Cheaper Chromebooks have been giving a tough competition to Microsoft and Apple’s offerings in the classrooms. It looks like Google is now aiming at the developer segment, some of whom have already been using different workarounds to run Linux applications on them.
Chrome OS has now been able to shed its title of a glorified version of Chrome web browser and is ready to take the center stage. Now Google is officially bringing support for Linux applications to Chrome OS. From now on, the company will ship Chrome OS with a custom Debian Stretch virtual machine.
Now, just with an option in the Settings menu, you’ll be able to install and run Linux apps. The installation process will be usual, i.e., using apt-get or other similar commands.
It means that you’ll be able to run full-fledged desktop apps on Chrome OS and complete your development work with ease.
The Linux app window is expected to be based on a customized version Adapta GTK theme, which, obviously, has tons of material design elements in it.
As the work regarding Linux apps on Chrome OS is still in early phase, this functionality is coming only to Google Pixelbook at the moment. With time, this feature will be extended to more devices.
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Check out more interesting stuff from Google I/O 2018.
