Chrome OS Is Almost Ready To Replace Android On Tablets (theverge.com) 61
Several news features rolling out to Chromebooks paint a picture of the future of Chrome OS as the rightful replacement for Android tablet software. Those include a new split-screen feature for multitasking while in tablet mode, and a screenshot feature borrowed from Android. The Verge reports: As it stands now, Chrome OS is very close to taking up the mantle there, and features like this push it ever closer to becoming the hybrid OS for all types of Google-powered screens. This has been in the works for quite a while as Google's Chrome and Android teams have coordinated closely to ensure the influx of low-cost, hybrid computing devices like 2-in-1 Chromebooks get the best of both worlds. There is, of course, Android app compatibility on Chrome OS, an initiative that first arrived somewhat half-baked last year and has taken months to fully jell as Google worked out the kinks. For instance, just last month Google added the ability for Android apps on Chromebooks run in the background. In July of last year, Google also began embarking on a touch-focused redesign of Chrome OS to make the software more functional in tablet mode. We're likely not getting the full-blown merging of the two divisions and their respective platforms anytime soon, or perhaps ever, as Google has played with the idea for years without ever seeming to decide that one platform should supersede the other. In essence, however, Android remains Google's dominant mobile OS, while Chrome OS has been taking on more responsibility as Chromebooks have steadily become more capable and tablet-like.
Re:It seems that... (Score:4, Funny)
the year of Chrome OS on the desktop is cumming in the near future.
Interesting typo... The word is "coming", "cumming" means something completely different.
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Not necessarily wrong. Google wants to splooge Chrome all over every notebook screen. What a great idea - a whole OS dedicated to giving away as much of our data as possible and placing all our reliance on Google.
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It was not a typo, he was just f*cking with us...
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Interesting typo... The word is "coming", "cumming" means something completely different.
He was using the new split-screen feature, writing in one window, doing something else in the other.
ChromeOS, Androind, Linux. Lah de dah. (Score:1)
>Chrome OS Is Almost Ready To Replace Android On Tablets
Linux is Almost Ready to Replace Linux On Tablets.
There, fixed that for you.
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Stupid reductionism is stupid. I cannot just run any Linux software on a tablet (e.g. GIMP). Being based on linux is no more interesting than being based on electricity.
See also, OSX != BSD
Re:ChromeOS, Androind, Linux. Lah de dah. (Score:4, Informative)
I cannot just run any Linux software on a tablet (e.g. GIMP). Being based on linux is no more interesting than being based on electricity.
Sure you can.
There are various apps you can use (I use one called "Linux Deploy") that let you run a full Linux install in a "VM"-type arrangement on your Android tablet.
I can install a full Linux setup with a KDE or Ubuntu desktop, and get near-native performance. And run it either full-screen, or in an Android-type window.
You would need a big SD card if you're going to install a lot of apps, but big SD cards are available.
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Wow, a virtual machine! Tell me more!
Look, I'm not trying to dis Android. I'm just saying that it being based on Linux doesn't make it equivalent to Chrome OS, any more than OSX is equivalent to BSD or the ability to run Windows 95 in the browser of your Android device makes it a Windows machine.
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Oh, I'm totally willing to say that Android and ChromeOS are good for the Linux ecosystem. You're quite right that it drives drivers (probably the most important aspect.). But that's not the topic of this thread. I was originally responding to someone who said "Android and ChromeOS are both Linux, therefore interchangable"
I'm imagining my next surfing/email/slashdot computer will be a Chromebook with a "real" distro on it. They seem to be driving the price down on those platforms pretty nicely.
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Yes, REAL, full-blown Linux. I keep having to repeat that when I tell them about this, because they tend to disbelieve.
For one way to do it, check out this [eachus.net].
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>I cannot just run any Linux software on a tablet
I got up a bash shell on an android tablet. I could ls and cd and pwd and cat and echo. That's enough userspace to be going on with.
Re:ChromeOS, Androind, Linux. Lah de dah. (Score:5, Informative)
Linux is Almost Ready to Replace Linux On Tablets.
And this is why people really hate RMS: because the bastard is far too often right.
He warned about this decades ago with the whole GNU/Linux thing and lots of people pokled fun and/or claimed he was trying to take credit. He always said it was to abvoid PRECISELY this kind of confusion.
Re:Why Chrome OS when Fuchsia is the future? (Score:4, Insightful)
Chrome OS is a real, shipping, product. Fuchsia will be ready in 1, 2, or 5 years?
Google wants to gain momentum in the education market; Fuchsia would miss that window. My niece recently graduated from year 6 to high school. She attends a boutique K-12 private school where in earlier years every kid had an iPad but now her cashed-strapped parents must buy her a Macbook. Chrome OS running Android apps offers the best (worst?!) of both worlds on a single device.
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Their school, their rules.
I would personally send them to the local high school so they could meet kids in the neighbourhood rather than driving them 15km but it's their choice.
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Stop calling the marketing department the engineering department Jim. We've been over this.
Also please stop calling our Linux machines Macs. They aren't.
Signed,
An Engineer from the Actual Engineering Department
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Let me guess... you're about 14 and live in a trailer park, right?
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Not every parent that sends their kids to private school is mega-rich.
At least in my corner of the globe it's common to sacrifice a large proportion of one's income because the state-run system is considered inadequate.
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But at least they don't have to pay taxes sufficient to support a good public school system. I'm sure that's a huge relief.
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I read somewhere recently that roughly 40% of parents in Melbourne were sending their kids to non-government schools on top of having 30 year mortgages of some of the most overpriced real estate on the planet. Yes, it's common.
Me, a rich fuck? Hardly. I'm in the lower spectrum of earners, putting myself through a university degree.
Modular is lighter than an OS on microkernel (Score:2)
> Linux kernel, instead of a lightweight microkernel.
I think you mean "a single lightweight Linux kernel instead of a daemons and a microkernel". Running the same functionality in many separate processes isn't lightweight.
If, instead of either compiling or loading the modules a device needs, Android ran the "do everything" kernel that Redhat ships, that would include more functionality than needed, and be heavier than needed. The lightweight way to go is to load only the functionality the device requi
Crouton Phone (Score:2)
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Try Linux Deploy [google.com] (or if you don't trust Google, go to the github [github.com].) You do have the problem of having to connect to it via VNC still AFAIK, since last I looked all the Android X servers were garbage. But if you know one that works, I'm interested.
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split screen (Score:2)
there is nothing to split.
TFS belies TFH (The Fucking Headline) (Score:3)
The headline claims "Chrome OS Is Almost Ready To Replace Android On Tablets," while TFS (which is itself apparently a quote of The Verge's story) says, "In essence, however, Android remains Google's dominant mobile OS, while Chrome OS has been taking on more responsibility as Chromebooks have steadily become more capable and tablet-like."
So the story contradicts the headline, which means the headline is pure ...
... clickbait.
Bastardizing the GNU (Score:3)
So they are using the Linux Kernel, but yet their license looks nothing like the GNU license? [google.com]
If I wanted to be locked-in with an OS and other services, I'd buy Apple products. They do a much better job it seems and are not a search company trying to get all my data so they can mine personal information about me then sell it.
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So they are using the Linux Kernel, but yet their license looks nothing like the GNU license?
That comment makes me wonder if you understand how software licensing works at all. They are following all the rules that allow them to make use of the GPL. How is that "bastardizing" GNU? It's exactly the opposite of that actually.
If I wanted to be locked-in with an OS and other services, I'd buy Apple products.
What does that it even mean? Locked into an OS? You're locked in to ChromeOS just as much as you are if you start learning and accumulating software for any OS.
I'd buy Apple products
Based on your rantings (trolling) I'd have to assume you are pro-OSS. Most of ChromeOS is open source. Go download the M
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Go download the MacOS kernel.
For your convenience, here's a link to browse the source online. [apple.com]
(To be clear, I'm being facetious here; your point is that most of Apple's software isn't free-as-in-freedom, you just chose a bad example).
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WebM isn't free. Google has admitted to it and is paying the license fees for the patents it uses. That's why Google is preferring people use h.264 instead It's also why all the big players have stopped bothering with it - if they're going to pay h.264 license fees for something that is worse than h.264, t
Screenshot! (Score:5, Funny)
and a screenshot feature borrowed from Android
OMFG the screenshot feature is ready? Ship it!
Just to be replaced by Google Fuchsia? (Score:1)
This is fair (Score:3)
Having got a Pixelbook to replace my Pixel C, I think this will probably happen. Android has never been ideal on a tablet mostly because the apps haven't taken full advantage of the space. Also the larger screen leads to more web-use, and Android Chrome is quite limiting compared to the desktop version.
Android apps on ChromeOS fill in the most obvious deficiencies of ChromeOS, ie the lack of decent touch support (try using web Google Sheets with a touch screen, without scroll-flinging it is very odd), and offline support (apps are much more often built to handle intermittent network). It's a strange device, I'll say that, but much more capable than a pure Android tablet.