ChromeOS Is Splitting the Browser From the OS, Getting More Like Linux 19
Google's long-running project to split up ChromeOS and its Chrome browser is currently in beta and should be live in the stable channel later this month. The flags that turn on the feature by default were spotted by Kevin Tofel from About Chromebooks. Ars Technica reports: The project is called "Lacros" which Google says stands for "Linux And ChRome OS." This will split ChromeOS's Linux OS from the Chrome browser, allowing Google to update each one independently. Google documentation on the project says, "On Chrome OS, the system UI (ash window manager, login screen, etc.) and the web browser are the same binary. Lacros separates this functionality into two binaries, henceforth known as ash-chrome (system UI) and lacros-chrome (web browser)." Part of the project involves sprucing up the ChromeOS OS, and Google's docs say, "Lacros can be imagined as 'Linux chrome with more Wayland support.'"
On the browser side, ChromeOS would stop using the bespoke Chrome browser for ChromeOS and switch to the Chrome browser for Linux. The same browser you get on Ubuntu would now ship on ChromeOS. In the past, turning on Lacros in ChromeOS would show both Chrome browsers, the outgoing ChromeOS one and the new Linux one. Lacros has been in development for around two years and can be enabled via a Chrome flag. Tofel says his 116 build no longer has that flag since it's the default now. Google hasn't officially confirmed this is happening, but so far, the code is headed that way.
On the browser side, ChromeOS would stop using the bespoke Chrome browser for ChromeOS and switch to the Chrome browser for Linux. The same browser you get on Ubuntu would now ship on ChromeOS. In the past, turning on Lacros in ChromeOS would show both Chrome browsers, the outgoing ChromeOS one and the new Linux one. Lacros has been in development for around two years and can be enabled via a Chrome flag. Tofel says his 116 build no longer has that flag since it's the default now. Google hasn't officially confirmed this is happening, but so far, the code is headed that way.
Reason? (Score:4, Funny)
It seems Google made a change for the better. What could be the rationale for such a surprising move?
Re:Reason? (Score:5, Interesting)
It sounds like Google joined the rest of us in realizing that replacing linux with Fuchsia acroas their entire ecosystem was stupendously expensive juice.
Re:Reason? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google is suffering for having to maintain different Chrome versions across Android and everything else. The fewer versions, the better. It was an asset to bake that functionality into the browser when the Chromebooks had very little memory, but now it's a liability.
Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Reason?
Really?
Because a web browser as an OS was a dumb idea on its face?
Thirty years ago they told us that OLE would remove the difference between one application and another - that the line of where one ended and another began was a thing of the past, one big super-application that could do anything. That never materialized.
Twenty-five years ago OLE lead to OCX, which was going to change the way applications were delivered. Which lead to DDE, COM, ActiveX. I remember when the company I worked for decided to specialize in ActiveX and I tried to tell them what a dumb idea that was.
Then came other CGI, XML, PHP... it's inevitable now... everything will become a web app. Smartphones came and we all had browsers in our hands. NOW! Now will be the day of the Falling-Away-of-the-Compiled-Application.
But then something strange happened. People found that they liked interacting with apps better than interacting with web pages designed for mobile. All those mobile web apps tanked. Web stores that had dedicated mobile apps flourished, those that didn't never got traffic.
The Day of the Falling Away of the App is like the Year of the Linux Desktop. Always "real soon now", but never actually here, and if you look, getting further away with every failed attempt.
So yes, separating out the browser from ChromeOS wasn't just likely, it was inevitable. Because you can't build an OS around a fucking browser. It wasn't viable then, it's less viable now, and I still laugh at people who buy Chrome Books because they, universally, become paperweights, book readers, or toys.
Re: (Score:3)
Your timeline is screwed. DDE was introduced in Windows 2 in 1987. COM, introduced in 1993 with the intention of replacing DDE. There first implementation of COM (1990) was built on top of DDE, while the second implementation used COM.
DDE was simila
Re: (Score:2)
...or they realised that the percentage of people in the world who want to use a browser for everything is rather small. It turns out everyone wants to install $x application or $y toy/game.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a browser-only OS - just so long as the people buying it know that's all they're getting. Google tried to make out that a ChromeOS machine was a good second device, or good for all your school work, or whatever else. That oversold what you could do with a browser, so they added apps,
Re: (Score:1)
Be kind, remember, their kids' school is still on Windows...
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Sooooo...... (Score:1)
Is this news? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Wayland becoming the primary windowing API on ChromeOS is huge, if you care about desktop Linux. They already had some use the Crostini/Somellier, but this is a step beyond.
2024! The year of linux desktop ... (Score:4, Funny)
Don't use Chrome (Score:3, Informative)
Google is being evil [arstechnica.com] again (or still, depending on your PoV.)
Re: Don't use Chrome (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Google's project (Score:1)