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You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

techcrunch.com

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Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#141

Post by borcean »

peatmoss wrote: post #104
xanderstrike wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a touchpad with a size that's actually usable The touchpad is inferior to the trackpoint, so I'd much rather they get rid of it entirely instead.

I wrote off the Trackpoint back in its glory days, but I recant my former position. Trackpoint is the bees knees once you get used to it. The Apple touchpads have gotten huge and easily triggered, Trackpoint is the cure.

On macOS trackpad rejection is quite good, but if you're running anything else it's very frustrating. One of the primary reasons reinstalled macOS... too many triggers on Fedora :(

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#142

Post by mattnewton »

willtim wrote: post #135
mattnewton wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trackpad is also terrible compared to modern MacBooks aside from the size. It flexes, feels worse and does not reliably track gestures. The whole thing feels stuck a decade ago.

Modern MacBooks have absolutely terrible keyboards. So unless you use it like an iPad, you'd be better off with a ThinkPad.

I want to agree with you, I want a Linux daily driver with the quality I am used to from the Mac. But I guess we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on the new mac keyboard being a dealbreaker.

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#143

Post by petecox »

fareesh wrote: post #2

Are there any good reasons why a developer would buy a Chromebook over some other laptop, unless they are developing for the Chromebook itself?

One device to rule them all?

The promise of Ubuntu Convergence and Windows Continuum on a single piece of hardware, solving the "app gap" with Android support - the best of the web, Android and one's choice of Linux desktop.

An ultrabook/iPad substitute - "power users" requiring a 32GB Core i7 desktop replacement might look elsewhere, naturally.

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#144

Post by thesandlord »

williamstein wrote: post #80

Will this make it possible to run Docker in a Chromebook? With Crouton, which is just a chroot, you can't run Docker at all (without changing the ChromeOS kernel), and can only run rkt containers. If this new Linux apps support really runs in a Debian KVM virtual machine, then maybe it will be possible to run Docker in that, which would be a massive advantage over what crouton provides. Anybody know?

Yes, you can run Docker.

Source: I've been testing Crostini for a while now, and Docker works great!

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#145

Post by shmerl »

> To enable support for graphical apps, the team opted to integrate the Wayland display server

So why VM if they provide a Wayland compositor? For security they can use apparmor or other sandboxing methods without resorting to full virtualization.

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#146

Post by lunchables »

nqzero wrote: post #99
jmagoon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other good thing about this is that the Pixelbook is a 3:2 screen, so finally there's a laptop with a proper display resolution that can run Linux nicely. There's a good community of folks over at https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/ who have been tinkering with this for quite some time.

huawei matebook x is 3:2 and runs linux nicely surface book appears to as well, but i don't have one of them to vouch for

The Verge makes it sound like the touchpad is basically unusable and battery life is apparently poor.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/24/16007692/huawei-matebook-...

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#148

Post by lunchables »

toast0 wrote: post #131
magissima wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking, what makes apt-get that much better than other package managers? Outside of Slackware I think good dependency resolution is pretty much universal at this point, and I can't say I've ever noticed any major problems with pacman, for instance.

Apt-get got there first. Debian does a pretty good job of trying to make upgrades work (which isn't really an apt thing, plenty of apt based distributions don't actually care to make upgrades work). It's been a while, but my understanding is redhat figured out dependency resolution too, though.

>It's been a while, but my understanding is redhat figured out dependency resolution too, though.

About 20 years ago, give or take.

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#149

Post by kristianp »

aurailious wrote: post #40
timvisee wrote: post #4

I wonder why they are using a VM running Debian for Linux applications, as Chrome OS is already Linux (Gentoo) based itself.

Technically it's a container not a VM. So using this is about sandboxing it from the OS.

Any links for more info about containers vs VM there? The article just says:

"That’s because Google is going to start shipping Chrome OS with a custom virtual machine that runs Debian Stretch, the current stable version of the operating system."

Re: You can now run Linux apps on Chrome OS

#150

Post by lunchables »

dfaigonio wrote: post #84
timvisee wrote: post #4

I wonder why they are using a VM running Debian for Linux applications, as Chrome OS is already Linux (Gentoo) based itself.

Why does the Chrome OS team do anything the Chrome OS team does? They decided the best idea for low-end hardware is to run everything as a web app. They decided to make it practically useless without an Internet connection because clearly no one will use an ultraportable somewhere without Internet access. They decided to develop their own distro mostly from scratch because contributing to an existing project would be…

This entire screed is based on the incorrect premise that Chromebooks don't work offline.

https://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/everything-you-can-do-offline...

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