Google has unveiled a whole lot of new Chrome OS devices today – mostly laptops – but there’s also a small Chromecast-like dongle that you can slip into any HDMI port and turn that display into a full-on Chrome OS machine. It’s only $99, which puts it right into impulse-buy territory.
One of the laptops is a convertible with a touchscreen, which seems odd at first because Chrome OS isn’t really built with touch in mind. It starts to make more sense, however, when you combine with the news that Google is opening up the App Runtime for Chrome to all Android developers, allowing them to get their Android applications ready for Chrome OS.
It seems Google’s vision for Chrome OS and Android is becoming clear. A few years from now, Chrome OS or Android will be a distinction without a difference for most people.
ChromeOS provides proper support for USB peripherals, input devices, and floating multiwindow support for desktop/laptop form factors thanks to the GNU/Linux base. Android provides touchscreen support and hundreds of thousands of mostly CPU architecture independent apps. It’s a good match, and once it gets going it would be a compelling alternative to Windows for 11″-13″ laptops assuming that Google doesn’t remove the ability to turn off the keylogger in Chrome.
EDIT: ChromeOS also provides proper driver support for various USB-Serial chipsets, you just need to put the device into developer mode to get root for read/write access to /dev/ttyUSB*. Hopefully there will be a less kludgy way of doing this in the future.
EDIT 2: Found the API: https://developer.chrome.com/apps/serial
Found an app: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beagle-term/gkdofhllgfohld…
Edited 2015-03-31 22:02 UTC
ChromeOS could start to make sense if/when it could run android apps. As it stands, it really is an answer to a question that’s never been asked.
Tried a few ChromeOS netbook things. Didn’t like it. Just didn’t see the appeal tbh. It’s like a laptop that can’t do normal laptop stuff. A laptop that needs to be online all the time.
… Anyway …
All IMHO of course. No offense to ChromeOS users and all that.
I bought a Chromebook, mainly for the price (sub ^Alb200). But I’m not a regular user, I like to tinker with things. I’ve installed Ubuntu and Gentoo on my Chromebook to have a normal laptop experience, but in the end I settled with ChromeOS with Crouton. This basically means running ChromeOS with Ubuntu on a chroot. Or, in other words, ChromeOS with Ctrl+Alt+F1 and Ubuntu with Ctrl+Alt+F3.
I don’t use my laptop as my workstation, it’s just a gadget that’s available when I’m at home. I found that normal ChromeOS is fine for most of what I want to do (browser + SSH), but then I have the power of a full GNU/Linux distribution that I can use to fire up Skype or even play a quick round of Counter-Strike on Steam. The only thing I miss is a full keyboard, really.
But I agree, ChromeOS itself needs the Android runtime to be seriously serious for non-techy guys.
I thought about getting one to tinker with, but they weren’t really any cheaper than a netbook here, so i didn’t immediately see the appeal.
I’ve seen crouton in action, and it is a good way to get more out of the hardware. The only downside is that you are stuck with the shipped kernel and losing what little memory ChromeOS uses. Not that that’s a big deal.
If i could run android apps on it, i might be interested enough to buy one, but then again … i can run android apps on an android tablet …
I don’t think it will be easy for google to really place ChromeOS where it needs to be. As i said, at least to me, it feels like an answer to a question that’s never been asked. Adding an android runtime to it would make it more useful, sure, but then again … adding an android runtime to a fully fledged laptop/netbook/ultrawhatever running linux would be a lot more useful still.
care-o-meter: meh
From the article, it sounds like they’re gonna open it up so Android devs can port apps to it. Question is, what all is involved with this process? Is it just recompiling with a couple of additional flags, or does it require a lot of voodoo to get working?
I guess UI scaling would be one of the things to consider. ChromeOS is windowed, android is full screen.
Input/user interaction would be another area of concern, i think. Almost all android devices are touch based. Android itself is heavily touch oriented. Most apps have UIs designed for touch rather than a pointing device.
This could go either way. Google could set the reference design for these new ChromeOS devices to have a touch screen, or it could tell the devs to adapt the interface to a pointer device for ChromeOS.
Then, hack one. Upgrade the storage, install 1 or more Linux Desktops and enjoy a affordable GNU/Linux Desktop. I just upgraded a Acer c910 and it is a fast machine with 12hr battery life (when not playing video), and running full Linux desktop side by side with the Crouton project (Google supported), jumping between ChromeOS and a full system is easy, or if you don’t like that idea setup a dual boot. Fire up WINE or Virtualbox and run Windows Apps, too!
Edited 2015-03-31 23:57 UTC
Althought that is a good way to get more out of a chromebook, it doesn’t make financial sense.
A netbook will cost you about as much as a chromebook here.
I might be interested in getting an ARM based one just to satisfy my inner geek, but i still don’t think it’s worth it.
In Australia a proper Windows 11″ laptop is usually 10-20% less than a Chromebook.
Then, i guess a chromebook would be a rare sight in the land of Oz.
The fact that the cheaper windows laptop can run chrome just fine, and still do other stuff, remaining useful without an internet connection … well … it’s a no-brainer really.
I’d get the windows laptop, wipe it, and install linux.
The only attraction to the chromebooks is that in some models, the hardware is pretty cool. An ARM powered netbook thing has a certain appeal to a geek like me.
…
But not enough to buy one.
I’ve never seen one outside a JB Hifi store. They were OK 18 months ago when they were just cheap standard laptops without the Windows tax.
It makes sense to me. many people wanted ipads/tablets just to have a simple low cost,casual web device with great battery life. Chromebooks are that, with a keyboard.
i’ve seen windows 8.1 on my parent’s laptop that is specced much higher than my chromebooks and there’s no way windows 8.1 can touch the performance of a chromebook. And 8.1 annoys them compared to xp/win they had before.
Google learned that people demand more from their systems than simply web apps, hence the push to port Android apps, especially when full Windows netbooks like the HP Stream are just as cheap.
BTW, this Android app porting initiative isn’t limited to ChromeOS and works on OS X, Proper Linux, and Windows
http://archon-runtime.github.io/
Archlinux even has a package for this and with it you can simply download x86 APK packages, double-click them and the Android program launches. ARM apps still seem to need the Genymotion VM w/ Libhoudini ARM translation layer, though.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/archon/
Edited 2015-04-01 06:19 UTC
For everyone asking for Android Apps on ChromeOS, Google is already doing working on that.
Getting Started with ARC (App Runtime for Chrome)
https://developer.chrome.com/apps/getstarted_arc
Google now lets developers bring any Android app to Chrome OS
http://liliputing.com/2015/03/google-now-lets-developers-bring-any-…
Run Android apps in Chrome OS, Windows, OS X, or Linux using ARC Welder Chrome app
http://liliputing.com/2015/04/run-android-apps-in-chrome-os-windows…
What will be interesting is when the full Android stack is available on Chrome which will mean running Microsoft Office for Android on ChromeOS – the big question is whether Microsoft will allow that to happen or will they impose an artificial limitation to protect their Windows dominance in the marketplace
Well what else can they do with it?
Building the perfect platform for creating web apps and android apps is a good thing. Microsoft does this for ages and Apple as well.
I’m not sure what is taking them so long to do this.
Even games can run now in a browser (not at highest quality but still decent enough).