Here’s all you need to know about Google’s year-long secretive development of Linux app functionality in Chrome OS, also known as Project Crostini.
In a nutshell, it’s a way to run regular Linux applications on Chrome OS without compromising security or enabling developer mode. The (not yet available) official setting states that it’s to “Run Linux tools, editors, and IDEs on your Chromebook.”
Crostini is a culmination of several years of development that enabled the functionality to run securely enough to meet Chrome OS’s high-security standards. To understand why it’s only just appearing, it’s best to look at what came before.
This should make easy to manage, safe, and secure ChromeBooks infinitely more attractive to developers.
As I understood it, the whole point of Chrome OS was ‘it’s kinda of like a desktop computer, but not as much of a pain in the ass’. But it looks like it’s going in that direction. If I wanted to run Linux on the go, I’d just buy a Linux laptop.
IMO they will only allow a few curated Linux apps.
The security and web-centric focus of ChromeOS relies on firmware validation on boot, redundant firmware file system, and non-overlapping developer (privileged) and user (restricted) modes.
A major difference from a Linux system is that one cannot escalate privileges via “sudo” within a session. In ChromeOS, switching modes requires a reboot and wiping the entire data partition. Even then, one still has to “sudo” to access certain commands when in developer mode.
The restricted user mode is available only on Chromebooks. ChromiumOS and CloudReady have only the developer mode.
A major difference from Crouton is that Crostini (!), provides a Linux environment in the user mode.
Hmmm start out only running web apps, then later offering a curated set of native (3rd party) software to make the device more useful….
What does this approach remind me of?
ChromeOS is a walled garden. It has never needed support to run Linux applications. It was blocking them on purpose, and they run fine if you stop blocking them.
Basically they could just make some provision for GTK apps, maybe with a subset of the API, to run offline natively and offer an SDK for it. That would largely fill the void.
I’m not seeing the reason to not just use a linux laptop.
if this were the year 2000, and linux-on-laptop was still a nightmare, then I could see it. But linux on a laptop these days isn’t much different from Windows on a laptop– in fact, it’s usually easier, because you don’t have to hunt for drivers.
Also, to be taken seriously for development at this point, it’s probably going to need support for vagrant and/or docker.
I think I can see myself buying one as a secondary device, though.
My beefy linux desktop doing its thing, while use ssh access to get docker(vagrent is blech IMHO). There are a lot of small linux gtk/ kde utility apps that would be great to use on it as well.
Another possibility is to see what the status of the Broadway (GTK apps over HTTP) project is.
https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/gtk-broadway.html
Either way, I’m kind of in favor of a cheap long battery life, well supported laptop that doesn’t run windows. The linux specific ones ( with guaranteed driver support) are generally more expensive.
Bill Shooter of Bul,
This has always been a conundrum for linux computers. Being such a small niche with tiny sales, they don’t have the scales of economy of windows computers. It is cheaper to buy a windows computer and then to install linux over windows at home, which is why most “linux computers” were formally windows computers.
Unfortunately this keeps much needed money out of the linux camp and essentially results in us paying microsoft for unwanted bundled windows licenses.
Apart from the generally terrible Linux power management – which is probably the most important feature of a laptop.
I like the Crouton way better as it’s bare metal.
Crostini seems to be basically running Debian on another Linux distribution (Chrome OS) with KVM virtualization. The only difference is that it’s encapsulated inside a container and uses a compositor called Sommelier to show individual guest app GUI windows on the Chrome OS desktop.
The Sommelier part is pretty interesting, though.
Hum…..
Sommelier appears to have some similarities with the concept implemented in CodeWeaver/Wine with the “bottles”.
They use something like Snap or something Dockerlike to isolate them?