A few months ago, Google announced it was going to put Android on laptops (and eventually, desktops), serving as eventual replacements for Chromebooks. Unlike those, though, these new Android laptops wouldn’t be low-quality, cheap, underpowered devices for school children to spill milk on, but devices actually competitive with Windows and macOS laptops. Today, the company finally allowed the press to use these new things.
Google describes Googlebook as a “totally fresh approach to computing,” bringing together Android, ChromeOS, Gemini, and premium laptop hardware from major manufacturers.
The idea is to create a laptop that feels more natural to use for Android phone users while retaining what makes a desktop OS useful, such as a full Chrome browser, desktop apps, a proper file manager, Linux support, and a full terminal environment.
Google is also trying to solve some of the biggest problems Android users have had when moving between their phone and laptop, and make the two devices feel like part of the same ecosystem.
↫ Adamya Sharma at Android Authority
I’ve been looking at some of the videos of people using and playing with these new Android laptops, and to be honest, I’m not impressed. I’m seeing quite a bit of jank, a complete lack of consistency, and apparently, a lack of Android applications optimised for desktop use. The close integration with your Android phone are nice, but of course, this also means another dollop of slimy lock-in, as I highly doubt Google will make it easy or even possible at all for, say, iPhones or other platforms to integrate quite as nicely as Android devices will.
Worse yet, there’s the elephant in the room: for just how long will Google care about this new platform? These laptops start at $900 and go all the way up to $1300 (and will be considerably more expensive here in Europe), which is a lot to ask for something Google might get bored of and abandon in a few years’ time. Ten or more years ago, in a slightly more innocent time, I might’ve been excited about Google bringing Android to laptops and desktops, but in 2026, I just can’t be bothered to care.
Also, and this doesn’t really matter, but “Googlebook OS”?
Google will need to eventually realize and use GNU/Linux with something like KDE if they want to compete with Windows and macOS, other gimmicks likely won’t do.
To be honest, my immediate concern with anything like this is owner rights and vendor lock-in. I don’t trust google to respect owner rights. I worry that google are dead set on locking down the hardware so that it cannot be used independently from google’s tentacles. Integration is useful and important, but that should be done through open standards that give users the freedom to choose & switch services.
I suspect most osnews readers will agree with this sentiment, but corporations including google don’t really care about us insofar as they see a path to critical mass without us. Whenever walled garden services succeed, even those of us who protest them can end up being coerced to go with the flow.
Google’s prohibition on alternative android app stores distributing apps that haven’t registered with google is almost here (2027 for everyone).
https://gagadget.com/en/671314-no-more-apk-google-will-block-the-installation-of-unknown-apps-at-the-system-level-from-2027/
I suspect this “googlebook” is going to be a highly restricted platform that positions google to have control over everything. Owners won’t get a say over their own hardware. I hope I am mistaken, but everywhere we look these days corporations are bent on enshitifying technology across the board. The outlook for mainstream computing is bad. IMHO we’re already loosing the battle for openness on mobile. Fortunately the open desktop is stronger, but we need people voting against this crap with their feet otherwise we risk becoming marginalized over the long term.
Alfman,
Chrome OS already solved this (among other things). You could install a custom OS, including the open source version of Chromium OS (irony!) for unsupported devices. (Or run full Linux VMs that could even do gaming with Steam or run vscode for development with USB access, etc)
I’m not to sure what to make about this Googlebook (powered by™ Android).. A regression all around.
(Once again, what will they do for the 10 year support contracts they already sold to enterprises and schools)?