Google has been ramping up the Linux environment on Chrome OS lately, with features like microphone support and USB connections. For those of you who spend a lot of time in the command-line Terminal, Chrome OS 83 (currently in the Dev channel) has updated the app with new themes and customization options.
The Terminal app on Chrome OS has changed very little since the Linux container was originally released — it’s a single window with text. However, the new version shipping in Chrome OS 83 offers tabs, pre-made themes, customizable colors and fonts for text, and even cursor options.
To be honest, I’d rather have a proper, traditional Linux distribution than Chrome OS, but I guess these are welcome additions for those among us using the terminal on Chrome OS.
It’d be super nice if we could install this on any hardware. I’d love to play with it, but I’m not buying a machine just for that.
ChromeOS updates eventually filter down/over to Neverware’s Cloudready version of ChromeOS – so if you have a supported non-Chromebook laptop, you could eventually try it. https://www.neverware.com/freedownload
The point of tools like this, WSL, Termux (for Android), and Homebrew/Macports (for Macs) is to bring proper *nix tools to the places the users already are. Many people get Chromebooks from school or work and are required to keep them running ChromeOS. This lets them still get actual work done.
tidux,
That’s an interesting take and in a lot of ways I agree. The hardware, albeit quite low end, is usually not the limiting factor so much as the software environment. Personally I’d much rather have a proper OS, as Thom says, but this could make chromebooks somewhat more useful for terminal users.
Why is it so difficult to explain what it really is? This allows using a GNU environment inside Chrome OS which is already using Linux.
Z_God,
I know it comes down to semantics, but once a product has been sufficiently modified like android or chromebook, it kind of stops being real “linux” to me. It has linux at the core, but it doesn’t look or behave like linux and generally isn’t compatible. For example, software that works on “linux” typically won’t run on an unmodified chromebook. Also a printer that’s officially supported by “linux” and even android will not necessarily work with a chromebook since they do their own thing.
That’s because what you’re calling “Linux” isn’t Linux, it’s GNU/Linux. The FSF and RMS have been harping on this semantic for decades, and the response has always been “everyone knows Linux means GNU/Linux”. That is, until it doesn’t.
The fact that you, and a lot of other folks, chose to ignore it, doesn’t make it something new.
teco.sb,
Obviously I’ve heard that many times, but I’ve given up on the distinction long ago because whether we like it or not most of the time people talking about “linux” really are referring to the whole OS and not just the kernel. I don’t care much about the semantics one way or the other. I’m not pedantic when it comes to the english language and make plenty of mistakes. Heck the spell check even flagged my spelling of “english” just now, but I’m not going to upper case that sucker 🙂 When referring to the kernel specifically it’s best to say “linux kernel”.
There are language scholar types who write dictionaries and emphasize the “proper” usage, but at the end of the day they eventually succumb to common usage by the public who decide what a word actually means in practice. When it comes to “linux” you may be right, but you’re still on the loosing side of the battle not only among laymen, but also in tech circles…
https://chromebook.guide/crouton/
I’m not disagreeing with you, but it’s just not something that bothers me much personally. As for “GNU/Linux”, that’s highly localized to Richard Stallman, I don’t think anybody really calls it that on the street.
I’m just tired of all these “what is old, is new again” sort of arguments about what the name Linux refers to. People have said it about Android back when it first came out, and now people are saying it about WSL and Linux Apps for ChromeOS. I do not consider ChromeOS a Linux distribution, and so, to me, it is not confusing, at all.
Me, personally, when I am speaking I say “Linux”, but still write “GNU/Linux”.
That being said, I’ve always felt like calling it GNU is more accurate than Linux. What we interact with, on a day-to-day basis, is the GNU runtime (Bash, GNOME, Coreutils, etc), not the Linux kernel. But that’s not here nor there.
teco.sb,
I wasn’t trying to rehash anything old, just pointing out my opinion on why I think chromeos is inferior to a full linux os.
After you were being pedantic about my improper use of the word “linux” to mean something other than the kernel, I would have thought that you would say that chromeos *is* a linux distribution since the term linux refers to the underlying kernel only and not other userspace attributes of the OS.
Ok, but then I would expect you to say something like this “I do consider ChromeOS to be a Linux distribution, because it’s based on the linux kernel. However I do not consider ChromeOS to be a GNU distribution, because it’s not based on a GNU runtime”.
So why isn’t chromeos a linux distribution in the same sense that ubuntu is?
Personally, I don’t really care either way; I’m much more interested in tech than pedantics, haha.
Just for fun I looked up “linux” in several dictionaries. Avert your eyes, you aren’t going to be happy with what you are about to read, haha…
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/linux
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/linux
(oh my)
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/linux
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/linux
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/linuxtm?q=linux
So what you call “real Linux” is actually a typical GNU environment? Why put emphasis on the kernel when it’s not the thing that matters to you?
Z_God,
Not quite, I just expect a machine to be fully compatible with everything I’d use on a normal “linux” box. I’ve already given the printer example, and this was a real problem I actually encountered with a chromebook. The printer officially had “linux” support, but wouldn’t run on chromeos. Ergo chromeos is deficient to a real linux computer.
(I’m getting the feeling that my quotes around “linux” are triggering people, but I’ve used them specifically because of the subjectivity surrounding whether one considers chromeos a linux distro or not. If I were speaking aloud, I’d be using air quotes too. I wasn’t trying to make it mean something more. I’ll stop using quotes, but in my head they still belong there…).
I’m not sure if any of this has changed, but another example is something like arduino programming, which is fully supported under general purpose linux operating systems, but on chromeos you had to rely on a stupid arduino-programming-as-a-service web interface.
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=403419.0
You have none of this nonsense on a real linux computer (or windows & mac for that matter). You install the software locally, you install whatever libraries you want locally, you compile locally. I don’t know whether anything has changed recently, but chomeos limitations are bullshit that I want nothing to do with.
Sorry about the profanity, but devices that place limits on computing is what triggers me, haha.
Your examples suggest you want a GNU system. Having GNU is what allows you to run CUPS (Common Unix Printing System, GNU being Unix-compatible). GNU is what your Aduino SDK is compatible with.
What you refer to as “linux” thus appears to mean GNU/Linux given your own examples. I agree that the userland is a very important aspect of a GNU/Linux system as it is relevant compatibility wise.
Z_God,
Chromebooks are not compatible with the same software or hardware. This is why I don’t consider chromebooks as good as other linux desktops.
Also, “GNU” needs to be put in quotes too because many unix-like operating systems are not using GNU userland tools. My own linux distro uses busybox for example, similar, but the semantics are not universal.
Given how almost alpha-quality Android apps run on ChromeOS and how sandboxed Linux runs, I gave up on ChromeOS. I didn’t give up on my one of my Chromebooks though (a Samsung Chromebook Pro, but sold the Pixelbook because it was worth more on eBay). After removing the write protect screw from the CB Pro, I learned it makes a great, light, Linux laptop with a very nice screen and build quality 😀
samcrumugeon,
Some of the chromebook hardware looks fine and I’ve though about getting one for here to install ubuntu, but I know there are some caveats and I wasn’t sure if I’d ultimately regret it. Since you have experience I’d like to ask you, are there any negatives running a normal linux distro on a chromebook? In your opinion is there any reason to prefer a normal laptop once you’ve replaced chomeos? Are there any limitations that you know of?
I wouldn’t buy a high end chromebook, but on the low end there are some real bargains compared to laptops that have really gone up in price. It seems like regular laptops are MIA in low budget laptop categories and there are times when I want a portable computer for a project but I don’t need a powerful CPU.