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Now more than ever, ChromeOS is Linux with Google’s desktop environment
(www.aboutchromebooks.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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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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This article is a bit strange
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
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.
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).
That's sad, do you know why that is? Is it that you can't use a generic Linux kernel as a drop-in replacement or that you couldn't even modify the source of the kernel used by ChromiumOS?
And with "Google Linux", do you mean its architecture is fundamentally different from the average distribution to be compatible with software that would otherwise run on it?
Well, you can build and run from source using Chromium. But that doesn't have all the features of ChromeOS, just like AOSP vs what you get on a Pixel phone.
I can't imagine that Google have changed the kernel architecture. I just meant to differentiate that it's their own distribution rather than another Debian derivative or something.
Ah, you're right, the fact that Chrome has stuff not on Chromium is a pretty big deal, a few years ago I tried to use a project that attempted to somehow bridge the gap, I think it was Brunch and it was a pain to get working.
I understand
Not easily, the accessible linux environment is a container that doesn’t give you lower level access. You can do more in developer mode I think.
Traditionally it has been an extremely minimal Linux distro with pretty much everything running in the Chrome process, if you ever looked at the processes that was nearly the only one other than system things. They are trying to separate the base “Linux distro” and the browser more to make it easier to maintain, so the browser will be a normal application.
Interesting, didn't know about the container thing!