ChromeOS 128 Adds Snap Layouts For Apps, OCR Text Extraction, and Improved Settings

Google's new ChromeOS 128 update introduces a feature similar to Windows 11's Snap layouts. Called Snap Groups, the feature enables users to organize on-screen apps in various fullscreen layouts. "When you pair two windows for split-screen display, ChromeOS now forms a Snap group," explains the ChromeOS team. "As a Snap group, you can bring the windows back into focus together, resize them simultaneously, and move them both as a group."

Other notable features of ChromeOS 128 include Optical Character Recognition (OCR), ChromeVox support for the Magnifier tool, isolated web apps (IWA), and improved settings for the camera and microphone on Chromebook devices.

You can view the release notes on the support document here.

Sounds like a cool feature

[jenningsthecat]

I have no recent experience with Windows and I've never used ChromeOS so I can't be sure, but I think I'd make good use of the window-pairing behaviour described. I just did a quick DDG search and it seems the nearest Linux equivalents are clunky and/or not as configurable and feature-rich. Any recommendations for a Linux work-alike?

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[serviscope_minor]

I don't really get what they're referring to TBF.

I make heavy use of virtual screens. Each screen generally contains a group of programs I want to use closely together for some particular task. Switching between virtual screens is easy. Most desktops support them.

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[jenningsthecat]

I think you might be talking about something that, on my XFCE desktop, is called 'workspaces'. I use those. But the ability mentioned in TFS to pair two windows so they can be dragged together, (and presumably resized together), is something I'd get a lot of use out of. Pairing two file manager windows in that manner - or a file manager with Audacity, for example - would make a lot of what I do easier.

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[serafean]

Since I have no idea what your ddg search turned up :
this looks promising : https://github.com/emvaized/kd... [github.com] , installable from https://store.kde.org/p/187568... [kde.org] .
For gnome : https://github.com/Leleat/Tili... [github.com] .

And I'm pretty sure any tiling window manager would be happy to oblige.

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[jenningsthecat]

Thanks! The KDE one sounds like it might be what I'm looking for, and I've been thinking of giving KDE another try anyway.

ChromeOS admin is pretty painless

[davide marney]

I really appreciate all the work that Google has put into making it easy to support Chromebooks. They are years ahead of the competition in this regard, in my opinion. A huge plus is just how restrained they are in their updates and changes, even to the UI. Everything new is introduced below the radar, so to speak, I don't have to field complaints from users about WHY DID THEY CHANGE THIS IT WAS WORKING PERFECTLY!!

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[acroyear]

Contrast that with RedHat that has designed, built, documented (even to the point of publishing 200-page books on using them), and then thrown away within 1 major release, at least 4 generations of GUI based admin tools in the last 25 years.