Intel ChromeBooks Can Now Run Wine and Steam (codeweavers.com)

"With Google Play and Android app support hitting Chromebooks, it's now possible to run Windows applications/games on Chromebooks via CrossOver For Android," reports Phoronix. Slashdot reader grungy writes: The first Intel ChromeBooks have access to the Play Store now, and the Android version of Wine apparently runs on them... Pictures show the Steam client running, and a clip of a D3D game. Of course, the Play Store is only available on the ChromeOS developer channel so far, but that should change later this year.
CrossOver for Android also hasn't been officially released, but Thursday CodeWeavers' president blogged excitedly that "we are staring at a Leprechaun riding on the back of a Unicorn while taking a picture of a UFO. We are running CrossOver through Android on a ChromeBook running a Windows based game launched from the Steam client. THIS HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE...EVER!!!"

Comments

Steam on a Chromebook? Old News.

[jeek]

I had Steam (both wine version and Linux version) working on my Asus C710 Chromebook a couple of years ago. The system itself lacked enough power to do any big gaming, but FTL worked well enough.

Last year I played quite a bit of Skyrim, streaming it from a Windows desktop elsewhere in the house.

Crouton is good stuff. https://github.com/dnschneid/c...

Yawn.

[Mal-2]

The first thing I did when I got a Chromebook (that I had never asked for) was to install Linux (specifically, GalliumOS). Not surprisingly, Wine runs just fine on top of that, along with the older Windows games that I still play. Minecraft also ran surprisingly well on it, between 20 and 35 fps fullscreen (1366x768), though of course Wine is not required for this. I even used it as my Minecraft server for a while (and might again) because it is silent. I did not attempt to run the server and the client simultaneously. That would be asking a bit much.

Unfortunately, Bay Trail has some serious shortcomings that have made me realize this machine will never be what I actually need out of a daily driver laptop, and the eMMC (and lack of M.2 or SATA) doesn't help. That's why I've posted it for sale, the intent being to buy a C720P with 4GB of RAM and an M.2 slot instead. I already know that can easily be converted into a triple-booting Ubuntu/OS X/Windows machine that performs reasonably well, because I know the guy in charge of the C720P Hackintosh project. :)

If running Wine on a Chromebook is Invisible Pink Unicorn territory, I've got a whole herd of them grazing on carpet in my living room. (What, you didn't know Invisible Pink Unicorns are all rug munchers?)