ChromeOS

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Chrome OS

Chromium OS

Chrome OS is a Linux distribution based on Gentoo that is found native on Chromebooks. It is designed for web browsing and light office applications through Google Docs. Any standard program that can be accessed via the Chrome Browser can be used on Chrome OS, along with a large catalog of other applications available in the Chrome Web Store. Chrome OS uses the "crosh" terminal which is browser based but can be accessed with a window with an extension, and uses Bash.

Compared to the Chrome browser, Chrome OS is surprisingly lightweight, even though it has the browser running in the background 24/7 (as it is integral to the OS) it only uses on average 400-500mb of ram with 2-3 tabs open, however, more tabs or things like flash applications will increase this. With it being as lightweight and efficient as it is, the average user should have no issues with the 2gb of ram that many low-end Chromebooks come with.

The Chromium Projects

The Chromium Projects are the open source versions of the Chrome browser and Chrome OS. Chromium OS and Chrome OS were created via a collaboration of the Google development team and the Chromium Projects developers. The main differences between standard Google Chrome products and the Chromium counterparts, are that the Chromium browser and operating system have much more freedom, ease of access and customization than their original design. The Chromium browser is noted for its lack of tracking features, though not entire gone and still funded by Google, the Chromium browser is a good alternative for those who want the Chrome experience without the tracking. Chromium OS is essentially Chrome OS with the same idea, less tracking, more ability to "dig into it". Chromium comes standard with the Chromebrew package manager, while lacking in packages, is still very useful. It can be installed on Chrome OS but its still non-standard.

History

The first Chromebook was called the CR-48, and sports a beautiful minimalist black design.

Chromebooks and Chrome OS were announced in mid 2009.

Chromebooks were first Shipped in 2011.

Chrome OS is currently in Version 46.0.2490.82, with the beta preview available showing version 47.0.2526.69, it is a Rolling Release distribution.

Chrome OS is built upon the Chromium Project, which is an open source alternative to Google's products.

"Fresh" Chromebooks have an average boot time of 4 seconds from black screen to login.

Chrome OS originally started as essentially a Chrome browser in a netbook, until 2012 Chrome OS did not have a taskbar, shell, applications or even a clock, it was just the browser.

Using ARC you can install many Android applications, including games like Terraria and Minecraft.

Issues

Chrome OS is lacking in some features of a regular linux distro, namely the lack of a package manager. There is a substitute called Chromebrew but it is severely lacking in packages in its repository; However, it does have the essentials such as htop, vim, and so on, so forth.

Another issue is its inability to be 'riced' or customized in any way non-standard to Chrome OS. It has its own window manager and desktop environment called chromewm and chromeosdesktop respectively, neither of which show up in screenfetch, and neither can be changed or replaced with others. Chrome OS does have its own Screenfetch ASCII art, as does ChromiumOS.

Crouton

The major saving grace of Chrome OS is its easy installation of a Linux partition via a program called Crouton. It can be installed with one command and create a "chroot" in another command. It works like a hybrid of a Virtual Machine and a dual boot. It is not windowed but allows you to move between Chrome OS and your choice of Linux, installed via a combination of keys. The standard linux choice is Ubuntu, which crouton has all options of, ranging from Breezy to Wily. It also has options for vanilla Debian, Kali Linux, OpenSUSE, Gentoo, and many others. Many come with DE options aswell, including XFCE, KDE, CDE, Gnome and, in Ubuntu's case, Unity.

All distro choices are 'partially-minimal', meaning they come with nothing extra than the bare essentials to get you started. There are no Amazon utilities on Ubuntu.

Linux Chroots are fully functional—no restrictions like Chrome OS.

They are progressively given space from your disk as they need it, with a limit of 50% of your empty space.

For example, on a 16gb SSD a chroot will take about 3gb of space to make a chroot of Ubuntu 12.04, very little of it is for the actual OS; When it runs out of space it will take only up to 6gb of your memory (since Chrome OS takes a portion of your disk to start, leaving you with about 12gb of space). When it runs out of memory after that point, it tells you it can no longer expand its storage, and requires permission to do so via the Crosh terminal in Chrome. It is recommended that if you are a heavy media user, you avoid Chromebooks or get a nice USB stick. Many Chromebooks even come with an SD card reader built in which would also suit this need.

Hardware

Chromebooks are laptops with (usually) low-end hardware, due to the lightweight nature of Chrome OS. They also contain small storage devices to encourage users to use cloud-based services.

Avoid models with an Exynos CPU if you plan to run a GNU/Linux distribution. They won't be able to use most applications provided you decide to use a GNU/Linux distro on a Chromebook, and don't have the power or battery life of the regular Haswell-based models.

Model Name

'

CPU

'

GPU

'

RAM

'

Battery life

'

Screen

'

Storage

'

Price (USD)

Chromebook 11

Exynos 5250

Mali-T604

2GB

6 hours

11.6", 1366x768

16GB SSD

279

Acer C720

Celeron 2955U

Intel HD

2GB

8.5 hours

11.6" 1366x768

16/32GB SSD

199/249

Acer C720P

Celeron 2955U

Intel HD

2GB

7.5 hours

^ but with touch

32GB SSD

299

Chromebook 14

Celeron 2955U

Intel HD

2GB

9.5 hours

14" 1366x768

16GB SSD

299

Samsung Chrmbk

Exynos 5250

Mali-T604

2GB

6 hours

11.6", 1366x768

16GB SSD

249

Acer C710

Celeron 847

Intel HD

2GB

3 hours

11.6", 1366x768

16GB SSD

199

Pavillion Chrmbk

Celeron 847

Intel HD

2GB

4.25 hr

14" 1366x768

16GB SSD

329

Chrmbk Pixel

i5-3427u

HD 4000

4GB

4 hours

12.85 2560x1700

32/64GB SSD

1299/1449