Slashdot Mirror
You Can Now Run Linux Apps On Chrome OS (venturebeat.com)
Google today announced Chrome OS is getting Linux support. "As a result, Chromebooks will soon be able to run Linux apps and execute Linux commands," reports VentureBeat. "A preview of Linux on the Pixelbook will be released first, with support for more devices coming soon." From the report: "Just go to wherever you normally get those apps, whether it's on the websites or through apt-get in the Linux terminal, and seamless get those apps like any other Linux distribution," Chrome OS director of product management Kan Liu told VentureBeat.
Support for Linux apps means developers will finally be able to use a Google device to develop for Google's platforms, rather than having to depend on Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. And because Chrome OS doesn't just run Chrome OS-specific apps anymore, developers will be able to create, test, and run any Android or web app for phones, tablets, and laptops all on their Chromebooks. Without having to switch devices, you can run your favorite IDE -- as long as there is a Debian Linux version (for the curious, Google is specifically using Debian Stretch here -- code in your favorite language and launch projects to Google Cloud with the command line.
Support for Linux apps means developers will finally be able to use a Google device to develop for Google's platforms, rather than having to depend on Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. And because Chrome OS doesn't just run Chrome OS-specific apps anymore, developers will be able to create, test, and run any Android or web app for phones, tablets, and laptops all on their Chromebooks. Without having to switch devices, you can run your favorite IDE -- as long as there is a Debian Linux version (for the curious, Google is specifically using Debian Stretch here -- code in your favorite language and launch projects to Google Cloud with the command line.
It's only "new" in the sense that they stopped forcibly blocking this functionality. Probably because Windows 10 can run Linux apps finally so now Chrome OS was the only major one left that couldn't.
along with this first post!
learn it, live it, love it, m'ladies
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This is AMAZING!!!!! We can now run Linux software on a Linux distro? =O Who would have ever thought!
LUDDITE Slashdot ruined my appy comment by removing LUDDITE Linux! Or did it make it appier?
Apps!
Just let us have a “full fat” mode where we can run our own window manager, display server and kernel without having to go through dev mode and we will have a mainstream Linux laptop experience.
I can run Linux programs on my Linux machine. I've been able to do that for decades.
Linux based machines that hide the underlying functionality are simply stupid.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I think you forgot App ropriate, Mr app guy!
And turn the damn thing off any time I please.
Wow, who would have thought? Thanks google, you must be doing something right.
Why would anyone even want to run Linux in a VM under Chrome instead of just running Linux natively?
I am part of a team currently redubbing "the matrix". We hope to release this new version with every instance of the word "program" replaced by the word "apps". People in the future will thus have some underestanding of what is going on.
How good is ARM Linux battery life on a Chromebook, if I replace the Chrome OS completely?
Is it comparable or is it much lower?
This is cool and all, but having used Crouton in dev mode quite a bit I don't see how this is really new. Users who are savvy enough for Linux aren't going to have an issue with dev mode (aforementioned easy-wipe boot screen aside.) Honestly the performance on most Chromebooks is lacking given their mobile-OS class CPUs, limited RAM and meagre storage, so I can't see how this is terribly advantageous unless we're getting optimized performance out of it.
The CPUs do virtualization in hardware these days, so VMs are essentially free. The performance difference is less than 5%, often closer to 1%.
What you get for that is clear separation, in terms of security, stability, etc. No one application can cause problems for the system.
This news actually made me interested to try ChomeOS for Android development and possibly see how I can better use the Google ecosystem. For some curious reason it's not easy to download it for people to see if it would work for them. There is some free bastardization of it that requires you to fill out a form and you can try it free, but why would they not just release it like a Linux distribution? If I like it, I might buy a Chromebook, but as it sits I'm not interested.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
So Chrome OS (Linux) users can run Linux apps now? What was stopping them before?
Apt-get is for Ubuntu. Chrome OS is built in Gentoo.
now your pimpin Chrome can sandbox your DOS/win32 sandbox in a GNU/Linux sandbox.
You may have larger problems than you think if you're using a OS that allows any application to cause problems for the system. Virtualization or not.
I can run Linux programs inside an operating system based on ... Linux.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Well, it was 1% before Meltdown. Now if you have an Intel CPU it's quite a lot worse than that.
Fortunately most Chromebooks are ARM based.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
... X.Org? Or Wayland?
only for serial single threaded apps my dear. go parallel and up up up goes the numbers towards 25%.
p.s. I thought it was a GPLv3 violation to "TiVoize" Linux. Does this mean Chrome OS was using GPLv2?
The Linux kernel (the thing written by Linus Torvalds) is still GPLv2 because:
- Linus doesn't want to enforce anti-TiVoization (he's more on the programatic vs. ideological scale than RMS. He's fine with locked devices that still provide source code for curious users. RMS is the one who doesn't like something that can be considered as "someone else's computer")
- The current kernel license is litterally "GPLv2 only", not "GPLv2 or any future version". All the authors that have contributed to Linux have agreed to release their patches under the same "GPLv2 only" license, and the kernel doesn't use "attribution" (the author of some piece of code remain the owner of that piece of code. The propriety of bits of the kernel don't automatically shift to Linus). Switching to GPLv3 would require contacting every single last author that has still owning bits in the kernel and ask them to accept re-licensing to either "GPLv2+" or "GPLv3" (or GPLv3+). Not realistically feasible.
There are huge swaths of GNU userland (e.g.: most of the parts that the FSF is taking care of) and other userland components that have switched to GPLv3. But typical chrome book doesn't use that many of them (e.g.: there's no GCC compiler installed).
ChromeBook aren't TiVoized, they are made user-friendly/idiot-proof (that's why top poster said "hiding", not "blocking you from").
- A dev can install whatever they want if they turn the dev mode on.
- But a clueless use should be able to revert back to original factory state with a couple of key press.
(And that's where the problem lies currently. Is way to easy for a clueless roommate/child to wipe a dev's chromebook)
- These thing use Coreboot open firmware. It's opensource. For a power use, it's not that complicated to reflash them to a new custom firmware that will accept any full-blown GNU/Linux installation without making it too easy to self-destruct.
(But I think a lot of devs, prefer to have the light "chromebook" experience and only open a sandbox for their linux-ing needs).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
But for what fraction of those "decades" have you been able to buy a compact GNU/Linux laptop in major electronics store chains?
Approximately since the ASUS eeePC started the "sub-notebook with Linux in your local store" craze (followed imediatly by Acer. And then countless no-name Asian manufacturer spitting crappier machines) , that subsequently jump-started the whole wave of Chromebooks, once google decided to address the "userfriendly so even your grandma can use it" part and the "minimal quality so the machine isn't full crap".
So since slightly more than 1 decade.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
ChromeOS uses the Linux kernel (and very often a modern one, thanks to Google putting some efforts with hardware manufacturer).
Debian GNU/Linux also relies on a Linux kernel, hence the name.
Linux has been having containerization capabilities for quite some time (back when LXC started the whole craze that lead to modern-day Docker).
The "sandboxing" is probably just a different container running from the same kernel, with no ressource costs at all.
They're probably doing the same kind of things that crouton has been doing, but with full kernel's containerization instead of only chroot.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The article mentions that it runs Linux through a VM but that's not going to be very good in terms of performance.
GalliumOS has been around for years. It's a fork of xubuntu that's optimized for Chromebooks.
I've been running it on my Chromebook for 2 years. It's something you boot into directly, so no VMs are required (and you can choose to dual boot into ChromeOS if you want to keep it around).
Details on how to set it all up can be found at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog....
I run all sorts of real development work loads on a $350 Chromebook and it's rock solid.
Need NFS Kernel module!
I've had a few chromebooks. Tried for a few weeks to get them to do what I needed. Usually, crouton was enough, but to use that required dev-mode, which breaks the ChromeOS security.
But even with crouton, nfs wouldn't work because it shares the ChromeOS kernel which is locked down. I don't need many odd kernel modules, but I do need NFS.
And google really needs to mandate better keyboards in all chromebooks. I've had 3 "wear out" over the years. Generally only get 18 months of use before 5+ keys stop working. Replacement keyboards generally require $100+ "assembly" replacement. Toshiba, Acer, Sharp, Asus ... all wear out. Haven't tried a Dell chromebook. They typically charge $100+ more than the competitors.
Know what's better than a 5% performance hit? A 0% performance hit. Every little unnecessary layer adds up and soon you have an inefficient and slow mess of a computer.
I want native execution, without the performance hit or incompatibility (ie. GPU acceleration) of running a fucking computer system emulator.
I have a Pixelbook and installed the dev channel last night. I was able to get JetBrains IntelliJ up and running as well as Visual Studio Code without much effort. Installing Visual Studio code via the .deb added the application icon to the ChromeOS launcher but since IntelliJ does not have .deb file package I could not figure out how to add it to the launcher so I need to launch it from the command line. IntelliJ runs smoothly but I have not loaded one of my larger projects yet to really put it through the paces. There are a bunch of things that are broken right know which is expected but when they iron out those issues this could become a great development machine for travel especially when hooked up to my Packed Pixels external portable monitor.
Chrome OS is an operating system designed by Google that is based on the Linux kernel
So they're finally letting Linux programs run on Linux?
Really, this is simply stupid. Who cares and would want to install ChromeOS in the first place, than because of its shortcomings have to run another operating systems executables. Isn't this simply a statement that, "Hey we're ChromeOS and we still suck at everything but don't worry, you can try to overcome our sucking by going back to a better OS and extract those apps and then watch them fail 80% of the time.
Does anyone download Linux apps from websites? The first thing I tell noobs is to stop doing that and use the repository. Downloading Linux software from websites is asking for all kinds of problems.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
So you have never had a program use too many resources and bring the system to a crawl. Yes, you can configure the OS to constrain programs in various ways, but containerisation or virtualisation is a fairly quick way to do it, provided the OS constrains the resources used by the VM or container.
I imagine that there are far fewer of any single model of netbook than for the NES. This diversity makes it harder for people like me to find a community of other people knowledgeable enough to perform component-level repair on a particular model of netbook than for the NES.
You get to run Linux AND Android applications on your chromebook.
Suddenly this little laptop of little interest is getting very interesting.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.