting a Linux session.

Disappointed they agent just really good Linux laptops where we can wipe
chromeOS off of.

~~~
saagarjha
You can do this if you want, and you can dual-boot them as well.

------
petilon
This breaks the security benefits of Chromebooks. One of the advantages of
Chromebooks is that hackers can't persuade naive users to download and run
binaries.

Previously a company could issue Chromebooks to all employees and know that
employees can't run arbitrary binaries on their Chromebooks.

~~~
cbolton
Companies can disable the support for Linux apps, and the security measures
taken to isolate Linux apps from Chrome OS are excellent (Linux apps are
running in an unprivileged container inside a VM that has a stripped down
kernel).

There's definitely an increased attack surface inside the VM, but that's kind
of unavoidable if you want to have a development environment (what this is
marketed for). At least Chrome OS offers a secure way to isolate your
development environment from your email/banking/etc processes.

~~~
petilon
Previously the CEO only had to ask, are all of my employees using ChromeBooks?
Now he also has to ask, are those ChromeBooks all configured for security? It
used to be a simple question, which could be answered at a glance. The new
question is an order of magnitude harder to answer.

~~~
cbolton
Not that hard since it's a simple switch by the administrator in the company
device policy:
[https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1375678?hl=en](https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1375678?hl=en)
(See "Virtual Machines")

Such a step was already necessary to disable Android apps.

------
navinsylvester
I wanted to try chrome os a month or so back with android and linux support
enabled but had hell of a time. Google seems to be very restrictive on where
they get to run with all goodies. Google chromebook partners weren't even
allowing experimental features to be tried on their platform so had to pick an
Intel NUC to have the freedom.

It all worked out fine with fyde os(chrome os flavor by a chinese company
recently acquired by neverware) but with some tinkering to reset language to
English and to disable fyde os sync/login with google.

I have stopped using chrome due to privacy concerns and would never use chrome
os with a google login. It was just an engineers itch to see how i can break
free from restrictive hardware platform and get it working.

------
newnewpdro
Since when does running Linux in a VM make a machine a Linux machine?

This same charade is being done by Microsoft with WSL2.

In both cases it serves to usurp future Linux-on-metal users by giving them a
convenient virtualized Linux environment, and we all suffer as a result while
Linux's hardware support rots away.

It will only be a matter of time before nobody can run Linux directly on
consumer machines, and there will always be a proprietary hypervisor in
control and your privacy and security compromised.

Resist this and insist continuing to run Linux on bare metal, retain control
over your general purpose computing.

------
Ajedi32
Now all they need to do is integrate Wine and Proton, and Chrome OS will be
able to easily run games and applications from 4 different operating systems.

~~~
dredmorbius
What is Proton?

~~~
saagarjha
It’s Steam’s Wine derivative:
[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton)

------
bigtunacan
When I saw this topic I got all excited. Then I read the article and realized
that it's dual running with Chrome OS and we are limited to certain versions
of Linux without the same old headaches that have always been there.

I honestly just want a cheap reliable laptop that I can install the Linux
distro of my choice (usually Kali for doing pen-testing).

------
prolepunk
Is it still possible to boot from usb stick, blow Chrome OS away and install
proper linux distro?

Like on a normal computer.

~~~
saagarjha
Yes. You can also dual boot. This requires disabling verified boot, though.

------
fc_barnes
Will someone please enable some magic sysrq functionality on machines with
reduced keyboards?

This is coming from a person who has had to open up his Chromebook and unplug
the battery internally when it inevitably crapped itself from OOM and was
nonresponsive to any key press.

------
chrisdfrey
One advantaage to dual booting is you can get hardware acceleration, which you
don't currently get with Linux apps in ChromeOS (though they are working on
it).

Another is that most chromebooks have 4gb of ram which isn't much for running
a VM on top of an OS.

~~~
ewoodrich
Hardware acceleration is working fine on the Dev channel with a flag.
Shouldn't be too long before it's on by default and available on stable.

------
unnouinceput
If you can't beat them, join them. Seems this is the move Google does on
Linux. Well, "f" that, I want my Linux to be Linux and not some wolf in sheep
clothes from Google. So no Chromebook for me...ever.

------
jancsika
A Linux laptop that _forces_ the user to log into Google in order to use their
Linux laptop.

Am I correct? I can't imagine I'm not since there's no way ChromeOS's security
model would work otherwise.

~~~
iams-
No. You're not correct. All chromebooks can be run in guest mode which
requires no login at all. Google has a long-standing bounty on the security of
guest-mode.

~~~
jancsika
So we've redefined "Linux laptop" to mean a system that returns to the base
Debian install any time I log out or reboot?

On the other hand, Chromebooks are cheap. So it might be a fun exercise to
post a script on github that installs my development environment packages.

------
ipsum2
All Chromebooks and Chrometops are already Linux laptops. You can install
Crouton (easy chroot) and have an Ubuntu or whatever your favorite distro is
in <15 minutes.

~~~
carlosdp
Sure, but now it's literally just a button click and it's in the same
environment as ChromeOS, no need to reboot to switch between.

~~~
bduerst
Also native file sharing between the linux containers and ChromeOS.

------
city41
Does ChromeOS have any kind of window tiling solution? My dream is a
Chromebook with all my Linux apps and a tiling window manager ala i3.

------
hestefisk
I would like one of these as my daily web surfing machine ... if I were able
to avoid having a Google account to boot the machine.

------
fareesh
If it's as advertised, it would be a pretty compelling purchase. How light is
the typical Chromebook these days?

------
dorfsmay
Will the Linux container be able to access Google drive?

If so, any hope to see Google drive proper support for regular Linux?

------
mastrsushi
All Chromebooks will also be _Linux_ _Container_ _laptops_ going forward

------
btreecat
SJVN pushes out click-bait and relies on speculative wording to peddle his
articles.

------
xmly
It is not competing with windows anymore... It is a killer for macbook...

------
kickingvegas
X11 is never going to die.

~~~
cbolton
This is implemented using Wayland, not X11. I just checked on my Chromebook,
GTK+ apps use Wayland by default, Qt5 apps use X11 by default (through
Xwayland) and look ugly when told to use Wayland. I guess X11 is going to stay
as a compatibility layer, but this won't help it stay to the front.

------
OrgNet
Are they going to port this to Android phones?

------
amelius
Now smartphones too, please.

------
intrasight
One less reason to consider a Mac :)

------
mfatica
Between this and Windows shipping a linux kernel, 2019 really is shaping up to
be the year of the linux desktop

~~~
outside1234
Well Terminal at least.

~~~
guelo
Chromebooks can run GUI linux apps.

~~~
bduerst
Yep. Using the containers to run sublime text and factorio on a chromebook.

------
sonnyblarney
I want to make the leap from Mac to Linux, I'm fairly computer savvy and 'can
handle' Linux, but I'm just wary of missing out on some things. Like some
Adobe products.

Can someone chime in on the viability of Chromebook/Linux as a replacement for
not just dev, but common computing tasks as well as creative work? (Photoshop,
After Effects, editing etc.)

~~~
theparanoid
It's OK with CrossOver for Linux. I ended up just using Krita. If you're a
heavy Adobe user Chromebooks are underpowered (except the Pixel).

